Alinsengo

The fictional track of Alinsengo (officially Autodromo Carlo Salamano di Alinsengo) is a Grade 1 venue, designed with Formula cars in mind. It’s 5.4 km (3.36 mi) long main layout offers long straights with heavy braking zones, good overtaking spots, tight corners, technical esse sections, and several elevation changes that promise to entertain drivers and challenge their technical skills.

Alternate layouts offer shorter but still challenging circuits that can be better enjoyed by lower-specs car categories.

History

This section is fictional and is provided just for flair

In 1913, Amedeo Dal Pozzo, prince of Cisterna d’Asti, proposed that a race was held in the roads near Alinsengo, not far from his country residence in the hills of Piedmont. The race was disputed the next year in May, on a 19.2 km (11.9 mi) long circuit that connected public roads between several villages of the surrounding hills. The event was well received, with 23 drivers and 7 constructors from 5 countries; however, all plans of reviving it in the following years were cut short by the onset of the Great War.

After the war ended, the prince sponsored the development of a purpose-built permanent racing circuit, but the limited financial resources of his family slowed down the project. When the Milan Automobile Club started the construction of what would become the Autodromo di Monza, all plans for the Piedmontese track were dropped.

In 1987, local organizations came together to host a revival of the 1914 race. While the event was mainly intended as a means of promoting enogastronomic tourism in the area, several owners of historical cars took their vehicles in the hills of Alinsengo, and vintage racing enthusiasts came from nearby regions, including a German club with their non-official Auto Union Typ C replica. The success of the festival prompted the Automobile Club d’Italia to sponsor the event for the years to come: the historical race drew the attention of clubs from all over Europe, and attracted up to 84,000 people in the three days of the festival.

Seeing the potential for economic profit, a privately-owned company was founded in 2006 with the aim of building a permanent circuit in the area. The project was riddled with financial troubles, especially in the wake of 2008 global financial crisis, until a consortium of rice producers showed interest and raised the bar on the project’s ambitions. No longer a regional-level track for lower categories, the autodromo was designed with Formula 1 in mind, aiming to host at least GT-class races. The location was changed too: it was moved closer to the plains, and the final choice fell on the hilly area near the village of Cavagneto, a few kilometres away from Alinsengo. The final plan was defined in 2013, and construction ended in 2014. It was a fast and technical circuit, with the designers making the most of the available terrain elevation changes to create a layout that was a pleasure for both drivers and spectators.

After several nearby towns and cities (including Casale Monferrato, Biella, Vercelli, Asti, Novara and even Turin) offered incentives to have the venue named after them, the owners decided to honour the history of motorsport in the area and called it “Autodromo di Alinsengo”, after the village that hosted the 1914 race, finally making the dream of Dal Pozzo come true. In 2016, the autodromo was dedicated to Carlo Salamano, the winner of the 1923 Italian Grand Prix, who was born in Vercelli.