Le Circuit Mont Tremblant
Quebec, Canada
July 2-4, 2004

Following our usual summer trip to "Stalag" Ohio, it made a very nice change to visit a racetrack where one is made to feel really welcome.

This was our first visit to Mont Tremblant "en force." Ed Mettelman, supported by our Bill Pedersen, had tested the waters here last year and he and Bill soon spread the word about the world-class track and spectacular setting in middle of the Laurentian mountains. So this year, we all decided to see what this Third Edition of the Sommet des Légendes was all about. Our participants were Ian Baas, Lowell Blossom, Pete Gulick, Simon Hadfield, Gordon Medenica, Ed Mettelman, Pete Schultz, Hamish Somerville and Tom Yeager (shown at the top of this page out front in his Merlyn).

Located between the resorts of Mont-Tremblant and St. Jovite, we found that Le Circuit is indeed one of the most beautiful racetracks in North America and also one of the most challenging — with 15 turns and some major elevation changes within its 2.65 miles. In fact, it's the closest thing to a European track that can be found in North America.

It's also an awesome track to tackle, with Turn One proving to be a real man's version of Eau Rouge. It's uphill, blind all the way (with not much of a runoff area if a mistake is made), and flat out. Jackie Stewart once called Turn One at Mont Tremblant one of the toughest corners in Formula One. A Grand-Am Cup driver said that once you go through Turn One, you spend the remainder of your lap building up the courage to go back to Turn One. The last turn, an up-and-down twister, is also challenging, but is taken at nowhere near the speed of Turn One. 

Eau Rouge at Spa-Franchorchamps, Belgium

Helping to make the event particularly memorable were Hamish's friend and guest-driver, Divina Galica (below), who was to feature in Hamish's Chevron....

....and our old friend, Simon Hadfield, who brought his whole family 'across the pond' with him. (Below, left to right — Simon, Lucy, Harriet, James, and wife Mandy.)

Former F1/F2/S2000 Pro Driver, Divina Galica
(Photo by Victor Newman)

To top it all off, it was Hamish and Helen's 35th wedding anniversary, and Helen had invited all of us to a celebration dinner Saturday night. (More about this below.)

Simon would be running the LCR Huron as well as testing many of the cars in our paddock enclosure, which included 3 Chevrons, 4 Marches, a Brabham BT29, an Elva, a Lotus 47, a Lotus Elan, and a Merlyn. 

On our arrival at the track, we found our erstwhile truckie Wayne snoozing in Pete Gulick's hammock, suspended from the tent poles of one of our two semi transporters. Pierre Desmarais, the event manager, had given us an absolutely prime spot in the paddock on the asphalt (not in the dust and gravel with the riffraff, mind you….).

Hadfield suddenly appeared out of nowhere looking like Huck Finn in his cropped pants....



(Photos by the Webmaster)

We don't know whether we were tuning the cars or the drivers, but the boys were kept on their toes all day — fitting drivers to cars, fitting Simon to various cars, blowing seats, etc. It was all we could do to keep cars gassed up, as some were taking liberties with the good nature of our organizers, going out in just about every session. Murray and Pierre had finally had enough and grounded us to our respective test groups (and we thought we had left the fun police in Ohio….).

Simon/Lee (left) and Bill/Simon (above) confer....
(click photos to enlarge)

Divina soon stamped her superiority on the sports car group, initially bettering most of our boys by up to three seconds a lap. However, every session they got closer to her times.

  left to right: Helen Somerville, Divina Galica,
        and Hamish Somerville

Simon (below right), trying really hard in one session, actually had a spectacular spin coming over the front straight. Still, he showed everyone how it was done by turning in the fastest lap of the weekend in the Huron.

Pete even had a go in the Huron during the course of the weekend and got quite used to it after a few laps, despite the unfamiliar driving position (his initial impression was that he'd have to come in after the first lap).

Ian Baas in the Blossom March 79B was phenomenal against the F2 cars — just so impressive, carrying speed into, through, and out of the corners without the benefit of the extra 70 HP of the F2 cars. He set the standard, until Bobby Brown and Simon got onto his terms after familiarizing themselves with the track. Ian had best lap time until about halfway through the weekend, when Bobby asserted himself with about a half second each session.  Unfortunately, Simon, in Hamish's March 782 (below right) was chasing all manner of gremlins that had manifested themselves — fuel problems, clutch problems, ignition problems, battery problems — so he didn't get much in the way of laps.

Ian Baas in the Blossom March

MONT TREMBLANT, NIGHT & DAY 

Thursday and Friday evening were spent finding our way around Mont Tremblant. Notwithstanding the slightly Stepfordesque quality of the pedestrian village, we did think it was beautifully done.  We checked out some of the shops, sampled a few of the  restaurants, and found everyone we met to be both gracious and charming. The food, drink and nightlife were superb, and there was certainly no shortage of amusement during the day. The non-racers among us enjoyed the pool, the masseur, the horseback and gondola rides up and down the mountain, the luge,  and the sensational open-air grilled veg and sausage lunches, followed by the requisite stop at the Chocolaterie every day (sometimes, we understand, twice a day ...).            

(Click photos to enlarge)

Later, Lee   
auditions...  
 

LCR Crew, Mandy & James
succumb to Mt. Tremblant's Moose Mascot
(Photo by Simon Hadfield - click to enlarge)

SATURDAY NIGHT 

We then ascended to private rooms above the main floor of the restaurant for a riotous evening replete with wonderful food, drink and Tom-foolery (for clarification, ask Tom... or Sue...)

Best moment: Hamish on bended knee at Helen's feet, a rose between his teeth, in a gallant gesture that instantly brought down the house.

(click photos to enlarge)

  Isn't he romantic.......

  Fabulous Pottery & Co. at work
(click photos to enlarge)

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