Circuit De Reims
On a sunny day we visited the champagne region of France and we stopped at the famous abandoned racing circuit of Reims to bring it back alive for you. After 2 editions (1912-1913) Grand Prix de Champagne (exclusively for motorcycles) the real adventure starts in 1925. Mr. Danglard & Mr. Raymond Roche decided to organise a first “Grand Prix de la Marne” for racing cars and motorcycles. The circuit became known to be the fastest of the era due to it’s 2 long straight roads of 2.2km in length each. This allowed maximum straight-line speed resulting in many famous slipstream battles. A number of big names took pole position at the circuit including, Stirling Moss, Jack Brabham and Jackie Stewart. The last Formula One race was in 1966 and the last sports car competition was held in 1969, but the motorcycle racing continued up till 1972, then it closed permanently due to financial problems. The Reims circuit had competition with the Spa-Francorchamps circuit for the official title of “the fastest racing track of Europe”. In 1997 a historic race was planned but cancelled for technical reasons. In 2002 parts of the track were demolished, today a few old buildings, grandstands and structures are still visible around the pit lane. A non profit organisation “Les Amis de Gueux” is trying to preserve the old pit buildings and structures and renovation started. After more than 100 years the racing track remains very popular. We saw many English tourists with expensive sportscars stopping by to take selfies in front of their Porches and Ferrari’s with the old racing circuit in the background, probably a short stop while driving to the villages to buy champagne. For the fans : I added some historical pictures that I found online where you can feel the sparkling atmosphere and see how alive this place was in the past with the audience. Here you can view a racing video of 1956, you can still recognise the old buildings and structures of my pictures : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMgX3tn_CpY