In quarantine with AUTOhebdo – The highlights of the Easter Cups

For many, Easter rhymes with Christian celebration or chocolate hunt in the garden. However, a small town in Gers has covered the sound of bells for more than half a century with the sound of single-seaters and cars racing at full speed on the Paul-Armagnac circuit. 

The Nogaro Easter Cups, a true institution of French motorsport since 1968, have been postponed to the end of August due to the Covid-19 pandemic. But that’s no reason to languish, on the contrary! Finish your boxes of chocolates by enjoying our playlist of beautiful sequences from the Gers meeting.

Production/Tourism

This is a name that has completely disappeared from the mechanical landscape. The Production races brought together some great names (Jean-Pierre Beltoise, Guy Fréquelin, René Metge, Dany Snobeck in particular) aboard “Touring” cars which were very poorly named!

BMW 5 Series, Ford Capri, Rover, and others Alfa Romeo give it their all to the delight of a considerable crowd gathered in Nogaro in the 1980s.

A decade later, Supertourism and its sedans with a very sturdy profile are making the towers go up! 

Grand Touring

Music lovers are excited for the transition to the new millennium. In those years, the Viper, Saleen, Lister and other Corvettes filled the GT1 entry lists, a category which became the headliner of the Easter Cups. In 2005, nostalgia moment with the legends Alain Prost and Jean-Pierre Jabouille together on a Viper:

At the turn of the 2010s, GT3 replaced GT1 as the premier category of the Easter Cups. The sporting level is gaining in quality with the arrival of the FIA ​​GT1 (on GT3 regulations, the official name of the World Championship required) in 2012. 

We will remember from this edition the first crazy lap of the Czech Tomas Enge (Lamborghini), who went from seventh to first place in less than two laps in the Qualifying Race! Who said you couldn't overtake at Nogaro?

A year later, the crowd flocks to the box housing the McLaren by Sébastien Loeb. The nine-time world rally champion (WRC) had chosen the Gers as the first step in his reconversion to the Circuit. Guaranteed media and sporting jackpot, with success from his first start in the FIA ​​GT Series!

The Blancpain Sprint Series gave way to a disastrous attempt at a French Championship mixing GT3 and LM P3 in 2016, before the best-seller of the decade arrived in 2017: the GT4. Organized by SRO, the National Championship gives new impetus to the Easter Cups, with cars less spectacular than the GT3s but an incessant spectacle: