Lotus Club Queensland
Dedicated to the promotion and enhancement of the Lotus experience
Login
Register
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Membership
    • Member Login
  • Events
    • Calendar
  • Motorsport
    • Lakeside DTC Timed Laps
    • LAKESIDE DTC RESULTS
  • Magazine
  • For Sale
    • Merchandise
    • Classifieds
  • Posts
  • Galleries
  • Directory
    • Suppliers & Parts
    • Advertisers
  • Archives
monaco-banner

The McGarry’s in Monaco

Bucket List or Must Do!

Words and pics by Jason McGarry.

I was very fortunate this year to be able to attend the Monaco F1 as part of my return trip from the UK. All I can say is that if you have any sort of motor racing interest this has to be a must do!

Even my poor wife Debbie who has no interest in motorsport and doesn’t understand why I would spend thousands of dollars just to get another second out my Caterham just so I can beat Dick Reynolds, had a wonderful time. Our travel agent booked the experience through Sportsnet Holiday who provided exactly what they said they would.

We flew into Nice on the Thursday and stayed at the Hyatt for 4 nights as staying in Monaco was far too expensive. We commuted by train each day from Nice to Monaco which is about 30 minute journey, the only trouble is French trains are not very reliable so you need to give yourself a buffer of an hour.
 
On Thursday and Friday it is free for everyone to enter track and there are a number of practice sessions and racing for other categories such as the Porsche Supercup with our very own Matt Campbell from Warwick competing and doing a fine a job to date. We had a pit walk and track walk on Friday as well. The pit walk is extremely crowed but very worthwhile, it took around 90 minutes to force our way through with opportunities to get up close to the drivers, especially if you are female (my wife obtained several selfies with F1 drivers).

On Saturday we had tickets in Grandstand “O” which had an awesome view of corners 14, 15 and 16 and a view of the pit lane. Corner 16 was where Stoffel Vandoorne crashed his McLaren and Esteban Ocon (Force India) punted it into the wall as well. The way the track staff handled these multi-million dollar cars was very interesting. The qualifying session for the F1’s turned out to be the best part of the weekend especially seeing Lewis Hamilton missing out being in Q3.
 
Race day had all the excitement as you would expect with all the hillsides and balconies full with people. We had seats in Grandstand “K” so we were able to watch the cars go up the hill towards Beau Rivage then come out of the tunnel and around Tabac and back to corners 14 and 15 in front the pool. We were looking straight across to the boats or ocean liners in the harbour. 

The event was very well organised with the food and drinks very reasonable, a baguette and a Heineken for under $10 was great value. If anyone wants more information or is thinking of going please feel free to contact me on email.
 
Next trip is Le Mans in 2018. Don’t think the wife will be wanting to spend 24 hours nonstop beside the track!

Red Bull
Porsche
McLaren
Jenson Button
Street Scene
The Harbour
Very French

[Show slideshow]
Mt Mee Day Run – July 2017 Round 2 Morgan Park Sprints – 2017

Related Posts

mp-banner

Events, Gallery 2022, Homepage, Racing

Morgan Park Sprints R4

duratec-banner

Articles, Homepage, Technical

Duratec Elise – better late than never

gold-rush-banner

Events, Gallery 2022, Homepage, Racing

Gold Rush Hill Sprint – 2022

Random images

MG_6023 Martin Shane ready to go Devonshire tea time concours-17 concours-11 Jaguar-XKSS-1 Bedford-Van 15-Martin-mixing-with-the-BMWs 20130511_093800_1 Tony Jason-HPE IMG_4376 11.Elises-marshalling 3.John-Martin-relaxing Elans_outside_Linaker_Bldg_La_Trobe IMG_0005 123_2371_IMG IMG_8791 122_2206_IMG George Row 2007 Lotus Elise - 3 20220220_093834 221707065_384351383062365_7143520318489763557_n Cairns-9 The-old-the-new_gw Big-Daz IMG_2469 IMG_2461 Mick Sorrell 2016 Ford Focus Greg McHugh 2017 Ford Focus RS - 1 John Daryl Wilson 1998 Caterham Super 7 - 1 gw_Liam gw_John and Darryl Europa-Style Colin-Norma-Carolyn-Craig_gw Mt-Cotton-Hillclimb-Sep17-04 Lunch-Time Pits Mar-main-115 DSC03846 IMG_8571 IMG_5165 IMG_5096 IMG_7366 IMG_7310 IMG_8451 Hay-Bale-challenge GIC6 IMG_6551 Jan-main-10 main-0 main-3 Joe main-1a MG_6961 Arbarth DSC_5310 IMG_4022 IMG_4383 lot_008 IMG_5057 IMG_6306 9_Getting_ready 5_Driving_past_the_winery DSC05015 Austin_Healy P1060291 2009_Maccleans_Bridge_009 IMG_7977 IMG_3187 P6220135 P5250040 IMG_8070 IMG_8099 IMG_8165 IMAG5927 Martin-OBrien-reckons-hes-cooler-with-his-pants-down-by-Bridie-Moran DSC_0288 esprit-turbo-donk IMG_1816 Briefing karen-black-at-the-standing-stones-photo-by-vyv Drivers Briefing Martins Nose 1 Barry-Mather Lunch-venue-gw Instructions 1 of 8 Peter-Drane-tries-the-English-Wheel-by-Craig-Wilson IMG_E9695 IMGP8569 flying-roo Really-think-I-should-have-the-last-piece main-35 M100-1 joe's-1947-alfa-5 Replacing Geoff's suspension part IMAG5990 main-105 IMAG6190

Recent Articles

  • Morgan Park Sprints R4
  • Kev’s Big Day Out
  • Duratec Elise – better late than never
  • Gold Rush Hill Sprint – 2022
  • Marburg Pub Run – 4 Sept 2022
  • Unique +2 Road Trip to Brisbane
  • Leyburn 2022
  • August 2022 DTC

Latest Gallery Images

20220220_093834 20220220_093818 20220220_093827 20220220_093743 20220220_093812 20220220_093730

Search articles by category

Archived articles

Lotus Club Queensland
© Lotus Club Queensland   |   Site by Black Eye Studios