The Trophée Craven 'A', was the fifth round of the 1966 Trophées de France. This was held on the Bugatti au Mans, located in Le Mans, Maine, France, on 18 September. The following July, the circuit was home to the 1967 French Grand Prix, of which all three drivers on the podium that afternoon – Jack Brabham, Denny Hulme and Jackie Stewart – raced in this event.
Report
Entry Despite the continued domination by the Brabham Racing Developments team, a total of 22 F2 cars were entered for the event. However, five cars did not arrive for qualifying.
Qualifying Jack Brabham took pole position for the Brabham Racing Developments team, in a Brabham-Cosworth BT21, averaging a speed of 94.007 mph, around the course.
Race The race was held over 60 laps of the Le Mans Bugatti Circuit. Denny Hulme took the winner's spoils for the works Brabham team, driving their Brabham-Honda BT18. Hulme won in a time of 1hr 47:27.8mins., averaging a speed of 91.590 mph. Around 42 seconds behind was the second place car, driven by Frenchman, Jean-Pierre Beltoise, for the Matra Sports team in their Cosworth powered Matra MS5. The podium was completed by the second Frenchman, Eric Offenstadt, in a Lotus 44 of Ron Harris – Team Lotus, albeit one lap down.
Classification
Race result Pos. No. Driver Entrant Car - Engine Time, Laps Reason Out 1st 4 Denny Hulme Brabham Racing Developments Brabham-Honda BT18 1hr 47:27.8 2nd 18 Jean-Pierre Beltoise Matra Sport Matra-Cosworth MS5 1hr 48:19.8 3rd 10 Eric Offenstadt Ron Harris - Team Lotus Lotus-Cosworth 44 59 4th 14 Jackie Stewart Tyrrell Racing Organisation Matra-Cosworth MS5 59 5th 38 Richard Attwood Midland Racing Partnership Lola-Cosworth T61 58 6th 6 Jim Clark Ron Harris - Team Lotus Lotus-Cosworth 44 55 DNF 8 Peter Arundell Ron Harris - Team Lotus Lotus-Cosworth 44 50 fuel injection DNF 24 Jochen Rindt Roy Winkelmann Racing Brabham-Cosworth BT18 38 Throttle linkage DNF 12 Graham Hill John Coombs Matra-BRM MS5 25 Camshaft DNF 16 Jacky Ickx Tyrrell Racing Organisation Matra-BRM MS5 22 Electrical DNF 40 Jean Guichet Eric Offenstadt Lola-BRM T60 8 Piston DNF 2 Jack Brabham Brabham Racing Developments Brabham-Cosworth BT21 5 Engine DNF 20 Jo Schlesser Matra Sports Matra-Cosworth MS5 3 Gearbox DNF30 Bob Anderson Bob Gerard – Cooper Racing Cooper-Cosworth T82 0 Accident DNF 36 David Hobbs Midland Racing Partnership Lola-Cosworth T60 0 Accident DNF 26 Alan Rees Roy Winkelmann Racing Brabham-Cosworth BT18 0 Accident DNF 28 Trevor Taylor Aurora Gear Racing Brabham-Cosworth BT16 0 Accident Source:
Fastest lap: Hulme, 1:45.0ecs. (93.738 mph)Tristan Wood, "Drive It! The Complete Book of Formula 2 Motor Racing" (Foulis/Haynes, ASIN B009UWU1BW, 1984)
References