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The free practice this morning had the top six F3000 cars within 1 second. Minardi boys showing well. Intersesting that the lap times compare with the GP Master cars.
Comments
Report on qualifying-F3000 Qualifying
Report Success at Last
Photo's etc to follow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
FORZA MINARDI
Thanks to Dan for the phone calls and both Dan and 'ghost for showing up and putting showing their true Minardi spirit!
FORZA MINARDI!
What the hell is going on in this place. Minardi WINS and gets a second and it appears that nobody gives a crap.
Two of us show up at the event.
Two.
I can understand that but there is not even a report on the front page and other than the few comments here from the people who went ....
Shameful.
I think RJ just hasn't had the time to put a report up.
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You couldn't be more wrong Stan, and I'm sure silverghost will back me up on this, the feeling in the garage yesterday and the guys are very much the same as the crew in Faenza.
This team has whole heartedly become Minardi and it is very much a family operation.
If I could get tv coverage of the F3000 team I would be a much bigger fan than now just being able to read about their accomplishments. Since they are using the original colors and logo I consider the F3000 team to be a real Minardi team.
might be more suitable.
You can split people into "true fans" and "not true fans" if you want Ger, it's all bullshit anyway. We all liked the F1 team, there's no requirement to like every spinoff of the F1 team. I'm glad for GCM that a team related to him is finally winning, but other than that, it doesn't really matter.
In addition to waiting for those news mags, you also had to walk uphill both ways in the snow to get to school, right Ger?
[Edited on 14-8-0606 by Rekart]
email me at dsDOTminardiATtiscali.co.uk
As for being dependant on TV, I get my news from websites, but when it comes to races, I can't get that interested if I don't watch them. A list of the finishing results isn't interesting. And for doing something in the press over here, there's just not enough interested parties to get it done as well as it should be. There's not enough F1 press over here, much less some small feeder series. If the possibility of getting something done on either front arose, I'd be more than interested in being involved in it.
The new Minardi team isn't the old Minardi team, that's all there is to it. The only connection is GCM, and he doesn't even own the team. Like I said, it's good for him that a team with his name is finally having some great success, but the connection between the new team and the old one isn't strong enough to make me go out of my way to care. I do hope they do well, though.
[Edited on 14-8-0606 by Rekart]
I know for a fact that I'm not the only one who couldn't care less about the F3000 team. I think Rekart is completely right.
As far as supporting Minardi goes, I am a motor racing fan first, and a Formula 1 fan second (probably 5th actually.) While I do thoroughly enjoy hearing of Minardi’s latest successes, you can’t help but feel a little ‘empty’. Minardi was always the underdog – battling for points at the rear of the grid, against the giants of the Formula 1 superpowers. Now, we’re a competitive team in a middle of the road championship. The GP Racing crew might be the Minardi ‘team’, but a Lola F3000 is not a Minardi ‘car’. Whatever the case, it’s great to see some success, after 25 odd years of hard work. Forza Minardi!
You want some fun. You buy or build a car. You put an engine on it. You slam some rubber on. You get a few other guys who want to play as much as you do. You find some nutcase or playboy to drive it. You pays your entry fee. You attempt to beat whoever decides to challenge you. If you are good, and lucky, you win.
In the meantime, you attempt to pull off the whole damn thing with as much superfluous style and chutzpah as you can manage without looking like a bunch of fools. This involves judicious use of champagne, quality coffee, good food of a non healthy but wholesome variety, some cool paintjobs, shades, laughs, cigarettes (not near the benzina), and a dash of integrity (for those of you who are at this point going WTF?? that means it is better to finish second having had a cool time than win and earn the contempt of your rivals and the fickle Gods of Racing).
Having now passed through the too drunk to think-sleep-too sober to think-oh great just drunk enough to think straight again cycle, I return to this humble home of motor racing fandom, and find statement along the lines of "Minardi fans AREN'T a special breed" and "I can't give a crap about...". Now this is just not acceptable. Shape up!
Now I shall probably get round to knocking out a few photos at some point, but I'm not that techno when it comes to the old computers. My idea of fun is standing next to a racing engine in the garage while some mechanic type revs it so loud it makes my head feel like it is disintegrating and the smile just appears like magic. In the meantime, let me tell you about FUN.
Now, back to the point. There is obviously something genetically flawed with anyone who is not fully and totally committed to the ultimate triumph of Minardi. The 3000 team is quite clearly the true home of this enterprise at this point. Toro Rosso is quite clearly, as has been demonstrated by many in the past few months, an unfortunate excuse for an endeavour, populated with fantastic ex Minardi staff. B Team? F**k that! Other F1 teams? Anyone who hangs out any colours than that of the sadly doomed Williams team is unfortunately in thrall to a false God. And those who do support Williams, I know how you must feel, and you have my sincerest sympathy.
What was the point? Ah YES! Victory, that is the point! We sat there in the dismal rain and withering Silverstone wind, watching the Minardi boys go backwards in the first race. They clearly could do nothing about it, they'd not driven in the wet all weekend, it was a punt in the dark on setup, but they were out there, risking their health and wellbeing for the sheer sodding buzz of doing it - losing, it's true, but losing in a totally grass roots kind of way. And we cheered, though we felt that particularly Minardi kind of despair, when fate snatches any hope of triumph from you and hands it to those less deserving (in this case the Euronova team - I'll take back the undeserving bit). But that was but race 1. Our feet may have been wet, but our spirit was not destroyed. (and at least we didn't have to put up with a nasty sewage problem, like the FMS team - oh, dear Silverstone!).
