Monza Under Threat

[Fax]

http://www.motorsport.com/news/article.asp?ID=206177&FS=F1

I thought I should move this to its own thread since I'm certain this deserves some comment.  To me this is lunacy, the Monza circut has been there since the end of the first world war, what are these people thinking?  If they didn't like the noise they shouldn't live there.  In Indianapolis if you live on the west side near the Speedway, its a given, a couple of times a year, its going to be noisy ( as in the whole month of May!)  These townies complaining about the noise should give some serious thought about what kind of revenue the Monza circut brings to the region.
Fax

[Nordic]

Sign of the times I'm afraid.
I have works contacts in Milan and have visited the track a couple times with them, but sadly never a race.

I spoke to them yesterday about this and they are amazed and distraught about it. They tell me that the locals are 100% behind Monza and the track is safe for the moment and any judgement would be overturned.
but the long term issues will remain.

[Kpy]

For those of you who don't follow the "French riots" threads (and why should you?), here are some comments. Smokie says it's too much work to transfer them.

From Fax:

Apparently they hate them as much as the peope who live near Monza...This is a joke!
http://www.motorsport.com/news/article.asp?ID=206177&FS=F1
Fax



From JPCHENET:

What a farce!!!!

Even worse, did you read the end of the article!!

"Monza is not the only event to come under threat recently. The equally famous Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium hit financial problems last month when the promoter of the GP was declared bankrupt. Spa has a contract until 2010 and the regional government is reportedly considering Bernie Ecclestone to take over the race. "

From Rhino:

Its the same for Goodwood local nobs who moved it restricted the circuit to just the Revival meeting.



Living near Goodwood and following the build up to the revival  being held, the deal was the revival was to be held using less harsh noise restrictions. The number of quiet weekends during the summer would be increased.
Some members of the local Summersdale estate created 'The enviromental protection group'.
Their aim was to stop racing at Goodwood. This coming from an estate built during the seventies. One letter to the local paper even complained about the Grace Spitfire flying overhead 
The fact Goodwood had planning to hold events up to a certain noise level when the estate was built seemed to have been forgotten.
The Goodwood estate started up the Goodwood supporters club which had more members on the said estate than the other lot.
I suppose they would have been much happier if Goodwood was closed and a new estate was built right on there doorstep, much quieter, not.
Motto here, small group try and bully there view with mainly lies. Majority piss on their fireworks with the truth.
Need more beer 

From Smokie:

Near me there is a road (admottedly somewhat narrow) which has some new houses on it, and their shiny 4x4s are parked outside.

There is a council plan to build a medium size estate behimnd them which will increase the road use, and these "new" tenants are up in arms about it. How do they think the road was BEFORE they moved in?

And not only that...

Just around the corner is "Wokingham's Best Kept Secret" (as advertised on the M4). This is a new housing estate which is behind another newly occupied housing estate. The local council, despite giving permission for the estate to be built, will not allow the building company to put up even the smallest notices giving directions to the site, even on it's local roads. So the developer has had to *pay* quite serious money to some householders to have direction signs on their land. Guess what: one such house also has a sign in the window complaining about the new estate... talk about taking the pi$$...

Er...am I sounding a bit Victor Meldrew? Apols if I am... 

[Fax]

Big Thanks for that KPY   I thought about trying to copy all that stuff over last night but I had just got home from a wine tasting and spelling Monza was a challenge at that point.  It would have been a re-flowing disaster.  I've always thought that since the circut is located in a royal park that green issues could & have cropped up but since Monza is such an money maker for the region they would always be resolved.
I remember several years ago when they expanded the run-offs they had to fell some trees and had to plant new ones elsewhere in the park, no problem with that.  I'm as much of a tree hugger as anyone, but I'm also a motorsports enthusiast and the two can co-exist.
Fax

[Lorry]

I know its repeated somewhere, but this a like people buying houses near Heathrow and then complaining about the noise.  Nutters.

Another case was the Blackbush Kart club.  (Blackbush is famous for the car auction and the Sunday market.)  It was closed down due to the noise.  Well this enormous site used to be a bomber base, and I suspect a kart is considerably quieter than a Vulcan.  NIMBYs are at work everywhere

Going  back to Monza, the sadly unused banking has been there since 1922, and there are moves to demolish it.  Please sign up to one of the petitions to save it. http://www.petitiononline.com/monzaov/petition.html

[Fax]

Problem is most Euros don't seem to give a sh*t about their racing heritage.  They'll spend millions to upgrade that hideous Euro trash looking new pit complex at Monza but won't spend a penny to restore the dis-used banking.  Same thing happened in France when they tore down absolutely everything at Rouen, and last I heard the old pit complex at Reims was going to be bulldozed.  Hell, look at what they did at Le Mans.   On a continent where history & tradition is supposed to be everything, they clearly couldn't care less about motor racing history.
Fax

[Gordonwr]

They tried to pull the banking down a few years ago but I heard that it had been "protected". By whom and for how long remains to be seen but the whole place is awesome. The feeling standing on the top of the 80 degree structure is full of nostalgia, you can almost see and hear the cars from years ago as they hurtle past you. I marshalled at the GP a few  years ago and was there for a Ferrari 1-2, that was a fantastic place to be with all the tifosi going mad!!
    Monza and Spa are my two favourite circuits currently in use along with the Nordschliffe, all three being unique for different reasons but they all have masses of history and should be looked after in the years ahead.
  Up to three years ago you could walk round the Nivelles circuit just south of Brussells, as it had just been boarded up and left intact for  twenty years but sadly that is now making way for an industrial estate, lets hope the others don't suffer anything as drastic.

[hgb]

I don't get it. If they have a money problem at Monza to maintain and restore the oval then they should increase the ticket prices by lets say 10 Euros for all events and tell people that these 10 Euros go directly into the oval. What's the problem with that. I guess that will easily leave 2 million or even more per year.

[Lorry]

I think its built like Brooklands and is concrete slabs on concrete posts and over the years it all moved, so needs to be completely rebuilt  Its too fragile to be pushed back into shape.

Well they straightened the leaning tower of Pisa.