Reims Gueux

Race track

Reims, Slipstreaming Through Champagne Country

Country roads west of Reims formed a fast triangle whose long straights made it one of the quickest circuits of its day and a stage for slipstreaming duels.

In a region famous for one kind of fizz, Reims supplied another. Reims Gueux was made from everyday country roads in the Champagne region, about 8 km west of Reims near the village of Gueux. Racing arrived in 1926, with the second edition of a Grand Prix de la Marne that had begun on a course east of the city. The lap formed a rough triangle between Thillois and Gueux, linked by the main national road, and consisted almost entirely of straights and flat out kinks, interrupted by a couple of tight corners and a hairpin, a recipe that punished engines and brakes and drank fuel. Ahead of the 1938 French Grand Prix the straight from Thillois to Gueux was widened, with trees cut down and buildings cleared in the cause of more speed.

With two straights of about 2.2 km each, cars ran nose to tail in one another's slipstream, and Reims became famous for those duels. After the first championship visit in 1950 the circuit was reshaped to keep pace with the cars: from 1952 it bypassed the village of Gueux, and new sections and quicker corners in 1953 and 1954 fixed the final lap at 8.302 km, faster than before.

Reims held 11 championship rounds between 1950 and 1966, every one of them a French Grand Prix. Juan Manuel Fangio won in 1950, shared the 1951 victory with Luigi Fagioli and won again in 1954. Mike Hawthorn's first win came here in 1953, with another in 1958, and in 1961 Giancarlo Baghetti won on his championship debut, which set a rather high bar for his second race. The last visit, in 1966, went to Jack Brabham, the first win for a car carrying his own name.

Formula 1 never returned after 1966, and money trouble closed the circuit for good in 1972. Demolition of parts began in 2002, and the old main road between Muizon and Thillois is now a dual carriageway on the same line. Yet the pit building and grandstands still stand by the roadside, looked after by a group of volunteers, so passing motorists can still see where the slipstreamers once lined up.

Every Grand Prix here

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