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Old 6 Sep 2013, 17:18 (Ref:3299946)   #74
JohnD
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JohnD should be qualifying in the top 5 on the gridJohnD should be qualifying in the top 5 on the grid
Only just spotted this thread! Yes, old circuits are fascinating and I'm hoping to visit some more. Went to Reims-Gueux and Rouen-Les Essarts a couple of years ago, and made videos of driving them

Gueux:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kc3Iu4yHb_w

Apologies for the poor quality.
If a surveyor was looking at the old buildings, he must have been contracted by Les Amis du Circuit de Gueux, a band of fans who have done all the work up until now to preserve the buildings. The pits and the old scoreboard are secure, but the grandstand has concrete spalling off the steel reinforcements and is cordoned off as it is deemed unsafe. If Les Amis hope to prop it up, that would be great, because it will fall down otherwise.
Les Amis have their own website at http://www.amis-du-circuit-de-gueux.fr/-Welcome-
and you can become a member for 25 Euros, that will go towards the restoration! If you do visit, please join Les Amis!

Les Essarts
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eB5QV...eature=related

Video starts from the entrance of the old pits, which is now a timber yard, but where you can see the outlines of the old pit and race control buildings. The "new course" runs to the left of the Chemin de L'Etoile that we took, between that and the elevated N138 motorway that destroyed the old course, the original north straight. The 'new course' is protected by earth berms, but is negotiable in a 4x4!

As for UK circuits of old, a book "Motor Racing Circuits in England" by Peter Swinger, Pub. Ian Allen, is comprehensive, if in some cases with little detail of the more obscure venues.

Solitude was mentioned above. The Solitude revival includes drives on the old circuit, which sounds fun with plnty of classic and vintage motors, but a German friend says that it is very sedate. Anyone been to the Revival?

John
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