One of the circuits visited by Barry and me last week was Cadours, the 2.5 mile track in the foothills of the Pyrenees.

This picture shows Barry at the memorial to Raymond Sommer who was killed there in September 1950.



By way of a contrast, this picture from Christian Huet's Un Sorcier, Une Equipe shows the monument in 1951. The leading cars are Trintingnant, Behra and Manzon.



The remains of the footbridge can still be seen:



The towers supporting the bridge look old, but the ramp is clearly more modern. I don't know what it was built for.



This shows Barry investigating the remains of a building which was presumably something to do with race control. There is a start/finish line painted on the road.



This picture shows the start/finish area looking down towards the final corner. We assumed that the area on the left was the pits.

It was a very peaceful place.

Nice pictures, Roger!

Made me think: when was this circuit used for the last time, anyone?

Thank you Roger Good to see that the monument is obviously well cared-for and maintained.

Remarkable pictures, not least because BJB is wearing neither shorts nor a football shirt!

Thank you!

Despite being well down towards the southern end of France, it was rarely warm enough for shorts; and my Chelsea shirt has had a good airing lately so I left it at home!

Roger,

I remember seeing somewhere on the web ( with photos ) that there was a demonstration event there in 2000, 50 years after Sommers death. That would explain the newish ramp and the start/finish line.

Chris

Thanks Chris, I thought it must have been something like that. My pictures were all taken around the start/finish area and don't really give a correct impression of the varied nature of the circuit, particularly along the back leg. I should also have mentioned that the main street in the town of Cadours is known today as the Avenue Raymond Sommer.

I still have LittleChris' video of Cadours and St Gaudens. The latter circuit might be the subject of another thread in a day or so.

To add just a little to Roger's pictures, here are 3 more.

The first shows the entry to the first corner - joining up Roger's 2nd and 3rd pictures from the first post.



The second is looking back from the bank where stands the Sommer memorial, with the bridge ramp just visible.



Finally, this is the exit of the first/second corner. I put it that way because it is really a double apex turn, with the second part being much tighter than the first. This is taken with the Sommer memorial directly behind my back. Roger is looking down into a field where we surmised Sommer might have crashed down into.

Are the details of this accident known?



If I ever get my 'video through the computer' programme working, there will be many more images from around the very interesting little circuit.

I think we may have been looking in the wrong place. Huet's Gordini book says that the accident happened at the exit of the Virage de la Réole, and hit a tree. I've not seen a map of the circuit which identifies that corner, but the memorial is at the Double Virage D'Entoudou.

Again we have been seduced by the Autosport Directory, which says "...a memorial plaque now standing on the corner where the tragedy occured."

One of the villages nearby is called Lareole. Thus the corner concerned could in fact be the Virage De Lareole which would presumably be the junction of the D29 & D41.

http://www.silhouet.com/motorsport/tracks/cadours.html


http://www.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?cli...2&multimap.y=84


Chris

Knew there was something on the web somewhere !

http://www.poleducommerce.com/automobiles/grand.prix.htm

Nice holiday trip gentlemen

Please check out this site for a pic of Sommer at Cadours in the Cooper.

http://www.francoissommer.free.fr/html/raymond_s2.htm

Many claim Sommer got his car upside down, others talk about his car making tail first spin, and some mention Sommer hitting a tree. What really happened during this accident?

OK, it should have been like this. IN high speed corner, the steering rod snapped. The car went of track, spinning backwards, then making a few barrel rolls ending upside down (against a tree?) trapping poor Raymond underneath. All this is made up after reading the various accounts in books and on the net.

You can now do a lap courtesy of Google streetview.

What I didn't realise is that there are ( at least ) two memorials at Cadours. The first one is the well known one shown in Rogers initial post but there is also a small stone ( though any text is not visible ) featuring a racing car to be found in the layby on the left of the road at the junction of the D41 and D89 so I guess this might be where Sommer crashed. I've also seen reference on Wikipedia to Keith Campbells fatal accident in 1958 having happened at the same location with Virage de Cox being quoted as the corner at which he crashed and this would all make sense given Cox is the next village should you continue along the D41 rather than taking the hairpin onto the D89.