MONT-TREMBLANT, Quebec — Getting to Circuit Mont-Tremblant isn’t easy, but it’s worth the trip. The undulating track about an hour and a half north of Montreal is truly one of the world’s most picturesque and challenging road courses, a joy for drivers and spectators alike.
For weeks prior to the Mont-Tremblant Champ Car race, my friend and colleague Gordon Kirby regaled me with tales of attending and covering races at “Le Circuit.” The track hosted the very first Canadian-American Challenge race back in 1966, and the Canadian Grand Prix was staged up in the Laurentian Mountains in 1968 and ’70.
The place just seeps with history. Gilles Villeneuve barrel-rolled his March 76B Formula Atlantic car, then jumped into a spare car and nabbed pole position a few minutes later. Brian Redman was lucky to survive a massive crash when his aerodynamically unstable Lola “New Can-Am” car took flight on the backstraight in 1977.
The circuit lay dormant for many years but has been upgraded safety-wise since those cavalier days to the tune of a reported $6 million Canadian. And it still sorts the men from the boys.
Kirby commented that turn one at Mont-Tremblant — a fifth-gear righthander over a brow leading into a steep dive into a valley — used to be hands-down the finest place to watch race cars at speed in North America. Even the new chicane designed to slow things down there produced some spectacular curb-hopping action.
In fact, the weekend’s only downer was the overly aggressive track security that tried to deny me access to areas where I was entitled to be.
I spent the Saturday morning practice session walking from corner to corner, observing the cars in action and enjoying the backdrop of the Laurentians. The 2.65-mile circuit is comprised of 15 corners, and every one is a pleasure to watch from.
The cars reached a top speed of just under 175 miles per hour prior to turn 10, and they entered the turn-eight kink at 168 mph, according to three-time series champion Sebastien Bourdais. Both areas left little margin for error.
The pastoral scene was about as far as you can get from oval racing, where the view — a concrete-lined left turn — is always the same.
It’s safe to say that you have to work harder to enjoy road racing, for starters because the tracks are generally longer and more spread out. You normally only get to see one or two corners, though at Mont-Tremblant there are at least two vantage points where you can watch the cars negotiate a series of corners twice a lap.
Well-positioned fans had a diamond-vision monitor to follow the action around the rest of the lap. It’s not the same as being able to watch the cars all the way around — like you can at most ovals — but in road-racing terms, being able to see the cars 40 percent of the  time is usually good enough.
The race itself was eventful but didn’t offer a lot of suspense. In fact, most of the excitement came after the checkered flag, when Bourdais criticized winner Robert Doornbos’s blocking tactics. Almost unbelievably, the Frenchman was soundly booed by the savvy Quebecois crowd.
The whole Mont-Tremblant weekend had sort of a throwback aura. Whether it was the peaceful, rustic setting, or the unbelievable traffic jams we encountered trying to leave the circuit, it just felt like a time warp from 10 or 20 years ago, when the PPG CART IndyCar World Series truly meant something around the world.
With an announced crowd of 42,000 for the three days and a race-day crowd estimated at 25,000, Mont-Tremblant’s attendance was a fraction of what CART’s mainstay road races attracted in the ‘80s and ‘90s.
But the positive spirit that prevailed in the Champ Car series in those days was definitely on display in Quebec.