The premiere of a historic Grand Prix at Most was a success

15.05.2017 10:28

The Most motor-racing circuit has been through its premiere of a Historic Grand Prix. Judging from the response of the drivers, support team members and mainly the spectators, the weekend programme has been more than a success. It was also helped by warm and sunny weather. Despite occasional rain on Saturday and Sunday, there was no threat to the running of the particular races or the varied supporting programme.

“We’re glad that people have found their way to Autodrom. The fans have proved that they are very interested in magnificent historic machines that are just as good as the current specially designed machines on the track in terms of power and speed. The spectators have shown that we had made moves in the right direction extending the racing calendar. We are delighted and believe that there will be even a more numerous attendance next year,” said Jana Svobodová, the AUTODROM MOST Business and Marketing Manager, evaluating the successful weekend.

Although it is mostly not welcome, the rain made the races on the track more dramatic from the point of view of motor sport fans. Press photographers, on their part, savoured their moments of taking impressive pictures featuring mantles of water spray. Neither did the vagaries of the weather trouble the other visitors. “It’s true that the rain took us by surprise but luckily it wasn’t long before it stopped. At least, we’ve found that apart from motor sport experiences, Autodrom offers a number of useful accessories. We wrung our boys’ wet shirts and bought new ones with the Autodrom logos printed on them. And on top of that, two sweatshirts,” said a nice woman, forty-three years old Jitka from Most, explaining how she solved the unexpected situation without difficulty. She arrived at Autodrom together with her husband and son and her female friend’s child.

Whereas there were just some light showers washing the Autodrom race track on Saturday, sheets of torrential rain fell from the sky before noon on Sunday. They affected the race of open-wheel cars that used to appear in the Grands Prix until 1960. Their drivers became heroes all of a sudden. In fact, an overwhelming majority of spectators expected the stewards to suspend the race or drivers themselves to give up. None of that happened, however. Spanish driver Guillermo Fierro in a 1954 Maserati 250F 2523 repeated his victory from the first race held on Saturday. This way, he showed that he is equally good on both dry and wet surfaces.

Peter Horsman of Great Britain, too, achieved a double win in his Lotus 18/21 P1 also emerging triumphant from the two races on Saturday and Sunday. This time, the fancied Brabham BT7 driven by American James King trailed the winner only by six tens of a second and rejoiced over the runner-up spot after technical problems had knocked him down to seventh place on Saturday.

The FIA Lurani Trophy drivers battle for the European championship title in their Formula Junior series for cars from the 1950s and 1960s. During Saturday’s race, James Murray of Great Britain, driving a Lola Mk 5A, and Italian Manfredo Rossi di Montelera in a Lotus 22 delivered a breath-taking duel with the Italian trailing just one and a half seconds at the flag. On Sunday, Murray repeated his victory with another Briton, John Fyda, coming home second in his Brabham BT6.

Both the Saturday and Sunday race programmes culminated with battles between British Triumph Competition and British HTGT series Grand Turismo cars. These GT cars stood on the grid representing the famous MG, Morgan, Triumph, Jaguar and Lotus brands. Yannick Szczygiel of Germany in a Triumph TR4 was not defeated either in a thirty-minute race on Saturday or in a one-hour race on Sunday.

The Most Historic Grand Prix also included the Haigo ADAC series for single-seaters and touring cars involved in the former Eastern Bloc’s Peace and Friendship Cup, and a FAS AČR Czech Trophy regularity rally where the finishing order did not determine the outcome unlike the other events. In fact, local drivers in specially built works cars and individually constructed vehicles were supposed to set two identical times as far as possible in two measured laps.

The organisers were entertaining the spectators all day long. In addition to the adrenaline-pumping show on the track, the visitors of all generations really enjoyed an aerobatic show performed by Petr Kopfstein, a superb pilot and participant in the Red Bull Air Race Master Class world championship, as well as helicopter sightseeing flights, passenger rides in historic cars from the 1970s or an autograph-signing session with motor sport celebrities, and a stunt show performed by Martin Krátký, the best Czech stunt rider and a European champion in this discipline. In their own way, even the youngest visitors to the Autodrom motor-racing circuit enjoyed a number of attractions and prize competitions spending their time on the children’s traffic-drill playground as part of the Saturday programme.

Over the weekend, the Polygon training areas were occupied by close to 150 participants in a reunion of historic car owners. On both Saturday and Sunday, these enthusiasts displayed their beloved cars during a parade lap around Autodrom’s major circuit, which was a lovely culmination of the successful weekend event.

 

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