Grand Prix de Pau Historique

Grand Prix de Pau Historique

Pau, France

AFTER A YEAR OFF, THE STREETS OF Pau have once again echoed to the sound of racing cars. On May 14/15, a week before the Grand Prix Modeme, over 700 historic racers and some 10,000 spectators descended on the Pyrenean town.

On Saturday practice and qualifying day-uncharacteristically the heavens opened and cars slithered round the tight confines of the picturesque track. There were some casualties, but most of the cars that had brief meetings with the barriers were running again by Sunday when the sun was shining. Paddins Dowling emerged as the master of this popular street circuit come Sunday evening after

winning three of the four races he contested. He comfortably won both Legende races for pre-war Grand Prix and sports cars aboard the 1936 ex-Peter Whitehead ERA R10B. But things weren’t so easy in the two-part Trophee Argentin pre 7967, with the 1952 F2 Alta of Ian Nuthall breathing down his neck in both events. In the second race on Sunday afternoon Dowling narrowly missed out on a ‘four races, four wins’ accolade when a half-shaft failed on the ERA.

There were a brace of races for pre-1966 Grand Prix cars, both of which were won by the 1961 Lotus 18/21 of Peter Horsman. Two onehour races for 1960s endurance sports cars and saloons were dominated by the 1963 AC Cobra of Yvan Mahe/Dominique Guenat and the 1962 Jaguar E-type of Christian Traber/Marc Devis. Some of the quickest cars round the circuit not surprisingly were the Mini Coopers in the Mini Classic race. Britain’s Nick Swift and Frenchman Christian Deveraux won those two events, while Nathan Kinch and Martin Walford were victorious in the two Formula Junior races aboard their respective 1962 Lotus 22s. Ed Foster