Aussies In Spain - Day 2

from Lee Mitchener in Spain. More pics and a link to Live Timing are on the Leopardengine website HERE.

Team Australia has woken to a glorious “hermoso” Spanish day, providing enough light for the early starting local street sweepers - and avid fitness junkie Johnny G - to go for a customary morning jog. 

Above: Lee Mitchener, doing double duty as the team's unofficial Press Officer, tries out the Alonso Kart for size and to check seat position.

Proving again that traditional dining is amongst the best in the world, breakfast was another culinary delight with traditional dishes and the drivers gave it the big tick of approval. Team Australia also discussed over breakfast several pit stop strategies and tyre usage strategies. All team members participated with eager and useful input, mainly influenced by Remo’s previous years experiences.

After breakfast, the team was led by the team's "Captain Remo” on a morning jog through the streets of Alaniz which proved to be quite a challenge with inclinations steeper than you would ever see in Australia. After thinking this was quite the workout, Remo persisted that we entered the hotel gym for a cool down on the gym bike.

Above: Part of the Motorland complex - 10m wide, 1600m long

Soon after it was time for lunch, which we quickly learned that at 2pm was a bad time considering the Spanish community was on their siesta and 90% of the businesses were shut. We finally found a non-smoke filled restaurant. It was remarkable that a Spanish hamburger consisted of a piece of grilled ham, ration of pork, some chips and fried eggs (not what we were looking for). Ryan Sanderson (“Sando”) soon followed with the comment of “where’s the burger part?”. Lunch was short lived as we were due to finally hit Motorland at 3pm.

Above: Remo Luciani drew the team's equipment from the random draw - and he pulled out number 20, his traditional number!

Upon arrival of the track we soon saw the reality of the European racing scene when 34 Alonso Karts with Iame TK-30 engines were patiently fully prepared awaiting our collection. Remo drew each team’s official kart/engine package out of a hat in typical Euro style. We soon met our team's two mechanics, to find that they were very easy going with world class credentials, making us all the more at ease.

Surprised by the professionals input, our seat position was quite un-traditional to what we have seen in Australia. Although still eager to see the result, all team members were happy with the day’s consensus. Soon after a driver's sign in, excitedly we received our tailored Iame factory race suits. The team couldn’t wait to get on track the next day for practice.

That night, whilst waiting for the local community  to open their cuisines (a late 8:30pm) Hughesy, Smithy and Sando touched home base at the local internet café, whilst John and I were able to do some sightseeing around the town. It didn’t take long after snooping around that we were in an amazing place of worship. The churches of Australia we thought were quite extravagant, however seeing the Santa Maria la Mayor church of Alcaniz we were literally speechless by the pure size and detail spent on every attribute. It wasn’t long before we had to head back to the parador de Alcaniz (our hotel) in time to get a meal before heading to bed for our big day of practice.

Dinner provided many laughs kindly provided by IAME royalty and their lovechild Remo. Their subject of choice; Lee Mitchener (the problem).

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