V de V 12 Hours

	Two Chevron B16s, #77 the English winners Hal Catherwood, Geoff Mc Conville and Steve Hitchins and #65 of the Scemama brothers from Switzerland, Michel, Yves and Philippe who suffered a broken engine in the eighth hour after leading the early part of the race

Initially threatened by a major lack of track marshals due to a French calendar offering five major events on the same weekend, the 12 Heures de Magny-Cours was run without a hitch, under the watchful eye of the V de V Organisation and the event officials. The British drivers from the French team Esprit Compétition scored their first win after a promising start of season, which had already seen them with a podium place.

For a long time headed by the Chevron B16 of the Scemama brothers' 3 Chevrons Team, victim of a blown engine in the eighth hour, the race could have gone in favour of the Alpine A220 of Gérard Besson/Marc Peccolo/Francis Dougnac, often at the forefront and potential winners, until they had a rim split and damage their car at 22.10 hrs.

Apart from a scare just after 6pm, when the Chevron B16 of team Esprit Compétition was forced to return to the pits to repair a headlight and wing, damaged after a small shunt, there was nothing to upset the race for victory of Hal Catherwood and Geoff McConville, teamed up with 2007 event winner, Steve Hitchins. After a fourth in Spain and a third at Val de Vienne, their win put Laurent Fort's car in second place in the V de V Challenge, just one point behind the leaders.

Yann Le Calvez, Sylvain Guanzini and Löic Demain took their powerful Elva Mk8 to third place

Often dogged by lack of reliability in the past, the Porsche 935 Turbo of Jean-Marc Luco, Patrick Ancelet and Sebastian Crubile had a trouble-free run, taking advantage of the numerous stops made by the Elva MK8 of Yann Le Calvez/Sylvain Guanzini/Löic Deman. They snatched second place from the Elva two laps before the end when, in the driving rain of the last half-hour of the race, the Elva took a last trip off the track while the Porsche driver kept control over the almost 400 bhp of his mount. The Belgian Elva driver, Löic Deman, had to be content with setting the fastest lap and third place after a lively race sprinkled with bonnet and doors flying off following a small shunt with a Porsche 911.

Making a successful weekend of it at the wheel of their superb Porsche 911 3.0 RSR, Patrick Biehler and the De Siebenthal brothers took over leadership of the Challenge when they notched up a fine fourth after an uneventful race. Their main rivals in the category, Bernard Moreau and Miguel Langin, were forced to abandon after blowing the head gasket of their Porsche 911 3.0 RS, after holding on to the lead up to the fifth hour of the race.

For a full report, see our July issue