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Old 22 Aug 2017, 13:39 (Ref:3760950)   #17
Mitchi_S
Racer
 
Join Date: May 2011
Germany
LG
Posts: 298
Mitchi_S should be qualifying in the top 10 on the grid
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Originally Posted by TF110 View Post
Track looks like it is fast but broken up by chicanes. The facilities don't look like they're very modern so it might be a throwback type of race?
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Originally Posted by Bcarr6 View Post
Last race I remember seeing was a Superstars Series race a while back.

The circuit is rustic to say the least, but it has real character
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Originally Posted by Akrapovic View Post
My first experience of this track was in the Simbin game GTR. The FIA GT Series raced here in the early 2000s. It was kinda fun but always felt more like a touring car circuit.

But if they do an English live stream then I'll happily watch. Get it on YouTube!
This is all true, the last real proper international race there was the FIA GT in 2003. They also raced there in 2002.

The Superstars series races there in 2012, right when the track was rebuilt after having been un-rated for FIA races at the end of 2004 - here's probably the best article on the Autodromo di Pergusa to be found online, at least in English, including the infamous frog story. In 2009, Pergusa was approved again and the FIA GT3 should have it's season finale there (even the GT2 EM, which never came and was a one-off race with the Spa 24h), but that never happened. I think inbetween these years only trackdays were the only actual proper car events to be allowed there.
GTSprint was also there in 2012, and ETCC raced there from 12-15 iirc. In that GTSprint video it's quite amusing to watch the cars in an amateur way.

When watching those old and new videos you'll see they made the first chicane a little slower, but other than that, it's pretty much the same as it has been in the 80s - I love these simple nature race tracks. Pergusa is one of my all-time favorites. Sadly, the infrastructure is very basic, and very old. This is paired with the fact that the Lago di Pergusa (only natural lake on sicily, by the way) is a natural reserve since 1991 and home to lots and lots of rare birds in the beginning and end of summer, when the go north and south over the whole of Europe.

Pergusa has featured in the SimBin titles GTR, GTR2 aswell as Slightly Mad Studio's Need for Speed Shift 2 (which is just the old SimBin crew under a new name), and through mods in various other racing sims like the Race07 series, rFactor or Assetto Corsa.

While I find it interesting and kinda funny that the race track apparently is run by a stereotypical italian very laid-back organization team, the race track at least has some history for more than half a century now and has had some international race series on it - compared to that, the other race track on sicily (an island that hasn't got a lot of industry and therefor jobs due to it's natural conditions) is pretty much dead and you wonder why or how it even exists.

Anyway, I just like the track and have sympathy for it - I just want the event to be good.
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