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The Reims Grand Prix circuit as it is today...


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#1 Mark A

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Posted 06 July 2003 - 17:08

Well, yesterday evening actually.

Stopped off for a look round the old GP circuit and the old start finish straight in particular.

Boy was I in for a shock.

I last visited when passing (with almost no time to spare on that occasion) 3-4 years ago and it was just a case of get onto the N31 and turn off onto the D27 to look at the original buildings.

Not at the moment you can't. The N31 is undergoing massive new work and where it crosses the D26 it is now a overpass with a roundabout, the N31 is mostly Dual carriageway.
It looks like the D27 will be reopened again at some point as it looks like they are build a new roundabout on the N31 to connect to it. There is also a new roundabout where the D27 touches the D227.

When we arrived we had to work our way around Thillois on the D227 to find a gap in a barrier to get the cars through. We did so eventually and got to have a good look around the pit buildings and grandstands. They are a little more overgrown and a bit more crumbly (I did get slightly worried when I could feel the grandstand floor moving under my feet), otherwise they were still the same as they were when I visited last.
It seems the locals are enjoying this 'closed' roads as a couple of nutters ;) on large sports bikes were using the straight for 'wheelie' practice (although they didn't need much practice).

We then tried to do a lap of the remainder of the circuit and found the road was closed at D26-D27E crossroads, so we just turned right and headed back up to the N31.

It was nice to see the old buildings are still basically the same, but the circut layout and roads are now just a distant memory.


I took a few pictures (mostly of the cars we were in I'm afraid) but I'll post a link later tonight hopefully, I'll also post links to the others who were there, they may be some time though.

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#2 Mark A

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Posted 06 July 2003 - 21:46

Okay,

Pictures I took are now up on my site at.

French Frollic 3

Scroll down for the Reims Pics.

(It was a SELOC Lotus club weekend in France)

#3 Racer.Demon

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Posted 06 July 2003 - 23:13

Mark, thanks for the update.

As you can see from the pictures I took (see here) work already started in 2001.

I'd thought they'd finished their damaging work by now... :cry:

#4 Mark A

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Posted 07 July 2003 - 18:42

Looking at your first picture (Thillois junction), it looks absolutely nothing like that now. It's a big Dual carriageway with a large roundabout just before the bar/restaurant.
In the main pictures on your page the 5th one, there is also a roundabout there.


I'm back in the area again in early August so will take some pictures of the rest of the circuit (or whats left of it). We were too busy trying to get to the pits on Saturday, as the others with me had never been before. I certainly think they were completely awe-struck with what was still there.

#5 Mark A

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Posted 08 July 2003 - 19:43

A few more pictures HERE and HERE (look under FF3 more)

#6 Cal

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Posted 09 July 2003 - 12:11

Thanks for that. I'll be there in 10 days or so.

Cal.

#7 Racer.Demon

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Posted 25 September 2004 - 16:00

TNF member Svend stumbled on this site, so I thought I'd post it here - it seems a group of enthusiasts called the Amis du Circuit de Gueux (ACG) has started restoring the Reims grandstands and pit buildings! :clap:

http://acg.site.voila.fr/

#8 Barry Boor

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Posted 25 September 2004 - 18:09

Wonderful news. All power to them!

#9 David McKinney

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Posted 25 September 2004 - 19:21

Entendrez, entendrez !

#10 MCS

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Posted 25 September 2004 - 19:48

Having moaned (as usual) after my last detour - I think a couple of years ago when they were putting in housing estates and roundabouts - this is indeed wonderful news.

I'm sure we'd all be very interested in seeing how they progress.

Thanks Svend and Racer.Demon.

MCS

#11 stavelot

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Posted 26 September 2004 - 11:35

Wonderfull news.

I'll visit the track on October und take some photos.

