Jonny Reid's odyssey to Brno

If Auto GP managed to get off regularly in Brno despite the eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano and the related problems with flights throughout Europe, it was thanks to the organizer's, teams' and drivers' persistency.

With all the flights cancelled or delayed, all the people involved in the series had to face huge travels by car or truck in order to take part in the Auto GP maiden event

The organization's cars travelled for 1.100 kms in around 12 hours, but some drivers had to struggle even more. Edoardo Piscopo was in London, where he lives, had to drive for 14 hours to get to Milan. Then he had a three hour sleep before taking a flight to Wien and then faced another 3 hour drive to Brno.

But the record holder is undoubtedly Jonny Reid, who came to Brno from New Zealand. Jonny was in Hamilton for a V8 Supercar race, when he had to plan his trip to Europe: “I arrived in Auckland and the obstacle course started. Obviously, all the Northern Europe airports were closed, so I had to opt for a stopover in Dubai. The problem was that Emirates Airlines, who couldn't guarantee me the connection flight to Europe, feared they had to pay me an hotel stay in Dubai for that, and so they didn't want me to get on the plane. I had to book myself an hotel there and show them the booking to be allowed to leave”. Also in Dubai, Jonny had some problems: “obviously there were no flights to Europe, and I had to stay in Dubay for 10 hours, before knowing that the Zurich airport was open. I immediately phoned my travel agent and he managed to book the last seat on that flight! I was so lucky that I understood that racing in Auto GP was just my fate! Once in Zurich I just had to race through Germany with a rented Ford Focus, chasing some Porsches on the Autobahn, and I arrived in Brno on Wednesday at 1 PM”. 17850 kilometres in three and half days, that's what you call an odyssey!