Photo Credit: Julien Hergault, Mathieu Bonnevie, Peter Auto, Tour Auto
Among the many historic rallies, the Tour Auto is the one that remains the most faithful to the original version organized by the “Automobile Club de France” from 1899 to 1986. Compared to the Mille Miglia, which has become a regularity race, the Tour Auto also includes uphill and track races with the participants divided into two rankings: regularity and competition. Patrick Peter, the organiser, went out of his way to maintain the style of this remarkable competition, even going so far as to admit the public – obviously with due caution – to the special stages.
As usual, after the stunning exhibition of all the participating cars at the Grand Palais in Paris, the participants set off for a good 5 days of racing, stopping along the way at the circuits of Monthléry, Magny Cours, Charade, Lédenon as they weaved their way across France along more than 2000 km of stunning roads that included numerous road tests. Among these, the famous climb up to Mont Ventoux. The event concluded on the Paul Ricard track on Saturday, 5thSeptember.
Just like every year, the race was very hard-fought and selective, both for those who chose the competition formula and for those who participated in the regularity competition. The lack of any serious races in 2020 worked in Tour Auto’s favour, encouraging owners to bring many important and highly-competitive cars including Jaguar E-Types, Lancia Stratos, Ford GT40, Ferrari 308, Porsche 904 and 906, while the top spot of the competition classification went to Raphaël Favaro and Lucien-Charles Nicolet in their Jaguar E-Type while the regularity race went to Jean-François and François Nicoules in their Ford Mustang.