Cheers

Stavelot

#12 PRD

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Posted 05 December 2004 - 16:02

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all these photos were taken in September on a lovely warm sunny day
that's my wife Sue :love: in the pictures too

click on the image- thanks to ImageShack

regards

Paul

#13 Alan Cox

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Posted 01 May 2006 - 14:31

After posting my pictures of Rouen, as it was when I first visited in 1997, I found these of Reims taken in May 1994. I think it was the most moving motor racing memorial I have ever visited, at that stage having been left to moulder and decay in its own time, but I know that some tidying up has occured in subsequent years, which has destroyed some of the "patina" that only age can produce. The last time I called there, the Lambert timing pavillion had been repainted (!).

In '94 it wasn't difficult to imagine the Mercedes W196s blasting down the main straight, or the Ferraris battling Harry Schell, or the 12 hour race Le Mans starts, and Toto Roche wielding the tricolor at the start of a GP or F2 race. And I imagine Jenks, Peter Garnier et al passing time in the Restaurant de la Presse

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Posted Image The Restaurant la Garenne features on the front cover of the late lamented Geoff Goddard's "Track Pass"

#14 Twin Window

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Posted 01 May 2006 - 17:56

Great pics, Alan! Most evocotive.

I simply must get there before it's too late...

#15 Barry Boor

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Posted 02 June 2006 - 22:23

This may have been posted on another Reims thread but as we have some images on this thread I thought people might like to look at the for a comparison.

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Photographed on May 17th, 2006. What a great job they are doing!

Then there is this.....

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This picture is pasted to the back wall of one of the pit boxes. But who is it and why is it there?

This shows its position.

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#16 Hugo Boecker

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Posted 02 June 2006 - 22:59

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The great Michel Vaillant :lol:

#17 philippe7

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Posted 03 June 2006 - 07:00

Originally posted by Hugo Boecker
The great Michel Vaillant :lol:


No, it's rather sad actually....this is the great, late Bruno Bonhuil , motorcycle racer who last december paid the ultimate price for the thrill of racing at Macao , at 45 years of age , after a long and distinguished career which spanned over 25 years , including 250 and 500 Grand Prix, , World Superbikes, a World Endurance title....Bruno originated from Reims , and had remained very popular in his hometown. He even was paid as a city employee by the townhall of Reims at some stage in his career . He never was a world class contender, but he was really, really passionate about his racing.....and those last years , he had become tired of the "artificial" circuits (where he was still showing many youngsters how to ride properly.... ) and was looking for a renewed pleasure and thrill by tackling the most challenging natural circuits in the world....last year he had become the quickest ever frenchman around the Isle of Man TT course....and a few month laters he enthusiastically went to Macao , together with his 20 year-old daughter as "team manager"...and was killed during practice.

Bruno was a real character, a charismatic guy who was always working on raising the profile of the sport by being very "professional" once off his bike ; with the press, the sponsors, the public.....I had spoken to him on a few occasions, and got to know more about him those last years by making the acquaintance of a close friend of his , who used to run Bruno's website. For those interested, it's at http://www.bike70.com/BB.htm

#18 Barry Boor

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Posted 03 June 2006 - 07:10

Philippe - many, many thanks for that excellent information.

Roger and I guessed that it may be a man who was no longer around.

I hope the city of Reims can make a more permanent memorial to Bruno.

Do you think there is any reason why pit box #13 was chosen?

#19 Alan Cox

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Posted 03 June 2006 - 08:46

I'm not sure that I like the new adverts replacing the old, fading originals but it's all a matter of taste.

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#20 Hugo Boecker

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Posted 03 June 2006 - 09:31

Philippe thanks for the information about Bruno Bonhuil, I#ve heard of his sad accident but didn't know his face - but he seems to be a real racer.

#21 philippe7

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Posted 03 June 2006 - 10:50

Originally posted by Barry Boor
I hope the city of Reims can make a more permanent memorial to Bruno.

Do you think there is any reason why pit box #13 was chosen?


A proper memorial plaque has been erected in the graveyard where Bruno was buried, funded by family and many friends ....not sure about the City though.

