Bloggers Continental Correspondent Phil Rice brings us his account of another Blunsdon Bloggers tour, this one to see the Italian Speedway GP at Terranzano.
You’ve read of the Blunsdon Bloggers trips abroad with of course the 2007 one to Sweden made into a book – modest sales but for those of us who went on the trip a great publication!
This year we decided to do the Italian GP in Terranzano, a small village a few miles south of Udine. Our trip to Lonigo with a stay in Verona was one our most enjoyable ones so Tamworth based Dave Dow along with Neil Calvert from London joined David Lewis, Neil Wise and Phil Rice for a late morning flight from Stansted to Trieste.
Previous trips abroad have normally meant ridiculously early 3am starts from Wiltshire but the joy of only having to leave at 5.30 am was something else!
The flight got off to a bad start when one of our number decided to rewrite the security rules at the airport and having twice been “felt” did somewhat let his ire show! So that meant no shaving foam and deodorant for Phil!
Anyway a great Wetherspoons big breakfast, interspersed with conversations about Lehmann Brothers, the 1957 Cheque Act and the lady in the café in Jedburgh which has closed since we were there a couple of months ago, did wonders for Phil’s temper and an uneventful flight saw us arrive at the quiet airport n Trieste some 20 miles or so from the track.
David Lewis’s “Fly By Night Travel” had as usual done the business with a nine seater Fiat bus/car awaiting us and, if he had wanted to, Mark Loram who was on our flight could have accompanied us to our hotels in Udine but perhaps wisely preferred a lift in Jan Staechman’s hire car.
The wonderful autostrada awaited except that we could not get the barrier to work to get onto it and Neil Calvert’s embarrassment and the frustrated horn-tonking drivers behind was a sight to see.
We had not anticipated it but our trip took us past the stadium so we looked in on the practise. GP practise is not a very interesting way to spend a couple of hours but the sun was nice and we got our bearings. And the beer was just what we needed.
The village of Terranzano is small, sleepy and not very exciting whilst the stadium, although clean and tidy could, even with the temporary stands, hold surely no more than 4000 spectators. The track seemed a bit sandy or whatever the material being used was very light coloured. Long straights and quite tight bends made this a circuit something a bit different in GP terms. But no Jason Crump practising – surely though he must be riding as after all we Bloggers were convinced our trip would see the 2009 champion crowned.
Our hotel, situated on the northern edge of Udine, gave us plenty of challenges as we tried to find it! After several trips around the town, including passing the futuristic and very impressive Udinese football stadium, we spotted the hotel but just could get to it. The autostrada is wonderful but getting off it and onto the correct feeder roads presented many problems as did a quick trip later that night to find the restaurant recommended to us.
Anyway we all enjoyed a very enjoyable evening in the restaurant that perhaps we might not have chosen. Never mind, the food was fine.
Saturday dawned – another lovely day – and a quick trip into Udine. Not as beautiful as Verona, it still has a lot to commend it with the old buildings, statues and, of course, street side cafes. By the way the best street side café we ever used was at Torun some years ago situated in the Old Town. And with a new superb speedway stadium that has opened this year, perhaps we’ll be there again soon.
Anyway a pleasant couple of hours followed by a quick return to the hotel saw us prepared for the business of the say – the Italian GP.
We had decided to have a very late lunch and had been assured we’d find a restaurant in a village close to the track. No chance, nothing open (perhaps they still have the Italian equivalent of siesta) so it’s to be a picnic back at the track with food skilfully purchased by our heroes at a local supermarket.
It’s only just after 4 pm and nearly four hours until the meeting starts but the time flies. We get chatting to some lads from Lublin, two of whom now live in Italy but there are cars from all over European speedway nations parked including Romania and Finland. In Europe if course you can normally find a beer tent at a GP and this was no exception. The beer went down well with our delicious fresh local food.
And so to the meeting. “Fly By Night Travel” (not ABTA bonded so very cheap and always good fun) had come up with great seats just behind the starting gate. Perhaps we expected an evening of fast but processional races on a very hard track but we were so wrong. This was a cracking GP with lots of twists and turns and not a few surprises. Blog favourite Rune Holta looked at one stage as if he’d move into the top eight but in the end it was not to be as Tomas Gollob was a worthy winner. Emil Sayfutinov looked a cast iron winner at one stage but his surprising failure to proceed past the semi final must have eased some of Jason Crump’s nerves. It was clear to see that Jason was far from fit but surely the three week gap until the final GP and the reduced but still healthy 17 point lead should just about be enough for Crumpy to clinch his third title – and of course with it the most titles an Australian has ever won.
Back to the hotel after a long day a couple of us stayed on to chat to some Eastbourne fans. Most of them will be in Gorican, Croatia, next weekend for the Under 21 Final hoping their Lewis Bridger can take the crown. Our obvious questions of “will the Eagles run next season” were greeted with shrugs etc but I got the impression that they were cautiously optimistic.
Sunday morning and we’ve about five hours to kill before we need to be at the airport so Dave Lewis suggests a trip to the sea and we find a small secluded village towards the Slovenian boarder (in fact the influence of the former Yugoslavia is all around with street signs in both languages). More coffee and its back for our flight.
Anyway another great trip and Italy does have so much to commend it. Next year do we bite the bullet and to Latvia or is it three league meetings on successive nights in Sweden and Denmark – or perhaps it’s a repeat of the successful British trip (five meetings in successive days) we did in the summer.
