The Autodromo dell’Umbria (better known as the Magione Racetrack) is a small circuit in central Italy. It’s in a quiet green area of Umbria, away from the iconic Italian circuit, but very similar in layout and length (2.50 km/1.55 miles) to Tsukuba, making it ideal for timing.
Central Italy isn’t really known for time trials though, and here, like almost all of southern Europe, it’s not easy to find a lot of hardcore enthusiasts. The most popular motorsports in the area are slalom and uphill, historic racing and track days.
However, that didn’t stop me from participating in this time trial last November with my friends Riccardo (Mocini) and Stefano (Trapè). We named it Magione Superbattle.
It all started many years ago on a trip to Japan—specifically, a day at the Battle Evome time trial at Tsukuba Circuit. The atmosphere of the event was unlike anything I’ve experienced before. The people, the quality of the cars and the iconic location itself – it was all so great, I’ll never forget it. Anyone who has participated in a major time trial in Japan will surely understand what I am talking about.
We wanted Magione Superbattle to be unique and, most importantly, to have some real Japanese flavor.
At this point, we need to give special thanks to one of the most important figures in Time Attack – Daisuke Aoki, CEO of Japan’s top time attack series Attack. Daisuke-san helped us a lot with the lessons and rules, but most importantly he gave us the true spirit of Attack and supported us by allowing the use of the Attack logo. Thank you Daisuke!
Due to various Italian regulations, the event was limited to road-legal cars, but these were divided into categories based on chassis and engine configuration – FWD Naturally Aspirated, RWD Naturally Aspirated, FWD Turbo, RWD Turbo, AWD. We’ve also added an open class for supercars and anything that doesn’t fall into one of the main categories.
On top of that, we allow visitors to park their cars within the paddock, which creates a real sense of community that we’ve all been missing for the past few years.
The entries were varied. In keeping with time-attack tradition, many of the cars are of Japanese origin, but of course there are just as many European models in Italy.
Tires are capped at semi-slicks with no size restrictions, as are pneumatic tires — any tire is eligible. We decided to make this aspect free to attract as many cars as possible.
The best result of the day was 1.17.423 laps from a fine-tuned Ferrari 488GTB, which set the benchmark for future Magione Superbattle events. It shows how good these cars are straight from Maranello.
While there is no official lap record for a road car at Magione, those of us who have lived at the circuit for years know that it was a good time. Hopefully we’ll see it challenged in the years to come.
Our dream is to make the Magione Superbattle an annual event, attracting time trial enthusiasts from all over Italy and beyond.
Alessio Cavaletti
Instagram: rsidecava
photographer Ivan Caravona
Instagram: Ivan Caravona
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