I confess I have no idea about the reason why this picture is in the Reims pits at all, let alone in pit N°13.....The Reims circuit does not relate that closely to Motorcycle Racing ( although I know bike races were sometimes held there....) so I guess it's purely a personal gesture by a friend of Bruno who's associated with the track renewal.....but I don't know really.

#22 Bernard

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Posted 03 June 2006 - 13:45

My favourite picture of Reims is by Jesse Alexander :-

http://www.robertkle...y/alexander/aay

#23 philippe7

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Posted 20 June 2006 - 07:12

Originally posted by Barry Boor
Philippe - many, many thanks for that excellent information.

Roger and I guessed that it may be a man who was no longer around.

I hope the city of Reims can make a more permanent memorial to Bruno.

Do you think there is any reason why pit box #13 was chosen?



OK, I've got the answer now ! No mystery can remain unsolved here on TNF ;)

I got a message yesterday from the webmaster of Bruno's Website, announcing that a ceremony was going to be held this coming Sunday at the former Reims circuit , to unveil a plaque celebrating the 10th anniversary of Bruno Bonhuil setting four very official World Speed Records for an electric (!) motorbike ( called the JC2 ) on the former main pit straight of the circuit in June 1996 ( including a maximum speed of 205 kms/h ) . The plaque is to be set in Box N°13 , so I guess the portrait you noticed has been installed there in preparation for the ceremony.




.....and before somebody asks : no, I do not know yet why it is specifically in box n°13 !

#24 philippe7

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Posted 20 June 2006 - 07:39

....and if anybody cares to check the records detail, click on the "electrical vehicles" link on this FIM Page :

http://www.fim.ch/en...ult.asp?item=31

#25 23e Heure

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Posted 28 June 2006 - 08:53

Another photographic record of how the grandstands look in 2006, now that the restorers have got to work.
This was taken as we stopped off on our drive down to Sicily, to attend the Targa Florio 100 celebrations:

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#26 philippe7

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Posted 04 July 2006 - 07:03

Some photos ( and comments in french ) about this weekend's meeting "Les 12 heures de Gueux" on the Reims thread of Mémoire des Stands :
http://memoiresdesta...de_reims-gueux/
If you scroll down the page a little, you also have some intersting period pictures of the Coupe Gordini ( check out a very Young Michel Leclère....) or of Jochen Rindt in his road BMW and so on...

#27 Pedro 917

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Posted 04 July 2006 - 16:05

Some pictures my friend Wilfried Geerts took yesterday :

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http://img310.images...y20064gj.th.jpg http://img480.images...y20061vf.th.jpg http://img480.images...y20065ks.th.jpg http://img310.images...y20069de.th.jpg

#28 Barry Boor

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Posted 12 December 2008 - 22:31

I don't know if this has been mentioned before but I have just noticed that someone has marked out a race circuit (by the size, I think probably for remote controlled cars) actually on the old circuit, just at the end of the second right-hander on the lap.

Google maps shows it clearly!

Apologies if this is old news....

#29 john winfield

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Posted 12 August 2013 - 07:58

We were staying in Reims last week and, yet again, my wife forced me to drive around the old circuit and have a stroll among the buildings on the main straight. Ah well, and I wanted to go shopping.......

Others on TNF have posted updates on the road changes: dualling of the Muizon-Thillois stretch, roundabouts at Thillois, Gueux etc. Although the flow has now gone, it's still possible to enjoy a good drive, mixing up the post-Gueux layout with the earlier circuit that uses La Garenne as junction with the Soissons road, rather than Muizon. Sadly, as Barry I think mentioned, the later Muizon corner is no more, the road petering out into wheatfields just after the fast left-hander and well before the tight right on the return to Thillois. (Edit: sorry, I seem to have lost the knack of uploading reasonably sized pictures from Imageshack. I'll do better next time....)

This is the left-hander with Gueux in the distance:

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With the car in the same spot, the road now disappears, just before where the Muizon hairpin once was:

Edited by john winfield, 12 August 2013 - 20:10.