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Is the Italian GP at Monza the spiritual home of F1 now?

Posted on September 14, 2011 by truckertoggle

As DJ is holding his BBC boycott protest it falls to me to report on what may have come over as an error by the BBC commentary team last weekend when they said that the old banked Monza circuit was last used in 1961 and maybe gave the impression that it was always used up until that point and never since.

The banked track at Monza still exists and you see the North banking clearly as the cars come down from Lesmo 2 and the cars come under the bridge. When the banking was used the cars would start, as now, from the left side of the pit straight, do a conventional lap of the road course, but on the exit of the Parabolica would keep right past the pits and on to the North banking, off that and down the straight to the South banking and then emerge from that onto the left side of the pit straight to start the next lap.

This combined course was ready in time for the Italian GP in 1955, and was used again for F1 in only three more years; 1956, 1960 and 1961, but was also used for the 1000kms Monza sports/GT world championship race through until 1969, reverting to the road course only from the 1970 race.

The banking was threatened with demolition a few years back, but a concerted campaign saw that off for the time being. It can’t last forever without some work, and therefore money, being invested, but it would be good to think that it will be around for a while as a reminder of a different era in motor sport.

Monza is one of the great tracks and about the only one that is around from the start of the F1 world championship that the guys who raced then would still recognise. Silverstone is a very different track now, Spa is so much shorter, and the others are long gone from the scene. France may have held the first GP, but that has been off the calendar for a while now. The UK may be home to more teams than anywhere else, but Italy, through Monza, has that F1 world championship continuity and, with such passionate fans, has a good claim to be the spiritual home of F1, and why not?

 

Filed under: Circuits, F1, Retro Moments, Setting the Record Straight | Tagged: , , , | Leave a comment »

weekend round up – 11th September 2011 #NASCAR #F1

Posted on September 13, 2011 by truckertoggle

#NASCAR So the chase is set with Harvick taking the win at Richmond. Most of our favorites missed the cut, and our opinion of the chase as a waste of time has been made clear here before. Wer’re hoping Mark Martin or JPM can win one from here on in, maybe see The Dinger win his first and to not see either of the Ugly Brothers in victory lane! Roll on next week.

#F1 A shame that the McLarens got stuck behind others at the start as either of them could have won it. We can recall Lewis saying in his debut year that he would have liked to have gone up against MSC, well he got that wish on Sunday didn’t he? Maybe if he hadn’t had such a rough ride with the stewards this season we might have had a real wheel banging session, but Lewis just didn’t seem to really want it and, having lost time with one half hearted effort, he had to watch JB sail by and nail Schumi first go. Such is life. Great track, great crowd. Why are you messing around with these slot car track venues Bernie? Oh yes, they pay lots of money. A shame; it used to be a sport.

Filed under: Circuits, F1, NASCAR | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a comment »

weekend round up – 4th September 2011 #NASCAR #Indycar #DTM

Posted on September 5, 2011 by thatconsultantbloke

#NASCAR Rain stopped play in Atlanta and they run tomorrow.

#IndyCar Will Power dominates at Baltimore, Oriol Servia runs 32 laps on old tyres to finish second and Tony Kanaan pulls all the way through from well down to third, even after a real scare in practice when car failure saw him get airborne over the back of Helio; one major shunt. The title race down to 5 points as Dario comes home third.

#DTM action at Brands Hatch where they do run in the wet, Martin Tomczyk produced a masterful performance to win his third race of the season and slip back into the title race by just a single point.

Filed under: Indycar, NASCAR, Tin Tops | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a comment »

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