RTG Carrera Italia Daily Dispatch - All days - low res - Flipbook - Page 7
Day 2: Alba to Lake Como, 4 October 2021
Photos: gerardbrown.co.uk
Track fun for Ean and Alison Lewin with their 1973 Ford Escort Mexico
Roy and Rachel Stephenson with their 1973 Porsche 911
something of a roller coaster ride over a couple of laps
of a tight little circuit, before finishing alongside a moto
carabinieri training session. Rain began to fall just as the
last few cars pulled away from the gates and, unfortunately,
this set the pattern of the weather for the rest of the day.
As the crews pulled into the Passage Control in the Circuito
Tazio Nuvolari, where we were due to enjoy another two
track Tests, the weather got the better of us. Visibility was
so reduced that Clerk of the Course, Mark Appleton, had
to invoke the little used “extreme weather protocol” and
made the decision to cut the fun and games short, sending
the crews for an early lunch after the first Test was done.
Despite this, spirits remained high and the excitement
was building for the day’s grand finale. Over the River
Po and to the north west of Milan, two special Tests had
been scheduled at Pirelli’s state of the art Vizzola facility.
The rally plan said that one of them would be run in dry
conditions and then, thanks to the advanced sprinkler
system built into the track, the second Test would be in the
wet. In the event Mother Nature rather took matters into
her own hands and the irrigation engineers took the rest of
the day off. Pirelli certainly gave the rally a great afternoon
on the track, but their hospitality didn’t end when the cars
returned to the pits. They had generously arranged for
fresh coffee, fruit juice and pastries to be served at the
Time Control in their Igloo before the rally set out on the
last leg of the day towards the Lago di Como and the warm
(and dry) welcome of the Grand Hotel Tremezzo.
Alan and Tina Beardshaw and their 1965 Aston Martin DB5
Andrew and Ann Boland, 1934 Talbot AV105
Gerardus Mercator, Dispatch reporter
www.rallytheglobe.com