The 59th Coppa Intereuropa

3-5 june 2011

An unpleasant awakening

In a year where events on historic cars have been developing all over Europe, there was much expectation related to the only real Italian meeting that in the last few years had been increased in interest and importance thanks to organizers’ efforts. On the contrary, all things considered, the 59th edition of Intereuropa Coppa returned to the standards of a few years ago, when it was snubbed by most of the foreign competitors in spite of the presence of many prestigious categories. Obviously, the event has been damaged by being organised in the weekend subsequent to Spa Classic and previous to the 24 Hours of Le Mans, as well as having missed, in comparison with last edition, the Classic Endurance Racing and Formula 3 Classic, but as a matter of fact the organization did little to make up for it. Above all it seemed to fail in a good promotion to attract spectators to the circuit: only 3500 spectators were on the stands and in spite of all that, some diligent controllers took care of sending complete families out of the Autodromo because found guilty of not having the ticket. The Festival Hall of the Autodromo, as usual, reserved for the sales of spare parts and Automobilia counted only few stands even of little interest; the Club parades had a drop in the attendance and the “De Angelis Parade”, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of his death, was planned to show the exhibition of some drivers, famous names in the old times, but most of them were absent: thus on Saturday only two cars, the Lotus 71 and 81 appeared on the track, the latter had won the 1982 G.P. of Austria. On the occasion, they were driven by noteworthy Beppe Gabbiani and Emanuele Pirro, assisted in the celebration by Ezio Zermiani and Gianfranco Palazzoli, two everlasting icons of a motor racing made of enthusiasm that, at least in Italy, seems to be definitely on the wane.

Tutto Alfa

As usual, at the start of the race there were many cars for the category organized by the “Scuderia del Portello”, but unlike what happened in the past editions there wasn’t the same fight for win, with Sordi, in an Alfa Romeo 1750 GTAM, able to line up all his rivals and collect two final successes. In the final classification, the second place was gained by Vogel in the Alfa Romeo GTA, whilst the third place went to Shaw in the 1750 GT, earlier protagonist in 2010. We have to point out the umpteenth participation of Arturo Merzario in his Giulietta, however finished on the back positions.

Results

 

U2TC

The race reserved for the lower 2-litre cars, Pre 67, at the starting tape counted a great number of Ford Lotus Cortina’s, Alfa Romeo GTA’s and BMW 1800 TiSA’s. The race planned on Sunday afternoon for one hour’s last, was run on a wet track after a storm which involved the area of the Autodromo before the start’s time. It was Richard Shaw, at the wheel of a BMW 1800 TiSA, who took advantage of the wet track. The driver, who had already taken Pole, dared more than his rivals during the first laps by managing to collect remarkable lead over his rivals. Behind him there was Furiani in a GTA, the only one to limit the gap from the first, but forced to go to pits during the fourth passage and, after a while, the white flag had to appear. Then the fight for the second place involved Voyazides, Kremer and Monteverde all at the wheel of Cortina’s. Later, on the mandatory stops, Shaw left his car to Jackie Oliver with 40 seconds’ lead over Hadfield, succeeded to Voyazides, who immediately started to set best times by assuring the second position and managing to make up for the BMW. Unfortunately, the English driver’s hope didn’t come true, with Oliver who increased his speed by defending the lead up to the check flag. Monteverde-Pearson arrived third with only one second’s lead over the BMW driven by Clark-Finburg.

Results

GT & Sports Car Cup

The category, reserved for GT and Sports cars constructed till the mid-Sixties, has also seen this year’s dominium of English cars, even if for once it wasn’t an AC Cobra to win. At the start only 33 cars, a number decidedly low for this category, but it didn’t fail the presence of Jaguar E-Type’s, an Aston Martin DP214, the Porsches 356 and 911, a Lotus 11 and one Chevrolet Corvette, unlike the Italian makes, absent in this edition. On the track, Stretton-Minshaw in the Jaguar Type E sprang well from the second position, running behind the Cobra driven by Hall-Hill, authors of Pole, and holding them behind up to the five laps separating the end, when finally the faster American car found a free way. However, incredibly, on the next lap the new leaders were already forced to retire, allowing the English drivers to win, ahead of the other Type E driven by Clark-Smith, with almost 2-second’s gap, and of the AC Cobra driven byTromans-Wolfe.

Results

Canadian-American Challenge Cup

We hoped that the few entered cars at Navarra’s would have been the consequence of the related young age of this category and, on the contrary, only six cars entered Monza circuit. Excluded Francioni who had only participated in Navara to make up the numbers, at Monza we could see the McLaren M8F’s driven by Champagne, a Dutch driver, and the March 707 driven by Tullio, even if the latter had only run two laps in the qualifying session. During the two scheduled races, run one in a downpour, the other in a sunset hot sun, only four Can Am’s were seen on the track, with Champagne the uncontested leader of both heats: thus Schleifer, the organizer of this series, had to be content with two second places.

Results

 

1000km Challenge

The category was created at the year’s beginning by Carol Spagg’s will and Jason Wrighte’s with four meetings in the calendar, each of them of 250 km, for a total of 1000 km, by the end of the season. It took place on the circuit of Brianza after a Donington’s lucky debut. On the track there were the Sports Prototypes built from 1964-1971. considered by many experts as the golden years of “Mondiale Marche”, among them the Lola T70’s, Ford Gt40’s and a fantastic Alfa Romeo 33/3 driven by Marco Cajani (the car that back in 1971 won the Targa Florio). After a Pole gained by Stretton in Lola T70, later obliged to retire for some engine problems, the two planned races were prerogative of Voyazides-Hadfield co-drivers at the wheel of a Lola T70 that preceded Wright-Gans and Rosina in the twin cars in race 1, whilst in race 2 it was Rosina who gained the second position just ahead of the Ital-Swiss drivers.

