One of the best kept secrets in historic car racing is the wonderful selection of hill-climbs, both competitive and non, that are available in France, particularly in the Alsace/Vosges and Jura regions.
One excellent example is Trois Epis “course-de-cote,” in Turckheim, in central Alsace. The road itself is a wonderful 6-km climb from the vineyards into the Vosges foothills. It is very fast but with a lot of challenging curves and switchbacks—a real technical challenge and hugely satisfying.
This race is actually part of the European Hill Climb Championship for modern cars, but they have a section for VHC or historic cars. It is also a round of the French VHC mountain championship and the Swiss Mountain Challenge. Some of the other venues for these hill climbs are St. Hippolyte—Montcheroux and Vuillafans, both of which are based in delightful villages in the French Jura region. There are several others nearby in northern Switzerland and the Black Forest region of Germany.
These are typically low-key affairs, but can provide serious competition challenges. The locals are extremely welcoming and hospitable. They are in beautiful locations and the climbs themselves are long and very challenging. For example, St. Hippolyte is like a mini-Nordschliefe. In addition, these events are also a very good value, costing between 130-150 Euros for the weekend (this includes a buffet dinner for the drivers on Saturday night at St. Hippolyte). Entrants receive between six and nine runs throughout the weekend, which compared to many other hill climbs is quite a bit of track time—for a hill climb.
For the recent Turckheim event, there were a total of 38 cars, largely from France, however four were from Switzerland, six from Holland, two from England, and one each from Belgium and Germany. The single-seater team from the UK included Jane Harrat in a Brabham BT21B and Simon Harrat in his March 71B. The Dutch team was composed mostly of Crossle 33Fs.
There was a huge range in variety, from Kurt Buess’s winning Brabham BT38 F2 and Jacques Cochin’s 4th placed Porsche 910, to the Bugatti T51 of Jean Jacques Strub and the T35 of Francois Rinaldi.
To give you an insight into how low-key and amicable these events can be, after the first race, at Turckheim, on early Sunday morning, the driver of the very fast Volvo Amazon pulled into the parking area at the top, opened his boot and provided everyone with an impromptu “wake-up” snack of local bread, cheese, and ham, washed down with an excellent Alsace Reisling—very French, but typical of the hospitality. The several seconds he lost with the weight of our “petit dejeuner” were gained back with rapid times on the remaining race runs.
While it may seem a long way to travel for one meeting, there are so many of these types of events going on that one could plan to do a “tour” of several and have a nice holiday between each. Given the high level of low-cost fun involved, everyone should consider putting some these on their agendas for next season.
By Dennis Thalmann
