Full Throttle

France may be home to Le Mans, but England can lay claim to the ‘most entertaining’ endurance race in the world, when the Gate-A-Mation Citroen 2CV 24 Hours shows just what the ultra-professional event is missing.

Held one week after the historic spectacle across the Channel, on 19-20 June, the infamous 2CV contest brings together over thirty-five specially prepared racers to cover 1000 miles of wheel-to-wheel, humour-filled action around Snetterton.

Thanks to its fast straights and sweeping corners, the host circuit is a regular testing haunt for the big budget Le Mans teams. Bentley, Audi and Colin McRae’s Ferrari have all been regular visitors, but Snetterton also makes time for the 2CV boys and girls.

?Snetterton has been home to the 2CV 24 Hours for the last two years now,? explains event organiser Martin Harrold, ?We know how easy it is for people to raise a wry smile when you mention taking a 2CV on a race track, but we’re all very serious - and the racing shows it.?

Harrold and his fellow racers prove that the 2CV has come along way from the car designed to help farmers to safely transport a tray of eggs across a freshly ploughed field to market. However, reaching top speeds of 90mph - compared to the 240mph recorded at Le Mans - the 2CVs more restrained performance actually adds to the spectacle.

?We may only have 41bhp under our right foot, but we can certainly make that tiny 602cc engine go some,? he says, ?But where else in the world of motorsport would you see three cars racing into, going through, and coming out of a corner together?

?People may scoff at the power, laugh at the most aerodynamically handicapped car on the planet, but you’ll never find racing as close and fun as this.?

Last season’s winner, BAPS Racing took the chequered flag from the Shark Attack team by just eight seconds ? testimony to how close the action really is.