Back to school
The 2025 Historic Racing by Peter Auto championship resumed after a brief summer break with the annual Dix Mille Tours. For the first time since the Spa Classic in May, all ten grids were represented at the Circuit Paul Ricard in the South of France. This meant that there was a packed schedule with the Friday and Saturday action continuing well after sunset. Over 300 competition cars ranging from the early 1950s through to the early 2010s were out on track with among the many highlights a glorious Ferrari 312 PB, a pair of Audi R8s and two Gulf-liveried Porsche 917s. In addition to the races there was also time in the schedule for enthusiast clubs to take to the track and a pair of grid walks. Also of note were brief demonstration runs of three McLaren F1 GTRs, while the fourth example from the same collection actually competed in the Endurance Racing Legends 1 races.
Our photographers were on hand to capture the 2025 edition of the Dix Mille Tours. The result is this class-by-class 210-shot gallery.

Fifties and Sixties
The earliest cars of the meeting competed in the Gentlemen Challenge and the Sixties' Endurance races. The Gentlemen Challenge was split into two 45-minute heats and featured a mix of 1950s Aston Martins, Porsche 904s, Bizzarrinis and the unique Ford-engined Tojeiro EE. Both races was were dominated from pole position by Diogo Tavares in a Bizzarrini. He beat Germans Volker Hichert and Björn Ebsen in a sister car in the first race, while Afschin Fatemi was runner-up in the second with the Tojeiro.
Scheduled at sunset was the two-hour Sixties' Endurance race. It was a front-row lock-out in qualifying for the Equipe Europe prepared Shelby Cobra Daytonas of Armand Mille and Maxime Guenat. During the first half of the race, it was the Daytona started by Erwin France that took the lead but after the mandatory stops and driver changes, it was OIivier Hart in the Cobra that was started by Bram Bontrup that proved to be the class of the field. The Dutch won from Guenat and Mille, who had a very entertaining fight in their fire-belching Cobra Daytonas for most of the race.
In the Porsche 911-only 2.0L Cup there was a surprise winner as Oliver Bryant was beaten in the 911 started by Kyle Tilley by Jürgen Westphal and particularly David Verzijlbergen. The Dutchman had a very strong second half of the race and passed Bryant in the closing stages of the race.

Touring Cars
While eight of the Peter Auto grids are dedicated to sports cars, the other two are for touring cars. In fact, at Paul Ricard, the French organisation announced the addition of a third one for Group A cars up to the early 1990s from 2026 onwards.
The earliest of the two running this year was the Classic Touring Challenge for pre-1966 machinery. Slated to start on pole position for the one-hour race was British Touring Car Championship racer Tom Chilton in the family's Lotus Cortina. A late penalty saw him drop five places on the grid and handed the pole to Bram Bontrup with his Ford Mustang. Chilton did manage to fight his way up the order but failed to reach the finish due to a differential failure. This left Bontrup virtually unchallenged and he scored his second win of the weekend in what is only his second season of racing.
Much more hotly disputed was the Heritage Touring Cup for slightly later cars. Starting from pole position, Sebastian Glaser and his BMW 3.0 CSL was hounded for most of the race by the Ford Capri of Maxime Guenat. The Swiss racer briefly grabbed the lead but had to bow out after a retaining pin of his engine cover failed. It was an all-CSL podium with Emile Breittmayer placing second and Philippe Scemama finishing third.

Classic Endurance Racing
Both in size and qualify, the Classic Endurance Racing 1 grid was one of the very best of the weekend. In addition to the numerous Lolas, Chevrons and Porsche 911s, the entry list also boasted a Ferrari 512 M and a pair of Porsche 917s. The V12 engined Italian thoroughbred shared by the Halusa brothers Lukas and Niklas was beaten only in qualifying by the Lola T70 driven by historic racing ace Chris Ward and former Formula One driver Jan Magnussen. Still considered a pro driver, Magnussen was forced to make a longer pit-stop, which made for an interesting race. Ward had built up an early lead but this was eliminated by a safety car period just before the pit window opened. Emile Breittmayer in another Lola benefited the most from this and scored the victory, just ahead of the Halusas and the Ward/Magnussen Lola.
The star of the CER2 entry list was a fabulous Ferrari 312 PB driven with great verve by its French owner in practice and qualifying. Unfortunately, it did not start the race, which saw Maxime Guenat start from pole position in his Cosworth DFV engined Lola T286. He was easily the fastest man on track and eventually won from his father Dominique in a TOJ by nearly 30 seconds in a race that was red-flagged due to a lengthy oil spill after 50 of the 60 minutes had been completed. Particularly entertaining was the fight for fourth between the Busch twins in a Porsche 935 and Stéphane Nguyen in a Lola T298. The little Lola was clearly quicker in the corners but the sheer power of the Porsche eventually settled the fight in favour of the two German brothers.

Modern endurance racing legends
A late addition to the schedule was the Group C grid, which was headed by a pair of Peugeot 905s. Fastest of all in the two 45-minute qualifying sessions was Lukas Halusa in a Momo-liveried Porsche 962C by a mere two tenths over Olivier Galant in a Nissan R90CK. Both races were however won by Galant, who beat Maxime Guenat with one of the Peugeots in the first and then Philip Kadoorie in another Porsche 962C in the second.
Qualifying for the Endurance Racing Legends 1 was dominated by Emmanuel Collard who was now behind the wheel of the Audi R8 he had spent so many years racing against. Despite the time penalty he received for his pro status, he won both races from Olivier Galant in the unusual front-engined Panoz LMP-1 Roadster S and the Zytek 04S that was raced, as it was in period, by Tom Chilton.
In Endurance Racing Legends 2 for three generations of GT2 cars, it was again Collard who excelled in qualifying, this time racing a Ferrari F430 GTC from the same collection as the R8 belongs to. This time, however, his pace was not sufficient to fight off the rivals as he did not manage to reach the podium in either of the two 40-minute races. Instead, it was Philip Kadoorie, who won both races with a sister F430 GTC.

Final thoughts
Held under beautiful conditions, the 2025 Dix Mille Tours was once again an outstanding event. The crowd was treated to virtually non-stop racing from Friday morning right into the early evening on Sunday. The on track action featured great cars, sizeable grids and some superb driving. All grids and many of the highlights can be found in our 210-shot gallery.