Ten thousand laps
The annual Dix Mille Tours du Castellet or the ten thousand laps of Le Castellet has become the traditional re-start of the season. Scheduled during the last weekend of August in 2024, it was the fourth of the five-round Peter Auto championship. As such all the familiar grids were out in action including Group C and the Endurance Racing Legends, which was split in two for the occasion.
With the newly added Gentlemen Trophy and Classic Touring Challenge, it was a packed schedule. On Friday the qualifying practices ran into the sunset and on Saturday, a delay caused the entire Sixties' Endurance race to be run in complete darkness. Fortunately, the beautiful weather conditions did not complicate things further at night.
Our photographers were on hand throughout the 14th edition of the Dix Mille Tours and have returned with an action-packed 190-shot gallery and a concise report.

Racing at night
Traditionally scheduled for a start just before the sun sets, the two-hour Sixties' Endurance race did not start until after the sun had disappeared completely due to some delays caused by earlier sessions. The qualifying session was run with the sun still out and it was Seb Perez, who was fastest of all in the Cobra that he shared with owner Philip Kadoorie. They nevertheless had to start from the back as Kadoorie was late to arrive and it did not complete a lap on Friday. Sadly, they did not manage to make the start at all as the fire extinguisher went off in the assembly area. This promoted Abraham Bontrup and Olivier to the pole position, sharing the front row with fellow Cobra racers Urs Beck and Patrick Simon. With Bontrup still relatively inexperienced, the two Dutch drivers were up against it in the race where Christophe van Riet grabbed an early lead in another Cobra. Erwin France, in a Daytona bodied Cobra, emerged as his main rival. Unfortunately, the oil pressure started to fluctuate during the second hour and, despite now leading the race, France decided to park the Cobra to prevent any further damage to the engine. Van Riet then held off a late charge from Simon, and Jonathan Mitchell finished third in his Jaguar E-Type. The pole-sitting Cobra of Hart and Bontrup crossed the line in fourth.

Touring cars
A new addition to the Peter Auto series is the Classic Touring Challenge for pre-1965 touring cars. At Paul Ricard the full-season entries were joined by former Formula 1 driver Max Chilton and his personal Lotus Cortina. Clearly out to have some fun, he drove the Cortina with great verve to claim pole position ahead of the previously dominant Alfa Romeo Giulia GTA of Max and Andrew Banks. A victory in the one-hour race was not a give as Chilton faced a one-minute penalty for being a professional driver. He did build up an early lead but the Banks brothers managed to keep tabs on him and emerged in the lead after the pit stops. Sadly, a drive-shaft failed on the Alfa Romeo, which ended their charge early. What Chilton had not realised was that Abraham Bontrup had also gotten ahead during the stops. Fortunately, he was alerted just in time to get ahead of the Dutchman's Mustang in the very last lap to claim a popular victory.
Already a set touring fixture for many years has been the Heritage Touring Cup for 1970s and 1980s machinery. Just like in period, the race for outright victory is between BMW 3.0 CSLs and Ford Capris, both using the four-valve heads that were reserved for works cars only in period. Leading the one-hour race from start to finish was the CSL shared by Swiss specialist Michael Kammermann and Sebastian Glaser. Best of the two-litre cars was Franco Meiners in an Escort, while Jean-Lou Rihon and Nick Padmore won the Group A class with their BMW 635 CSI.

Classic Endurance Racing
The foundation of the Peter Auto series and still the backbone is formed by the Classic Endurance Racing (CER) grids. Particularly the CER1 field was impressive at the Dix Mille Tours with an over-subscribed entry list. Eventually a staggering 62 competition cars from the late 1960s and early 1970s participated in qualifying. In a grid previously dominated by Lola T70s, the class of the field in 2024 is the Porsche 908/03 of Henrique Gemperle and Marc de Siebenthal. The two Swiss drivers won at Dijon back in June and now qualified the three-litre Porsche on pole position on a track that in theory would better suit the more powerful Lolas. The 2:11.021 fastest lap of de Siebenthal was a stunning three seconds faster than any other time set during qualifying. In the race, the Porsche was not challenged and won with a considerable margin from the Lola T70 of Armand Mille and the McLaren M6B of Max and Andrew Banks.
Over the last few years the CER2 races were the hunting ground of the Equipe Europe prepared Lola and TOJs of Maxime Guenat, Dominique Guenat and Philippe Scemama. This year, they were really challenged for the first time, by Kyle Tilley in a similarly Cosworth DFV engined Chevron B23. The American professional racer took pole position at Paul Ricard from Dominique Guenat and went on to score a victory ahead of son and father Maxime and Dominique Guenat.

Endurance Racing Legends
It was only very recently that 1990s and 2000s GTs and prototypes were deemed too complicated to race in historic events but come 2024 the Endurance Racing Legends championship is so popular that the grid had to be split in two. The ERL1 was reserved for all prototypes and several generations of GT1 cars, while the ERL2 was fittingly open to GT2 cars only. For both fields there were a pair of 40-minute races on the schedule.
In qualifying for the ERL1 races, Frenchman François Perodo was fastest of all in his Audi R8. He grabbed the lead early on in the first race as well but then was forced to park his smoking Audi in the pitlane. This promoted the glorious Bentley Speed 8 of father and son Shaun and Max Lynn into the lead and they won from Jamie Constable in his Zytek 04S. There were no such issues for Perrodo in race two, which he duly won from the Lynns.
Perrodo also started from pole position in ERL2, this time driving a Ferrari F430 GTC. In both races, he was involved in fascinating battles with Sebastian Glaser in a much earlier Porsche 911 GT2. The Ferrari proved superior in the corners, while the twin-turbo powered Porsche dominated on the straights. In the first race Glaser managed to keep the Ferrari behind but race two saw the tables turned in Perrodo's favour. Both races ended with a mere second between the two very different GT2 cars.

Final thoughts
Under beautiful blue skies, the 14th edition of the Dix Mille Tours was enjoyed by 25,000 spectators. They were treated to non-stop action from Friday morning right through to the early evening on Sunday. In addition to the hotly disputed races, there were also sessions for enthusiast clubs and in the paddock there was a display presented by JMB Classic that included no fewer than four McLaren F1 GTRs. All the highlights on and off the track have been captured in his class-by-class 190-shot gallery.