Last week I had my long overdue trip to France to revisit Circuit Dijon-Prenois plus sample Mas Du Clos Park Circuit for the first time.
For those geographically challenged, Dijon is in the rough center of France. About a 3.5 to 4 hour drive south of Paris or the same distance west of Geneva. Switzerland. Mas Du Clos is a further 3.5 hour drive west of Dijon.
I last did a track day in France back in 2015 – link to article below.
While I got to try out Magny-Cours Circuit, I would not recommend it much. Too much zig zagging back and forth across a small piece of acreage. By contrast, Dijon Circuit was a gem. A flowing piece of asphalt that utilized significant elevation change with fast momentum style sweepers. It is an epic drive in a Caterham.
First opened in 1972, the circuit has hosted the French Grand Prix five times and the Swiss Grand Prix once in 1982. Now the obvious question arises here – why would a Swiss Grand Prix be held in the country of France? That is because the Swiss Government banned motor racing following the catastrophe of the 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans where 83 people died after a race car crashed and vaulted into the pit straight grandstand.
Today the track is still used for many first class events, including FIA GT racing.
So why would I ever want to come to Circuit Dijon-Prenois?
That’s because in 1979 I watched the French Grand Prix which was a thriller for the intense battle in the closing laps between Gilles Villeneuve and Rene Arnoux where they swapped positions several times and did a lot of wheel banging as they fought for second place (as the race was ultimately won by Jean-Pierre Jabouille in a Renault).
It took 8 years but I was back at Dijon.
If you are thinking of coming to this circuit, then the most important thing to keep in mind is it is in the middle of the Burgundy wine region. Dijon is largish industrial city and while it has some charm, you would be better served to find a little village in the wine region and enjoy some time sampling the wine.
Beaune, France
So that is what I did – staying in Beaune – roughly 40 minutes south of Circuit Dijon. Beaune is the wine capital of Burgundy. The town is a walled city with roughly half of the walls still intact plus some of the moat. The old town within dating back to the 15th century is well preserved.
Circuit Dijon-Prenois
The circuit is laid out into the hills about Dijon. It has elevation in spades which is the key to why I like it so much.
Do not look at the track map and think that looks boring – its most definitely not.
The day was being organized by Lotus On Track Club. They specialize in track days for smaller, lighter cars with an emphasis on handling. The cars that turn up are your class Lotus Elige types, but you also see a healthy dose of se7ens and Alpine A110s.
A nicely prepared Duratec Westfield with the FX body style.
TFL Racing was again supporting me on this trip. They had four Caterhams running the Dijon and Mas Du Clos days. But they also had two other race cars (one being the hire Caterham 420 race car) in the truck as they were heading on after Mas Du Clos to Paul Ricard Circuit in the south of France to support a TFL customer who was running in a Caterham race that weekend. Having the hire car along as a spare was later to prove very fortunate for one TFL customer as it was raided for spares to keep that customer on track.
TFL Racing is a sizable operation run by Phill and Sarah, who I have known for over 10 years dating back to their earlier Bookatrack UK involvement. They are now one of the largest Caterham support operators in the UK with something like 30 odd cars being supported for either track days or Caterham race series. They even support Atoms and Radicals although Phill is partial to his preferred racing fix – VW Fun Cup race cars – each to their own I suppose!
If you want to try something like this then they have the Caterham 420 race car for hire for track days. A few USA7s club members have rented it over the last few years to tick off their European circuit bucket list must-dos.
I had my 2018 Caterham 420R trucked out by TFL. An SV road car with the 2L Duratec with 210hp paired with the Mazda Miata/MX5 five speed gearbox. Not ideal for track work as the road car chassis is 85kg/187 pounds heavier than a pure Caterham race chassis. Further, the 5-speed gearbox is not ideal for ratios compared with the 6 speed Sadev sequential you find in the race cars. On these French tracks I was mostly third and fourth gear with one use of second gear on one corner. At Dijon I could go for fifth gear on the long straight, but it only added a little extra top end given it is an overdrive fifth.
There was also a Caterham Superlight R present – one of the numbered limited edition series.
Loved the number plate on that one!
Unfortunately, the weather was not cooperative. Rain most of the day. Brief breaks of overcast with damp track interspersed with monsoonal rain. Fortunately, the pits provided some shelter. The photos show it well – standing water in many of the on-track photos.
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This Porsche 356 was a true survivor. Used for historical racing, they were doing a test day. However, it was slow. I misjudged how slow by coming up behind it on the straight and was astounded when I went past at warp speed. Lovely car though.
Given the cold wet conditions I stayed on Avon ZZS tires for the day as that was my intermediate wet solution. One other TFL customer tried his full wet solution out (race wets), but he found himself steering towards standing water to prevent the tires from overheating.
Fortunately, TFL Racing kept us well supplied with tea and biscuits and fuel.
No photos of me on track as I was huddling in the pits when the photographer was out in the monsoon. However, one short video of the car coming along the main straight is below.
The day was not a complete bust. At 3.30pm the track was dry and the sky cleared. I had 45 minutes of having a proper go of it. A great finish to the day.
Aubusson
Next day it was a transit day to drive over to Aubusson, the closest town to Mas Du Clos. Home of tapestry apparently. Lots of matronly women wandering around obviously enjoying things. Nice town although lacking in the quality restaurant area – the town felt very quiet after dark.
Transit Day Repairs
One advantage of coming on a trip like this with TFL Racing is the support you get. One TFL customer with a 620R lost drive at Dijon and was towed back in late in the day.
Phill of TFL took the truck to the Mas Du Clos pits and proceeded to diagnose the problem – broken clutch. He used the hydraulic tailgate on the truck to lift the engine and gearbox out of the car, replace the clutch with one scavenged from the hire Caterham and put it all back together so the customer could have his day of fun at Mas Du Clos.
This is harder than it sounds as the controls for the tailgate were at one end of the tailgate and the hauling point for the engine was at the other – one person doing this remember. Assume the Lotus position I suppose!
Worst case the hire car could have been rolled out for the customer to have a drive. This is why I like the support you get on a long trip. There are no guarantees it won’t all go wrong on a long trip from the UK to the continent but at least you have stacked some odds in your favor with a quality operator.
Fortunately, my car was trouble free, but it is reassuring to see things like this happen and get resolved.
Part 2 of the article continues here:
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