Qui Me Comitat Vincebit
Grand Prix Historique Tunisie
(A fuller report is at the end of this one) TOPS Team 2002
Sun, sea, sand, 3000 years of history and a promise of excitement and belly dancers attracted 35 Grand Prix and Sports Racing cars to the Tunisian affair.
TOPS motoring fanatics are a daft lot - who would have thought that cars of such exoticism as Alfa Romeo tipo Bs (Venables-Llewelyn & Fink), ERA (Wildbolz), Talbot Lago (Pilkington), Amilcar C6 (Grant), Ferrari Testa Rossa (Monteverde), Lotus 11 (Wanty), 166 MM (Mason-Styron), Maserati Birdcage (Drake), Osca (Hoffer & Gelmini), Stanguellini (Panini), Frazer Nash (Wilson) and a delightful Panhard based Monopole (Deligny) etc., would venture on to a sandy adapted public road in North Africa for a bit of fun.
A 2.5 km circuit along the edge of the sea, with four tyre-built chicanes allowed spectators to perch on walls and clamber into building sites to watch the cars show their paces. The locals were polite and their enthusiasm was contagious. However, the President of the Tunisian car club, Karim Azuz' suggestion that the FIA might homologate the circuit for F1 seemed a little far-fetched!
< >
Two days of driving was followed by two days of superb sight-seeing and hospitality. Only in 1954 did Tunisia stop polygamy and also allow women some rights such as driving; however, they are a people who obey authority and arrested (Sir) John Venables-Llewelyn for clandestinely photographing the Presidents' Palace with its security cameras, armed guards and radar - he was released when they realised there might be a diplomatic incident but his film was removed and destroyed.
Next year there is talk of a classic car event and camel racing in the desert.
P.G.P
Grand Prix of Tunisia
After a gastronomic convoy across Europe we arrived at Genoa (2 mins early!) to sit and wait, finally boarding the brand new Tunis ferry around 5 pm. After the scrabble for cabins we all congregated in one of the restaurants for the welcome dinner... this turned out to be a cross between Monty Python and Faulty Towers! As the sea got rougher and rougher and rougher, our eating companions got fewer and fewer and fewer! Some leaving mid sentence, some unfortunately not making it past (or under) the table. The waiting staff were lurching about "Manuel" like juggling soup tureens, plates, glasses etc. One empty table deposited its entire contents onto the floor! Wine included! However one ageing German's stomach contents were the final straw so our table made a sharp exit to ride out the storm in our cabins. Next morning the sea was as calm as a millpond and we docked late afternoon.
Arrival took on a carnival air as we were greeted by a Tunisian band and 3 Bedouin belly dancers with pots on their heads. The convoy to the parc fermé was interesting to say the least as there seemed to be some confusion as to where it actually was with a section heading for the hotel, only to be turned round en masse in the center of town in the rush hour! I must say the Tunisian police have a way with a whistle that even the Italians would be proud of! After another hair raising convoy through red lights and all we arrived at the splendid Tunis Palace Hotel... and a very welcome cold beer, this being a dry country (apart from tourist Hotels and restaurants) the bar staff were not well versed in the urgency of such matters.
Next morning we started the two days of "demonstrations" the circuit consisted of two straights, either side of the dual carriageway, with a curve in the middle and a roundabout at each end, a lake on one side and construction work on the other. Today was familiarization day, the demo proper being the following day which was their national Independence Day...well as in most demonstrations speeds got faster and faster with drivers attempting to squeeze each other out through the tyre lined chicanes! Carlos Monteverdi decided to modify and widen a stretch taking out several metal hoops and a lamppost... totaling the Ferrari but fortunately not himself. The road surface was shiny due to heat and constant sand blasting giving the feeling of driving on ice! The flag marshals were provided by the Car Club de Tunis, what they lacked in expertise they made up for in enthusiasm, one marshal waved his flag so vigorously, when being approached by Michael Steele and Richard Pilkington side by side, that the end flew off into the wastelands. The chequered flag was the privilege of several smartly suited officials but the marshals sent the cars back to the parking display before they reached the finish line. There were several sessions for the classes, Jost Wildbolz in R4A was having a wonderful time, he seemed to be out in each session, whilst his twin brother Klaus, having broken a half shaft, was searching the machine shops of Tunis for a replacement and finally modified one from a truck! An interlude was provided by a kart race, karts being provided by a local company, several drivers joined two or three locals who with insider knowledge had the faster karts, leaving our pilots with the best of the rest, Richard Pilkington's was so slow he was almost going backwards and we couldn‘t understand why he didn‘t cheat by getting off and crossing to the other side of the dual carriageway! A 5 lap race took a very long time. It was a delightful day with everyone so friendly and polite... Back to the hotel and the long wait for the beer! Tuesday, the big holiday, brought many more spectators. The cars were displayed in a pedestrian precinct surrounded by cafes, no beer but toilet facilities, well I say toilet facilities in the broadest sense of the word; it's not that the equipment is basic it's the plumbing, or lack of it and as the Tunisian diet consists of highly spiced food - say no more! However I digress. There were two timed sessions in the morning (though who was timing, only Allah knows)... We lunched and then in the afternoon a huge crowd had gathered, including several dignitaries in the small stand erected at the start line. Two gentlemen resplendent in long flowing robes blessed the meeting or whatever, lots of photos and Miss Tunis, looking very fetching in a tight pair of racing overalls, holding the Tunisian flag did a lap of honour in Christian Mullaerrt's replica type 35 Bugatti - narrowly missing doing an Isidora Duncan with the billowing flag! The first event started on time expertly shepherded by Thierry Giovannoni, our long suffering chef d'Equipe, who by now had transformed the Tunis track personnel into a much more efficient crew, the purchase of a very loud hand held klaxon helped a great deal in organising us all!
