Dijon Prenois

Race track

Dijon Prenois and the First Turbo Victory

The rolling circuit outside Dijon gave a turbocharged car its first win, staged a famous fight for second place and hosted a Swiss Grand Prix in France.

Dijon Prenois owes its existence to a rugby player and wrestler. In 1967 François Chambelland set out to make Dijon a center for the motor industry, and with help from the drivers François Cevert and Jean Pierre Beltoise he pushed through a circuit at Prenois, just outside the city. Money was short and the city offered little support, yet the track opened on the 26th of May 1972, and Guy Ligier set the first timed lap. Its undulating lap is known for fast, sweeping bends.

Formula 1 first came in 1974, and the original lap of 3.289 km turned out to be too short for comfort: laps took less than a minute, and the leaders were forever catching slower cars. An extension in 1976 lengthened the track and reshaped many of its corners, and the championship came back the following year.

The 1979 French Grand Prix is the one people remember, though not chiefly for its winner. Jean Pierre Jabouille gave Renault its first victory and the turbocharged engine its first win, while behind him Gilles Villeneuve and René Arnoux fought wheel to wheel for second over the closing laps, Villeneuve holding on. Two years later Alain Prost took his first Grand Prix win here, again for Renault. In 1982 Dijon hosted the Swiss Grand Prix, since Switzerland had banned motor racing after the 1955 Le Mans disaster, and Keke Rosberg won it for his first Grand Prix victory on the way to that year's title.

Dijon held 6 championship rounds from 1974 to 1984, five French Grands Prix and the 1982 Swiss race, and it never gave the same driver two wins. Niki Lauda won the last in 1984 after Patrick Tambay, on pole in a Renault, had led the first 47 laps. Formula 1 has not returned, but club racing, motorcycles, trucks and historic meetings keep the circuit in use.

Every Grand Prix here

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