JAGUAR CELEBRATES 60 YEARS OF FRANCE'S FORGOTTEN F1 CIRCUIT WITH A LAP RECORD
Deep in the French countryside, encircling a dormant volcano, was a race circuit once called ‘a faster, twister version of the Nürburgring’. Racers, marshals and spectators all needed to be on their mettle at the Circuit de Charade, which had small run‑off areas and was littered with fragments of sharp volcanic rock. There was no track like it, as Helmut Marko discovered in the 1972 Formula 1 Grand Prix. The Austria‑Marlboro BRM driver was blinded in his left eye when a stone thrown up by Emerson Fittipaldi’s Lotus went through his visor. The injury ended his racing career.
Such perils began to count against a circuit that had attracted the world’s best drivers. The Circuit de Charade was on borrowed time and international races moved to modern tracks, such as the Circuit Paul Ricard in Le Castellet, before closing in 1988. In 1989, the southern section of the circuit was redesigned into a modern, 2.47‑mile closed track. Attempting to evoke some of those original memories was Vincent Radermecker, who became the first person to complete a flying lap of the original, five‑mile circuit in three decades. The former touring car driver was following in the tyre tracks of Emerson Fittipaldi, Graham Hill, Sir Stirling Moss and Sir Jackie Stewart, who won two of the four F1 races staged here.
Vincent navigated the Jaguar XE 300 Sport around obstacles his predecessors never faced, including a roundabout and two narrow gateways. Despite this, he drove the sports saloon around the demanding track in 4mins 9sec averaging 72mph.
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