Great day at the historic race meeting today, gets better every year. Tomorrow even better with pre 72 prototypes, historic formula 1's driven by ex F1 drivers, group c le mans cars, formula 2 and 3 racing. All for a tenner. Go to the paddock and walk around these fantastic cars in the pits. Unbelievable

Actually, Sunday is 15 euros minimum entry with another 10 euros to go round the paddock - but still looks exceptional value. Think we will be making the trip shortly!

I was watching them practice.....from the top of Monchique!!

Well - we paid our 20 euros per adult to get into the grandstand and the 15 euros for one of us to go into the paddock (my mother cannot walk far, so I took the paddock ticket so I could take my son there - he was free for the whole thing as he is under 12) - then got a 5 euro discount for paying with me Amex Card - result.

Excellent day out (and lovely weather as well - bit hot in the morning!)
Went down to the paddock and mingled with the great and good of historic car racing. Fascinating seeing the cars close up - we chose the "winners" for the next set of races and then went back to the stands to watch. Have developed our own method of enjoyment by writing down the numbers of the cars as they went past - otherwise we had no idea of who was lapping who and who was in the lead (or, in fact who won as when the winners go on the podium they do not give out the car numbers and there is no programme to work out who anyone is!) - bit of a failing as I would definitely have bought some sort of catalogue to see what the hell was going on.

Half way through a small acrobatic plane buzzed the main stand - approx 30 feet from where we were sitting (managed to get a photo!)

Thanks for the recommendation - lovely day out for all of us.
Son with favourite car (Aston Martin


Aeroplane surprise!
S

A terrific weekend of Motorsport with a great cast of cars and drivers. Just a shame it was so poorly supported. There was nobody there!!

Aitch wrote:A terrific weekend of Motorsport with a great cast of cars and drivers. Just a shame it was so poorly supported. There was nobody there!!

Because there was (yet again) no advertising! I only heard about it on here and decided to go this morning when it looked like being a wash out in terms of beach etc.

They advertised the bikes on 14-16 October, but there was NOTHING advertised that I could see about this particular meeting. And without advertising, who on earth is going to know it is on?

I would recommend everyone went along - despite the problem of not having a clue who was driving what, and the celebrity ex F1 driver parade not appearing to happen (or, if it did, it was not on the main track area), it was a fab day out - for people who knew about racing and for those who were first timers like us.

But if they do not advertise locally (i.e. Cvo for a start) then of course no one is going to turn up!!!

there was full page advert in colour in this weeks "resident"

Which, not being a resident, I did not see ...
This is the English newspaper? Interestingly, most of the people there on Sunday were Portuguese - so presume they must have had an ad in their paper as well.

It would have been better spending the money on advertising hoardings as they did for the motorbikes on 14-16 October.

fmm wrote:

I would recommend everyone went along - despite the problem of not having a clue who was driving what, and the celebrity ex F1 driver parade not appearing to happen (or, if it did, it was not on the main track area), it was a fab day out - for people who knew about racing and for those who were first timers like us.

There was a free programme available, although it was not made obvious and you had to ask at the ticket office.

The driver parade was cancelled to make up time because of a long delay, during one of the early races, caused by an oil spill

How odd - after watching the first race, I walked all the way to where I bought the tickets and asked if there was a plan of the racetrack and a programme or catalogue. All they were able to give me was a third page A4 sheet with the name of the race and approximate time on it. As I had already picked up one of those it was not of much use!

What I would have liked was a sheet (just photocopied would have been enough) of the cars and some information about each race - the commentator was excellent, but could not hear him 90% of the time where we were sitting.

If you are an experienced race goer, maybe this information is not important, but if you are trying to attract new people to go back again, then it is pretty much essential!

fmm wrote:How odd - after watching the first race, I walked all the way to where I bought the tickets and asked if there was a plan of the racetrack and a programme or catalogue. All they were able to give me was a third page A4 sheet with the name of the race and approximate time on it. As I had already picked up one of those it was not of much use!

What I would have liked was a sheet (just photocopied would have been enough) of the cars and some information about each race - the commentator was excellent, but could not hear him 90% of the time where we were sitting.

If you are an experienced race goer, maybe this information is not important, but if you are trying to attract new people to go back again, then it is pretty much essential!

You were right to follow the numbers from the off you can track the cars quite easily from that point. To see the winners you have to look at the winners enclosure as they drive in. 1st 2 nd and 3 rd are visible from the grandstand. The organisers have a definite problem with programmes, they usually run out on the first day, Friday. The programme is a great help and it is a shame you didn't get one. I paid 15 euros for a 3 day paddock pass plus 10 euros for the grandstand pass which I don't use. Good to know you enjoyed the day as the track needs all the support it can get to offer more racing 2012. You saw some unique cars there and all properly racing, would have been bundles in UK. Just about the only car not racing and just out for a jolly was the Aston, there were some priceless cars there really going for it

We managed to get the 1,2,3 from the drive in positions (similar to horse racing!) - but my son, mother and I had a bet going on - we each chose a car and then had points for where we finished - fine if we came in the top three, but a bit more of a problem if we did not!!! Think we worked it out in the end though Interesdting that the programmes were there on the Friday but not for the weekend. Particularly as there were not that many people there.
We left about 3.30pm - drove into the most horrible weather on the way back to Cvo having had only a few spots of rain in the morning at the race track. Did the bad weather make it as far as the racing?

Thanks again for recommending the trip - will definitely keep an eye out in the future.

A friend of mine races historic cars and was meant to have been there (I had no idea!) - but she had an accident a month ago and was not ready to make the trip at the moment.

Aitch wrote:A terrific weekend of Motorsport with a great cast of cars and drivers. Just a shame it was so poorly supported. There was nobody there!!

just back from the algarve and I would have loved to have gone to this along with my friend who was also out there. I saw and heard lots of information about the Portuguese Open and the Superbikes but didly squat about this. the first I saw about this was on the Ryanair return flight to Dublin today, where it was advertised in the inflight magazine - except I went out with Aer LIngus and it wasn't in their mag

if it was poorly supported it was a pity but we didn't see one poster around cvo in the past week with even a hint that it was on (think there was a big billboard on the Slide n Splash roundabout and oppposite Fatcil advertising the superbikes but they were both over by the time we arrived.)

Yes - you are right - superbikes etc advertised but not this.