Results

 

Italian Historic Car Cup

With only seven cars lined up at the start, the category was probably the most disappointing one, even because last year, when it had been just created, had counted almost ten cars more on the circuit. In the two planned heats, Monteverde dominated at the wheel of a fantastic and very fast Ferrari 512M, whilst Rossi di Montelera in Abarth Osella PA1, the only real rival of the Brazilian driver, had to retire during the race 1 after a spin of the car on the first corner of Lesmo.

Results

HGPCA & Phil Hill Trophy

Set up in 1979, the Historic Grand Prix Cars Association is one of the most professional organization in the world of the historic cars and from many years has been organizing a good number of motor racing events, which are mostly run in England but without disregarding any other more important European circuits like Monza’s, Spa’s and Nürburgring’s. The single-seaters, pre’ 66, were the leaders of F1 and F2, Tasman’s and Indianapolis’s. At the start of Monza tests there were 30 cars, among them a splendid model of Aston Martin DBR4, directly derived from the DBR1, and a copy of the Ferrari 156 “shark nose” version thanks to which P.Hill won the 1961 championship, model reproduced with parts and from original drawings. The first two fought races were won by Peter Horsman in a Lotus 18/21 and by John Harper in a Brabham Bt4. Single-seaters powered with 1500 cc engine, were also the leaders of the Phil Hill Trophy, raced on Saturday afternoon on wet track, with Mark Piercy’s win at the wheel of a Lola Mk4 slightly ahead of Sidney Hoole in a Cooper T66.

Results

 

Historic F2 Trophy

The category reserved for Formulas 2 always offered races fought decisively and even this year didn’t fail to offer emotions thanks to the number of participants, in line with last years, at the wheel of usual Ralt’s, March’s, Chevron’s and Brabham’s. In the qualifying session Pole was gained by Watts with March 772, decidedly feeling on his ease on the Brianza circuit, but in race 1 the British driver had to give in the win to Peter in Ralt Rt1, whilst Stretton, who had three laps’ lead separating the final, was forced to retire. However, Monti drove his March 772 to the win in race 2 by overtaking the March 752 of Stretton in the final stages and thanks to an early Person’s retirement during the first lap.

Results

FIA Historic Formula 1 Championship

Da sempre corsa regina di questa manifestazione, la F1 storica vive quest’anno una realtà molto difficile, con le varie prove disertate dalla maggior parte dei piloti protagonisti nelle passate edizioni. A Monza si sono presentate soltanto quattordici vetture, tre delle qali fuori già nel corso delle prove: Verdun-Roe ha accusato problemi alla pompa della benzina nella sessione di prove libere ed è stato costretto a dare forfait, mentre un brutto incidente all’altezza della variante della Roggia nel corso della seconda sessione ha messo fuori gioco la Arrows A4 di Abbott. Quaggia dal canto suo ha dovuto rinunciare alla gara di casa per la rottura del motore. La domenica quando gli undici protagonisti si posizionano sullo schieramento, la pista è ancora bagnata: tutti montato gomme da pioggia ad esclusione di Collins che sulla sua Lotus 81 opta per le slick, confidando sulla pista che andrà asciugandosi nel corso dei 12 passaggi previsti.

The race has always been queen of this event and this year’s historic F1 was living a very difficult reality, with different tests deserted by most of the drivers that were the protagonists of past editions. Only 14 cars were present at Monza, three of them had to abandon earlier during the practice sessions: Verdun-Roe had some problems with the petrol pump in the free practice session and was forced to forfeit, while during the second session at la Roggia variant a bad accident knocked out the Arrows A4 driven by Abbott. On his turn, Quaggia had to renounce the home race owing to his engine failure. On Sunday when the 11 protagonists were lined up on the start grid, the track was still wet: everybody mounted tyres for rain with the exception of Collins who chose the slick ones for his Lotus 81, relaying on the track which have progressively dried out during the 12 envisaged passages. At the start Hartley, this year at the wheel of an Arrows A4, took advantage of Pole to pass in first position on the first variant, followed by D’Aubreby with Tyrrell 012, author of a good start, by Eyre in a Williams Fw08 and by Kubota, the winner at Monza in 2010, at the wheel of a March 761. Meantime, Collins faced by some obvious difficulties, found himself to be relegated to back positions. The race, boring in the first laps, from the fifth passage on came alive when Hartley was forced to retire, whilst Collins was soon making up for the delay by setting the lap best time in the race. After few passages the English driver found himself behind Eyre’s car and managed to overtake him during lap nine, when realizing to be able to run at 4-5 seconds faster than d’Aubreby he risked everything. However, after a while his impetuosity played a nasty trick on him, because his car spun right round at the variant Ascari, thus not only giving up the win but also the podium by arriving only sixth. With Kubota forced to abandon because of his engine failure, Eyre gained a deserved second place and Barber in the Fittipaldi FSA2 climbed the third step of podium.

Results

Marco Zanello
Photos taken by Giacomo & Marco Zanello