Vince's Stuff: Visiting Imola and Monza

As I mentioned in a previous post, I managed to find a couple of racing events to attend as a spectator with the boys. The first was a European Le Mans Series event at Imola. The main event was a 4-hour multi-class enduro with GT3, LMP2 and LMP3 cars.

Poster of the event

We bought tickets for EUR10 each, which gave us access to the main grandstand and paddock, but for pretty much any other grandstand, you didn't even need a ticket. There was a supermarket near the track, which was convenient. Several of the grandstands seemed to be in a large park, I believe it's called Parco delle Acque Minirali, so there were many people around, just enjoying their Sunday. As it was hot, we were glad to find a shady area to watch near the Acque Minerale corner. There were really not that many people attending the event, which was fine with us, as we could sit wherever we wanted to. The boys had fun, Alex went to visit a couple of museums in town. I think I would attend this event again in the future, since the boys quite liked it.

Track entrance

GR Yaris at the track

Main entrance

Land cruisers for the track crew

Cool 6-wheeler motorhome

Swiss M5

The LMP's in action at Acque Minerali

Lovely liveries

A couple of drivers went off at our corner

Main control tower

GT3 Cup in the paddocks

This is the Gibson V8 in the LMP2 cars.

Huracan Tecnica safety car

Cool posters, but no t-shirts or anything to buy as a souvenir

Very Rara Alfa 147 GTA in the partking area

Cool Love Bug replica on the way home

Near the end of the trip, I wondered if we could squeeze in another event, this time at Monza. There wa sa Eurocup 3 race weekend with many races under one hour and free entry. Alex accepted to be dropped off and picked up in Milan while we continued to Monza, 45 minutes away.

We tried out different spots around the track, and it was cloudy and cool early in the day. The best spot to watch the action was definitely the Prima Variante. It is a pretty tight chicane and there was lots of contact, especially in the Eurocup 3 race. I think 6 out of the 30 cars ended their race at our corner.

We moved to the Parabolica, which was nice because it was in the shade, but the cars entered the corner so fast that we didn't see them that long. I was surprised to see a TCS Civic Type R mixing it un in a race full of GT4 cars. It's also crazy to see portions of the 100-year-old banked oval track between the grandstands and the modern track. Like Imola, the area around the track is a mix of countryside and park land, which is kind of nice. It was another nice day for us, and really inexpensive, as there were no tickets to buy and parking was free. Again, there were not that many fans in attendance, which seemed strange to me, but I guess the locals have many chances per season to go check out some racing. I was happy, as I got to see the two main F1 track in Italy in the same trip.