Automobile: Lédenon, an unmissable event in the French Circuit Cup

La Gardoise Adeline Prudent est attendue aux premières loges dans la course des monoplaces. AP

One hundred and seventy drivers are entered this weekend on the Nîmes urban area track for a meeting that includes seventeen races.

For many car drivers, the Lédenon track is an essential playground. More than any others, those who join the Coupe de France des circuits are regulars on the Nîmes urban area track.

For decades, an essential stage has taken place there every year in an atmosphere of sport and amateurism, in the noble sense of the term. This will be the case again this weekend of September 21 and 22, throughout a meeting marked by diversity and punctuated by no fewer than seventeen races.

Single-seaters, Sport-Prototypes or saloons

First, there will be those of the Coupe de France itself, whose best compete for very official titles of French champion awarded by the FFSA. Their drivers are traditionally divided into four grids, each giving rise to two races. On one side, the single-seater fans; on the other, those of the Sport-Prototypes or, again, the sedans of groups A, N and GT.

In addition to these competitions offered under the federal seal, there will be the double meeting of the HTCC championship, reserved for historic competition sedans and, above all, the six confrontations of the Twin’Cup.

The economic Twin’Cup

Under this name, one of the most economical disciplines in motorsport has been deployed for more than a dozen years. On the track, on equal terms, the drivers compete at the wheel of small Twingos saved from oblivion. First-generation models modified to a minimum to be able to face the rigors of the race.

The organizer of this national series, based in Molières-sur-Cèze in the Gard, expects nearly thirty this weekend, one of which will be shared by the son and daughter of Éric Hélary, former winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Adeline Prudent and Eva Zonta, two Gardoises to follow

Of the one hundred and seventy drivers in the running, there is naturally a strong contingent of local licensees. This is particularly the case for Adeline Prudent, entered on the very full single-seater grid aboard a Formula Renault Tatuus, which currently occupies second place in the French Cup in this category.

Among the forty drivers expected there, there is another female, Eva Zonta, Bernard Richard from Gard and the Béguinot father and son, all at the wheel of a Formula Ford.

We will also be following closely the Sport-Prototype grid, where several Wolfs from the Alès workshops of the manufacturer's French subsidiary will be racing. Renaud De Chaponniere from Nîmes will be defending his chances at the controls of a Funyo prototype.

Times: Saturday, trials then races from 9 a.m. to 5:50 p.m.; Sunday, races from 8:50 a.m. to 6:05 p.m. Free entry. By reservation, private tour of the circuit as part of the Heritage Days. I subscribe to read more