Page 143 - Cool Britannia

143Eric Comos, driving the Zenith Stratos and Sandro Munari are both in attendance as we chat the night away over a great meal and Italian wines. The following day is the start of the actual stage rally. The event is run as a stage rally, but on open roads with two closed sections where Mark can put is baby through her paces. Over two days it takes us through the mountain countryside with lunch served at a peak ski resort, which takes on a very different level of spectacular without the snow. Although the rain made it almost impossible to see at one point, before the sun broke through the low clouds once again. That evening was the Gala dinner, so all dressed up, we took our tables and celebrated the Stratos’s 40th anniversary. Zenith made some presentations and Eric Comos presented Mark with a shield for having travelled the furthest to reach this event. Mark, invited to say a few words, gratefully accepted the award, but added that Eric had been too polite and that the award was really for the largest person, ever, to get into and out a Stratos without the assistance of olive oil, this brought the house down with rapturous laughter and applause from the room. It was great to meet all the drivers and share their enthusiasm for this incredible car, which has somehow kept its importance to racing history very low key.The following day we fnished the event with all the cars arriving on the lawn of local industrialist, car collector and Stratos owner, Guido Avendro’s spectacular estate for a lunch served in his garages, before Chris and I said our goodbyes and left the Stratos’s as they returned to the Square in Biella for the offcial fnish to what seemed like the entire town cheering them in.A fantastic event, really well run and supported, a car that was even better than I ever dreamed and with the company of fabulous genuine people. Mark left for two weeks in France with his family before he few into London for a week with Chris and I. A week that took in some great restaurants, famous Vodka bars and fnished with Mark fnding me a Yellow Stradale. When is the next event?