Let driving commence - the fastest in this group were John Venables-Llewelyn, Alfa P3, Jost Wildbolz, ERA, Robert Fink in another P3, Richard Pilkington, Talbot (a real ex-Tunis GP car) and Michael Steele in his T35 Bugatti. Robert Fink, having redistributed lots of track side tyres the previous day, decided that one of the newly added chicanes was not quite wide enough for two cars abreast so he leapt the central reservation to arrive backwards in the oncoming traffic in a shower of tyres. He bent the front of the chassis but was fine himself, the flag marshals were very swift to react and the rest of the field managed to avoid him. Sitting next to his wife at the start line having reassured her that he was fine, her mobile phone rang and it was Robert to say he was fine! (He told us later that he always carries it in his racing overalls pocket for just this sort of thing!) JVL powered ahead of the field making it look so easy. Richard Pilkington closed in on the exciting tussle for second place between Jost and Steele with the eventual result JVL first, Jost second, Steele third and Pilk fourth. People were eager to crowd round the winning cars to touch both cars and drivers, something the Tunisians like to do. The next event saw the beautiful Birdcage Maserati of Chris Drake, very quick the previous day but suffering from coil trouble which eventually forced him to retire, a very pretty Lotus 11 from Belgium led for the rest of the laps, Singer's AC came second, third was Gelmini's Osca and Chris Wilson for TOPS came fourth in his Frazer Nash. By now the sun was really hot and after a couple of laps for the crowd we were ushered back to the parc fermé and, as it seemed to have become a public car park, we loaded our cars and took them to the hotel. Beer time! Becoming quietly confident we ordered our second round as the first arrived only to be served with it immediately!
Wednesday and some people went to play cars or camels, others did their own thing...six of us squeezed into Pilkingtons Range Rover and headed for some sight seeing, with route instructions being given by committee...first Sidi Bu Said a typical Tunisian town; all the buildings were white with blue shuttering and doorways, shops spilled their brightly coloured wares onto the streets amidst a hustle bustle of eager street traders. Our next target was to travel north along the coastal road. By committee, a wrong turning was taken and we found ourselves by the sea and some fairly extensive ruins at Carthage, photo opportunity we thought, well the President decided to build his palace right next to the ruins, and unknown to us it is absolutely forbidden to take photos of it or any of the many guards! Three very officious plain clothed guards moved in on JVL demanding his film, with a persistence that started to border on the sinister. JVL reluctantly gave up the film; it was all we could do to stop him asking for gloss finish and a second set!! We beat a hasty retreat.
That evening there was a gala dinner at the hotel complete with a skimpily dressed belly dancer who raised many a blood pressure.
Thursday the tourist board (our part hosts) had laid on a tour for all entrants, there were only 7 takers (all TOPS members!) so we had a guide and transport at our disposal. We made an unscheduled stop at Hada, a small Berber village on the coast an hour south of Tunis, it was fascinating to see all the women in these brightly coloured robes taking their wares to market by donkey, which seemed to be the only form of transport there. Onward, South to Sousse passing rather nasty coastal developments that could have been anywhere. After a walk round the souk, complete with sheeps heads and some fish of origin unknown to man, we had the best lunch of the trip with wine! On the return to Tunis we persuaded our guide to take us to the museum at Carthage, where incidentally you get a magnificent and photograph-able view of the President's palace. Our last evening and the prize giving dinner was a very lavish affair at a nearby hotel. The food was the best so far with the main course paraded around by waiters with flaming swords, some very good local musicians played while we ate, and between each course 3 belly dancers performed several different styles of their national dance. There were huge trophies and awards for first, second and third in each section and Corrado presented momentos to all the Tunisian dignitaries (and Tony Merrick who came without a car!) and as we left we were all given a model car by the Tunis Car Club.
< >
< >
Friday and our return by convoy was another hair-raising dash through the morning rush hour only to hurry and wait, with endless paperwork that was efficiently taken care of by Thierry and Corrado. No cafés in sight so our team lunched on the kerb with a bottle of port that Chris Wilson had been promising since we left Portsmouth, chocolate bars and some fresh dates... an interesting combination!!! On the calm boat journey back we reflected on an intriguing trip which left one with so many contrasting images from the very wealthy living in their vast walled-in, heavily guarded houses to people still using donkeys to plough and carry, from their new modern development along side Bedouin rituals, the friendly and polite people, the colours and the smells... I feel we only scratched the surface...more please...
C.I'A
|
CONTACT TOPS: |