Posted on behalf of DCN. All pictures strictly © GP Library.
Just back from a few days in Sicily during which we explored the Piccolo and Medio Madonie circuits, yet again…
Just above Cerda - about 5 miles from the old pits/start area at Floriopoli - we encountered road closure signs, as here:
We drove through regardless, and crept for many miles over splits, subsidence, broken surfaces, potholes and road-edge collapses…see below…
…for the next 5 or 6 miles (at least), before the surface improved, the road became more stable and we drove on through this lovely stretch approaching the Bivio (junction) Sclafani Bagni.
We drove on towards Caltavuturo, past the Tandoi and Masetti memorial stones, then round the valley-head 180 just below the village, and down right-handed round ‘Back to Britain in a Box’ - the blind right-hander so-christened by Hawthorn and Collins, and downhill towards the valley bottom at Scillato. We passed the area where Brian Redman had his Porsche 908/3 fire in 1971, but then rounded a corner to find the road entirely blocked by a high-vis orange fence backed by a mound of earth and rubble tipped right across from bank to ditch. We had to turn around and go back to Caltavuturo, and head out on the pre-war Medio Madonie circuit road towards Castellana, taking the left turn before that town to go over the ridges to Polizzi Generosa. There we found the ancient Roman aqueduct against which the Medio Madonie halfway point service depots used to be set-up. As here…
Eventually we returned to rejoin the Piccolo Madonie at Bivio Polizzi, then drove down the Piccolo route against race direction to get back to Scillato, and the autostrada in the bottom of the valley, just below the blockage we had found when approaching this section from the opposite end. First we found the old Bivio La Manna bridge under the autostrada, built here around 1969-70.
The old Piccolo Madonie approached on the road flanked by the stone retaining wall right background, then turned 90-left onto this bridge, came to where I took this shot last Thursday, and then turned 90-left again to lead away up the hill to my right, leading up to the Bivio Polizzi junction, high on its mountainside. See the two autostrada viaduct piers on the left? Well here’s how it looks if you then walk straight ahead, across this old abandoned bridge, and look left, close up…
That’s right, the southbound Autostrada viaduct has collapsed and been removed… Here’s the view the other way… Subsidence and a landslip undermined the bridge piers, and this entire section has been removed.
Meanwhile, away to the left, the hillside down which the Piccolo course used to descend now looks like this… The brown area is a displaced landslip, jumbled with rubble and broken tarmac from the historic circuit. If you drive up to it you find another dayglo plastic fence barring the way, and then...
This disaster…
And here are former drivers/entrants Andrew Fletcher (background), Matt Spitzley, Neil Corner and Paul Vestey surveying the scene in genuine dismay…