Monza is a pleasant little town just to the North East of the sprawling urban mess of Milan, in Northern Italy. More importantly for this, though, it's home to the Temple of Motorsport - the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza. The circuit itself is now the oldest purpose built motorsports venue in the world. It's a true relic of a bygone age, located as it is in the gardens of what was a massive villa which was originally owned by one of Napoleon's stepsons before being taken over, initially by the government of Austria after Napoleon's defeat before being handed back to the Italian state as things settled down. The King himself spent a lot of time in the villa before political events and a slight case of assassination put a stop to that. But that's a bit beside the point.

The circuit in its original form was built back in 1922, and consisted of a high speed banked oval and a more conventional track which went out into the woods in broadly the same L shape as exists today. It was stupidly, terrifyingly fast. So much so that, even with the rather cavalier attitudes of the day, the rapidly rising casualty list was considered unacceptable and changes were made to the layout. For a while, racing was restricted to the high speed oval, but that also soon stopped as realisation dawned that if something goes wrong on a banked circuit with only a single layer of Armco at the top, well like the song says, the only way is up.

Successive safety changes still only scratched at the surface of the problem, and after two massive fatal crashes in 1973, bike racing was banned at the circuit. And so it might have stayed, but a change of management and attitude, combined with some real changes to track layout, the introduction of more chicanes to slow things down and the remodelling of several of the corners to add some much needed runoff space (and gravel traps) allowed bikes to come back here in 1981. It's still far from perfect, and the first chicane, put in to slow riders down before the first big corner, is a great idea in theory but means that everyone gets there at about the same time from the start line a few hundred yards earlier and things frequently get messy as twenty or more riders try to occupy the same piece of tarmac.

So from the start line, you hammer down the main straight for about four hundred yards before coming to that first vicious chicane, the Prima Variante. It's a first gear right/left exiting in a gentle right curve that leads straight into Biassono, (formerly called Curva Grande but the name was changed to remove associations with the earlier tragedies there), a jaw dropping full throttle right hand sweep that has the riders' heads almost brushing the rails on the inside as they power through. Exit speed is around a hundred and fifty miles per hour onto a shorter straight leading into the second chicane, Roggia, which this time is a left/right affair that's far more open but still relatively slow. There's plenty of runoff, fortunately, at least on the approach though the exit is perilously close to the Armco. A short and fairly bumpy straight leads into the first Lesmo corner, called Lesmo One appropriately enough. This fast, deceptive right hander is linked by a short straight to Lesmo Two, another right. Another short, slightly curved straight drops down under the old banked track and then comes back up to one of the most famous camera shots in racing. Then we're in the braking zone for the left, right, left of Ascari Variante, scene of Akira Yanagawa's infamous ZX7-R crash in 1998. And quite a lot of crashes before and after, as getting hard on the power early is critical for the long fast straight that follows. So highsides are frequent and vicious on exit, and fast front tucks on the entry are also commonplace as riders go for that last elusive couple of hundredths of a second edge...

The final straight leads into the Parabolica, possibly the fastest corner on the calendar. Safety modifications have tightened it slightly, giving more runoff and reducing speed, while bringing the finish line closer to the corner has reduced the risk of high speed highsides on exit as the drag to the line has been removed. Another result is that the first lap is shorter than the rest as the start and finish lines are in different places...

That's a lap but it's not the only important thing about Monza. It's a fantastically atmospheric circuit, especially if you take the opportunity to walk around the park and explore some of the old track, which is largely still intact though in poor repair. On race day the fans are enthusiastic, hanging from the fences and trees around the track and generally making the most of the parkland to get a good view. And there are some truly fantastic views to be had if you're patient, as well as some of the best illustrations ever of the enormous energies involved in racing bikes. The Carabinieri are there en masse on race day, and will strictly control where you can go unless they like the look of you or are off having a ciggy somewhere or are filmin the race on their camera phones. In which case you're laughing.

It's a flight to get there unless you have plenty of time and patience, in which case the drive down through France could be rather nice, especially if you take the opportunity to visit the Stelvio area to the North on the way back. But personally, I'd recommend flying into either Milan Malpensa or Linate. Malpensa is further away but more modern. Linate is old. Both are serviced by British Airways and other scheduled flights, while Easyjet and the other decent low cost airlines only go into Malpensa. There is a third airport, Bergamo, but that is I believe only an option if you choose to fly Ryanair. Wherever you fly you will need to rent a car. Give yourself plenty of time to get to the circuit as Monza is an old town with narrow roads and traffic is horrendous. And give yourself a ridiculous amount of time to get to your flight because taking four hours to do the twenty five miles to the airport isn't unusual and does get a little stressful.

If you're really going to do it right, though, you should try booking through Tour Moto, who will look after you properly...

Enjoy!

SB