By Gordon Russell

You have to feel for the organisers of the classic car event, ‘Historycar’ which with a classic bike event the weekend before celebrated 80 years of racing at the Chimay road circuit in Belgium. Internal wrangling and politics had lead to the cancelling of the Top Hat races some 3 weeks before the event and then with just 2 days to go the plug was pulled on the Bravo (an eclectic mix of saloon cars) series as well. This lost a further 100 or more cars from the event. On Friday afternoon when the paddock should have been full there were about a dozen cars instead. All week the local authorities had been turning the track from bike suitable to car suitable. The local hostelries, B&B’s and restaurants had been gearing themselves up in readiness and now the whole event seemed in jeopardy. Undeterred the organisers signed on whoever did turn up (and handed out bottles of Chimay beer – very drinkable but very strong) and published, ‘Timing v 7.0 Definitif’ showing that most of us were going to have a lot of track time for our very reasonable entry fee. By now people had been phoning their friends to say that something was happening and cars began to turn up and by Sunday a fine assortment of cars were in action round the track in glorious hot sunshine. No racing was to take place as all sessions were ‘demos’ but there were no speed limitations, much like a track day.

Preparing for the off. L to R: Cooper, Mackson, Fiat Special and VSM. Photo courtesy Gordon Russell

The circuit is on closed roads and is 4.5Km long consisting a blast up a hill which includes 2 chicanes, a blind exit 2nd gear right hand bend, a short straight with a chicane number 3 followed by a very fast bumpy right hand bend. You then plunge down a very fast hill which has a mixture of right and left flat out, nerve testing bends. Half way down there is chicane number 4 before continuing the downhill plunge. A fast banked right hand finishes off the circuit toward the start finish line. It is not the challenge of the original 10Km or so circuit but it is still a great drive. Incidentally the classic bikes miss out chicanes 2 and 3 which means that 500cc Manx Norton’s and so on are topping 130mph by the bottom of the hill. I dread to think what a Mustang or the like would get up to without these chicanes.

4 ¾ 500 cars were present and we were put into the ‘Prewar’ category along with the likes of Bugatti’s, Amilcar, Riley’s, and Alfa’s including an 8C. Why ¾? Pierre Van Hoegaerolen was driving a FFM which is a fearsome looking 3 wheeler powered by a Norton Dominator twin engine. There was a nicely prepared Cooper JAP with a large header fuel tank driven with élan by Jos Lexmond from Holland; Pierre Denamur had brought his immaculate Fiat engined car of unknown origin; Maurice Van Der Brempt had his VSM and Gordon Russell represented GB with the Mackson. Pierre Denamur had head gasket trouble on the Saturday but fixed it overnight and went very well on the Sunday sounding very crisp. Maurice completed all 5 sessions with elegance and style. The Cooper ran like clockwork but unfortunately the Mackson’s gearbox decided to call it a day during the first session. There was also some DB Panhard’s out with us which look a bit like American ‘midget’ track racing cars. There have 850cc horizontally opposed twin cylinder engines driving the front wheels – they sounded good and were quite quick.

Two DBs, Fiat special and VSM

The latest word I have is that it will all happen again in 2007 and I can thoroughly recommend this event to 500 owners. For an entry fee of 50 Euro (appx £30) you get 4/5 long track sessions, a free bottle of Chimay beer and you get to meet some very friendly and hospitable people. The local pubs are good and there is an excellent fish restaurant (very good paella and bouillabaisse). The circuit is great and is about 3 hours from Calais towing a trailer. 500 car track sessions will be ‘demos’ not races in 2007 so no race licence is required. I can’t wait to hear the Mackson on open megaphone roaring down that hill again.  Our thanks to Gordon for his report.

Maurice van den Brempt in the cockpit of the VSM which he built with his father.

The Fiat Special, Pierre Denamur fettles.