Page 17 - Paddock Life Issue 13 ADRENALINE

THE REAL RACE
`THESE OLD CARS ARE HARD TO CATCH UP WITH, WE HAD A HARD TIME FOLLOWING THEM´
Back in the 124 we head out of town, every junction lined with flag waving fans. We are starting to pick up various car clubs that are following the rally. After dispatching a quite difficult to overtake Porsche Cayenne support car (we couldn‘t see past him to take pictures so a quick down the middle overtake was necessary) and we are running with the pack again.
An Austrian registered MGB roadster is now between us and a red 1948 Fiat 1100s Berlinetta (with a dent in the back) so I nip past him as we approach a petrol station on our left. There‘s a silver Mercedes 190SL just finished fuelling as we weave in an out looking for gaps in the mid afternoon traffic. As I glance my mirror I see a police bike, lights flashing, riding up the outside with the silver 190SL behind him. As he passes us I swing out behind the Merc and enjoy the police escort.
The police bike pushes ahead waving on coming traffic to stop or move to the side as we stream through. In no time we‘ve picked up a few more cars including a white Jaguar XK120 so we are now running in a pack of about eight cars with a police escort. Jenny switches the camera to video braces herself with one foot on the seat, elbows clamping the windscreen and starts to film as we fly through town in a fast train of early 50‘s sports cars led by our friendly police outrider. The crowds at the junctions wave an cheer the cars, then shout and whistle as our Fiat flies through with a mad tattooed German standing up, camera clamped to her eye, blonde hair blowing in the wind as we accelerate... she lost the beanie hat this morning and her sun glasses went just before lunch...
This is truly a one off experience being in the mix as these guys race each other on open roads in live traffic driving cars that are more often seen in collections. Our police rider peels away with a wave to our camera and we are once again on our own on the open road to Siena.
At the next check point we drive right through and pick up behind a silver BMW, it takes me a while to figure out what it is, she had a D Type Jag look about her from the rear. Clearly a quick car, the BMW 328 Spider Mille Miglia is moving at about 90mph when we catch a Porsche spider a la Jimmy Dean, in silver (are all German cars silver?) we slow to about 50mph as we join a big wide main road behind a lorry. There‘s a few Mille Miglia cars waiting to pass it.
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