Trophee de l'avenir 1975

[Frank de Jong]

Hi Mark, welcome here. I have found some more information in the mean time - I've got to get that on the site one of these days. My latest suspicion is that the Tour de France 1974 is the missing 8th race; the eventual winners of the Trophy participated there.
By the way, take a look at the 1975 picture page, Zolder: the #14 Capri might have been driven by your father??

[Marc C]

The 8 races
Race 1: Coupes de Spa (saturday May 3)
Race 2: Zeltweg (May 25)
Race 3: Monza (June 8)
Race 4: 24 H de Francorchamps (July 25/26)
Race 5: Imola (September 14)
Race 6: Tour de France (From Nice to Nice) (September 15 - 23)
Race 7: Zolder (September 28)
Race 8: Silverstone (October 5)

Here's how Ugo Meloni (Italian who worked for the EC at Brussels) and Roger Berdtson (Belgian) won the Trophy. They shared a 1300 cc class Fiat 128.

Race 1: 5th in class 1300 cc, so 8 points
Race 2: Winner of the class, 20 points
Race 3: 2nd, 15 points
Race 4: 2nd, 15 points
Race 5: 1st, 20 points
Race 6: 2nd, 15 points
Race 7: 3rd, 12 points
Race 8: 4th, 10 points.

The 6 best counted: so they finished with 97 points.

In comparison Jean Xhenceval was classified 3rd with 82 points, having took part in 5 races.

Coupes de Spa: 3rd, 12 points
Monza: 2nd, 15 points
24 H: 1st, 20 points
Zolder: 1st, 20 points
Silverstone: 2nd, 15 points

Pierre Rubens had an heavy crash at Zolder, got into a coma (some hours) but recovered.

My sources: Les Sports, Le Soir, Sport Moteur, etc...

[Frank de Jong]

Hi Marc, that's great!!
I already got the impression that the Tour de France counted towards the championship, and now I'm sure.
I'll recalculate my championship table tonight, maybe I'll come back to you with a few questions. I'm especially interested in the positions of my countrymen Frankenhout and Vermeulen.
There are a few pictures of the Rubens crash on my site (http://www.touringcarracing.net) looks horrific, but it all came right in the end for him.