Quick coffee, and the whole thing looks kind of different. Sun even comes out, kinda. We watch poor old Piero skitter round in the Masters event, in treacherous conditions, from the back, to finish a lowly 7th - but I bet he had a smile on his face! Those old guys, they really are not just messing about, when you see the back end get out of shape the moment they hit the gas out of Woodcote, you can see it's for real. At the front, Cheever plays it steady, cool and consistent, with nearly man Van Der Poele palying the crazy firebrand - ahead, behind, in the gravel, back ahead, side by side through the turns, full on stuff, but he has to give second best. Behind these two, a lot of similar stuff - ahead! Off! Behind! Ahead again!
Anyway, that cleared the decks for the main event. Which would be revenge. Cold, necessary revenge. It's still a touch damp, so disaster remains a distinct possibility. Lights are Green.
Nocera gets a whole bundle of wheelspin off the start, but Tuka has it well under control, and has him into copse. He sets off into the distance. Cool.
Behind, the other boys suffer mixed fortunes. Roldan has on balance been the teams fastest driver, but slips back from 5th, and then gets tangled up with someone (Gattuso? I dunno, no feed even for us). He's out. Tough luck, and undeserved.
Cacares, meanwhile, has pulled off a miracle, and leapt from 9th to 4th. Then he takes Bonanomi - so much for the FMS team's myth of invulnerability. Then Nocera (clearly struggling) succumbs too. That leaves a Minardi 1-2.
Now we're nervous. Good stuff just don't happen in Minardiland this millennium. But Tuka has been pulling away at a second a lap, and has it wrapped up. Cacares has a bit of trouble with backmarkers (where's the blue flags, FFS?), but Martini in 3rd can't take advantage. The dream becomes reality (and if you can't have a Minardi podium lockout, who better to have up there than a Martini?).
Podium ceremony is just fantastic - just compare the photos from race 1 an race 2 on the Euroseries website to see the difference the Minardi factor makes.
Back to the garage! Hey, we're fans, we just bask in reflected glory, but that's cool. The team don't let us leave without sending out Tuka and the trophy for a quick photo op with us.
The curse is lifted. The fightback starts here, guys. You hate that corporate rubbish? You shudder when Schumi cynically attempts to drive another off the road, You shake your head in despair at Ron Dennis's obsession with his headquarters building, or the R*d B**l Motorhome? Join us! Join us or lose your souls!
"Minardi fans aren't a special breed" - RJ, delete that post, it's offensive!
"1) The reason it seems to you that Minardi fans are different is exactly what I said earlier. You don't have your fair-weather fans or your bandwagoners, because most non-fans would say there was no fair-weather in their 20 year F1 history. There are only "real" Minardi fans. Some of us only care about the F1 side, some of us follow the team name to other series, but that's irrelevant. We're here because we liked the F1 team, and it's rather sad that some are arguing about anyone here not being a real fan. We all were real fans of Minardi F1, and there's nothing wrong with that stopping after the F1 operation is no more. None of us have said we aren't happy for GCM or said anything negative about the team, we're just indifferent. When someone makes disparaging comments towards the team, I'll be right with you, but I see no problem with indifference.
2) STR is an abomination, yes, no one said it wasn't. The only team I have ever supported and will ever support is Minardi, I don't care about teams outside of that. Drivers are the important part, they are who matters, not team principals or whoever else."
And now for the new part. Look, whether Minardi fans are special or not (you already know what I think,) whether you think the new team should be followed like the old one, it doesn't matter. We're here because we believed in the F1 team in one way or another. Some of us liked them being underdogs, some are Italian and support them for that, some just liked Stoddart, and some were fans of their drivers throughout the years. Whatever the case, we're here because of the F1 team, and we all have the same feelings on that. So why are we arguing among other Minardi fans about the new team? If people here don't want to pay attention to it, that's their choice, it doesn't make them any less of a fan. We're making up rifts between the Minardi fans that don't need to be there. I've said some things that were bound to make others mad, but so have multiple others. This argument ain't going anywhere.
Wish I could have been there but it simply wasn't possible.
Only on this website could a Minardi victory turn into a slanging match so quickly!
Can I be in your gang, pleeeaaaasssseeeeee ...?
Viges, you missed a good one, but next time it will be even better.
It aint the real Minardi team, it's an F3000 team with GCM's name above the garage. A tenous link to the past Minardi glory.
I came here in the Stoddart era, i'll naturally get more satisfaction with a Stoddart team doing well.
You need to calm down and stop slanging off everyone who isn't so emotional about it, Ger.
our winning driver being pusshed out of the paddock for the second race by Sporting Director Giovanni Minardi.
Without wanting to get too far into this argument it looks like a real Minardi team to me.
minarditeam.com doesn't mention a single word of the silverstone race (neither in italian nor in english) and the official blog hasn't got much more than a few lines in italian which need to be translated first so I don't see how anyone could expect a 24 hour newscast
At least things have livened up a bit.