July ‘23 - European Adventures : Monza + Nordschleife + Zandvoort
Memories for a life time! Our first experience racing abroad and it has been been UNBELIEVABLE good! We had an ambitious plan, to race at Monza and Zandvoort in successive weekends, while testing at Goodwood and Nordschleife in between. On the map, from a racer point of view, it doesn’t get better than this! Our first step was to aquire the now mandatory ATA Carnet, thanks Boris! (not)
For the European trip, for the first time we experimented with semi-slick tyres and due to the size of our wheels (15”) we could only find 50mm profile tyres. Surprisingly or not, at Goodwood testing these proved to be much slower per lap in comparison to the trusty Dunlop Racing tyres we got to know so well. For Monza, there was no debate, ditch the semi-slicks and run on the high profile Dunlops.
Our adventure started on the Wednesday afternoon at Goodwood, when on the last session of the day we broke the Spider’s clutch which later transpired into a gearbox failure also. A mad rush back to the workshops followed to change clutch and later discovered that the gearbox is not perfectly healthy either. So our diligent race techs changed clutch and gearbox, ready to go at 2am. This is where drama strikes for the second time! Unfortunately the new clutch plate snapped as soon as we touched the pedal to test it around the farm. So…we had to pull everything out again and fit another new clutch! Luckily we had them in stock. That’s commitment there for you! Ready at 6am and we set off to Dover, only 12 hours delay from our original plan.
We arrived in Monza at around 5am on the Friday, after an unlimited consumption of espresso and energy drinks that gives you wings. We were absolutely shattered after 48 hours without sleep but we went ahead and set up camp and had the first few laps in the afternoon. On this special occasion, we shared the drive in the Spider with local experienced racer, Francesco Turatello.
On Saturday, everything went well in qualifying and we both improved our times, we were pumped to race at the Temple of Speed. Francesco raced at Monza countless times, so Cip was taking a lead from his experience and kept improving lap times. When the big moment came, the Spider refused to fire on the start line out of all places!! Cip did the formation lap, on the grid but no luck starting! So they us into the pit lane where it fires up first time!!!! Nice and steady pit lane start for us it is then. 3 laps in, safety car, Cip was actually rubbing his hands with glee as he’ll get onto the back of the pack and pull some moves!! Let’s go! But Lady Luck strikes again, front left puncture! A rush straight into the pits followed, rush to get the car lifted and wheel changed and Francesco we went back out again to finish the race. No more drama and we even get a trophy for being first in our class as some cars had much bigger problems than we did.
All in all, a fab weekend! 🇮🇹 Monza, we salute you! If you would like to race your classic Alfa Romeo in the legendary Alfa Revival Cup at any of their rounds, please contact us for assistance and race preparation / support.
Leaving behind Il Tempo di Velocita - Monza, we made our way into Germany via Austria, to meet up with a couple of classic Alfa Romeo specialists that helped us along the way, OKP and Formula GT. A couple of long day of travelling followed until we reached the tremendous Nurburgring. Our aim here was only to measure the size of our bravery and take the Spider back to the Nordscleife where it race in the 90s. As predicted, we had a super time completing 4 full laps of the 22km loop Bridge to Gantry and would certainly return for some proper wheel to wheel action.
Having thoroughly enjoyed the Nordschleife, we switched country to the west into the Netherlands where the last leg our journey was about to unfold, testing on Friday at Zandvoort between the dunes and racing on Saturday and Sunday with Equipe GTS. Another race circuit we’ve never been before and all to discover, having done plenty simlator laps in Assetto Corsa, Cip was confident! Having seen the entry list, our only competition in class was the Lotus Elan 26R which on paper and in reality on Friday proved to be might quick in comparison to our little red Alfa Romeo.
On Saturday, in our attempt to help a friend (Roberto Giordanelli) when his E-Type broke down, we ended up offering to share the drive which the test driving legend and all around great Alfista, accepted. Roberto drove phenomenally well in the wet, as expected, and after a Formula One style strategic decision by our Cip to pit early, we finished the race P16/23 and more important P1 in our class as the Lotus suffered with technical issues.
On Sunday, Cip had a great time battling the Triumph GT6 for the first part of the race and later focused on bringing the beautiful Spider home safe and sound. Race result P17/20 and once again P1 in class.
Overall, we proved once again that a race is won in the workshop where the car is prepared beforehand. Our European tour summed up 5 hours of track time and we won the 1600cc class in all three races, couldn’t be more happy!
If you would like to race your classic Alfa Romeo with Equipe GTS, please contact us for assistance and race support & preparation!
For all your classic Alfa Romeo race build, preparation and support, race engine builds and tuning, race specialist re-wiring, please contact us via the usual channels for a ‘no obligation’ true alfisti conversation. 100% reliability record over 15 hours of competitive running shared between races with Alfa Revival Cup, HRDC, HSCC, CSCC and Equipe GTS with a couple of Goodwood and Nordschleife track days in between. We would be more than happy to discuss preparing your race or rally Giulietta or Giulia!
Our next racing adventure will take place at Brands Hatch with HRDC at Festival Italia and we have a surprise racer in the hot seat of the Spider 🍀 Some say He loves racing sideways at Goodwood Revival in a four door saloon car, who could possibly be ?