Report by Marco Zanello and photos by Giacomo Zanello
The Monza Coppa Intereuropa 2011 was held 3-5 June at the 3.6 mile, 11-turn Autodromo Nazionale Monza in Italy. Like every year the world of historic cars has held its meeting the first weekend in June at Monza for Coppa Intereuropa, this year’s a 59th edition.
The Monza Coppa Intereuropa 2011 has nine racing categories, each of them bringing to the track a piece of motor racing history. It must be said that the total number of entries has been declining significantly with respect to the past editions as well as the number of spectators kept away by bad weather on the peninsula.
As is customary, the queens of the event have been Formula One cars, with the unexpected win of Patrick D’Aubreby at the wheel of Tyrrell 012 in a race run on a wet track, ahead of Richard Eyre, always regular, and Richard Barber. An unlucky Dan Collins, the only one to start with slick tyres and author of a great recovery however spoilt by running off track when he was fighting for the second position, while Bobby Verdun-Roe, the favourite on the eve, had an engine failure in free practice.
As usual the two races of Formula Two Trophy turned into a hard fight with Hans Peter in Ralt RT1, the winner in Race One, thanks to Martin Stretton who was forced to retire at three laps from the end, and Matthiew Watt, the winner in Race Two, with a beautiful overtaking just on the British in the final.
A very interesting Historic Grand Prix Cars Association fleet of cars, a category which allowed the entry of F1 and F2 single-seaters pre-1966, with even 30 cars at the starting grid, among them a fantastic model of the Aston Martin DBR4, directly derived from the DBR1, the winning car in 1959 at Le Mans. The two hard fought races devoted to it, saw Peter Horsman’s win with Lotus 18/21 and John Harper’s with Brabham Bt4 in Race Two. The single-seaters with 1500 cc engine which entered this category were also protagonists of the Phil Hill Trophy, raced on Saturday afternoon on a wet track, with Mark Piercy winner in Lola Mk4, who little preceded Sidney Hoole in Cooper T66.
Another category which aroused the spectators’ interest was been the new 1000 km Challenge, a race for the old queens of Le Mans, with a very unlucky Martin Stretton forced again to retire in Race One while was firmly in the lead, and the win gained in both races by Leonidas Voyazides and Simon Hadfiled in Lola T70.
Martin Stretton managed to dispel the bad luck that seemed to haunt him in this weekend thanks to the win with Jon Minshaw in Jaguar E-Type running the longest race of the weekend, i.e. the GT & Sports Car Cup.
It was reduced the number of entries at the Under 2-Litre Touring Cars, where unexpectedly usual Voyazides-Hadfield had to give way to Jackie Oliver and Richard Shaw, at the wheel of a fantastic BMW 1800 TiSA, who raced very fast in the early parts on a wet track, while in the Tutto Alfa Trophy Italian Fabio Sordi successfully defeated the rivals both in Race One and Race Two.
Finally there was a great disappointment for the Italian Historic Car Cup and above all for the Can-Am, with each group having few entries at the start and races without history. Among the additional and most participating events was the De Angelis Parade, organized to commemorate the Roman driver twenty-five years after his death. The parade saw two former drivers of Formula One, Beppe Gabbiani and Emanuele Pirro, run two laps at the wheel of their Lotus 81 and 91.
Monza Coppa Intereuropa 2011 – Photo Gallery (click image for larger picture)
[envira-gallery id=”131015″]
[Source: Marco Zanello]
