36 Tournants

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Course de Côte des 36 Tournants (Engis) – List of Winners

Date	Winner		Car	Time	Final
22/09/2002	Lionel Regal		Reynard F3000	2:56,49	Results
28/09/2003	Gilles Saintmard		Ralt RT35	2:31,65	Results
12/05/2013	Jacques Marchal		Van Diemen FX	1:20,64	Results

36 Tournants can be translated as 36 turns. The 36 Tournants of this Hillclimb can be found in Engis. The first ‘tournant’ lies at the bottom of the Meuse-valley where the hillclimb starts its climb in the southeast direction.
Engis has less than 6000 inhabitants. As it is situated 16 kilometres downstream of Huy and 12 upstream of Liege you would not expect that much has happened in this town. On the contrary, Engis is at the same time both famous and infamous in Belgium and beyond. Its infamy comes from the large factories that are build in the valley next to the Meuse. Lead, Alum and Phosphate chemicals are some of the industries that could be found in Engis. There is also a harbour and a prominent electricity plant. Near Engis the Meuse river meanders a lot and over time has cut a deep trench in the landscape. This could shelter the valley from wind, which makes the dissolution of polluting gasses from the factories rather peculiar. In 1930 a large toxic cloud became stuck in the valley at Engis, killing 60 people. All this combined give the town the reputation as most polluted town in Belgium.
Engis is also world famous for another reason. In 1829 the physician and geologist Philippe-Charles Schmerling explored the caves around Engis. In one of them he found a prehistoric skull dating some 70.000 years back. It was one of the earliest discoveries of the prehistoric peoples ever, although it was at the time not recognized by the scientific community. Almost 30 years later another ‘Engis-man’was discovered in Germany. This time the discovery was accepted and the prehistoric man was named after the place of discovery: Neandertaler. In retrospect, the discoveries and scientific work done by Schmerling make him the first Paleontologist.
The 36 Tournants Hillclimb travels in the direction of Neuville-en-Condroz. In the towncentre is the Ardennes American Cemetary where 5329 American soldiers that died in World War II have found their last resting place.