Nuerburgring, Germany, June 30 & July 1
A tradition since 1994
15 Formula One Ferrari on the track
Celebrities
Other interesting cars
A tradition since 1994
Modena Motorsport of Langenfeld, Germany’s well-known and most probably
only facility for sales and maintenance of Ferrari Formula One cars, hosted
again their annual track days at the famous Nuerburgring on June 30 and July
1st. In 1994, Modena’s proprietor Uwe Meissner had invited his customers and
friends for the first time to gather at the circuit in the Eifel mountains; since then,
the number of Formula One cars attending his meetings has grown steadily,
and in recent years the event has even found some additional sponsors. In
1998 and in 1999, the unique F1-gathering was supported by "Wolf Garten", a
renowned German manufacturer of high-quality gardening equipment.
15 Formula One Ferrari on the track
This year, no less than 15 Formula One Ferrari showed up. The oldest car was
Helmut Gossens’ gorgeous 312 B2 s/n 005. Between 1971 and 1973, this car
was entered in numerous Grand Prix races by the Scuderia Ferrari with Clay
Regazzoni and Jacky Ickx. On August 1st, 1971 the Belgian ace drove to 1st in
s/n 005 in the German Grand Prix hosted at the Nuerburgring. Ickx has become
a good friend of Uwe Meissner’s and did again attend the latter’s event to pilot
some cars like back in the old days. S/N 005 had even been Ickx’ private
property for a while after its active career – a gift by the Scuderia – and so it was
no wonder that Ickx took his former war horse around the Nuerburgring again.
Collector Helmut Gossens also brought his 312 T2 s/n 027 (ex-Regazzoni), his
642 s/n 124 (a former Alain Prost car) and his latest addition to his stable, the
ex-Gerhard Berger 412 T2 s/n 162.
Leopold Hrobsky, an Austrian living in Switzerland, is known among Ferraristi
as another connoisseur of Ferrari’s monoposti. He showed up at the
Nuerburgring with his 312 T s/n 024 (ex-Clay Regazzoni) and his 643 s/n 130
(ex-Prost). One of the Ferraristi who created a demand for used F1 cars in the
early 1990’s is Michael Gabel. The collector from Berlin always has the latest
Formula One Ferrari which is available to private customers – yes, this year he
took out for the first time his newly acquired F300 s/n 189, ex-Michael
Schumacher. This is the car in which "Schumi" drove to 2nd in the GP of
Luxembourg and in which he eventually lost the World Championship in
Suzuka. Gabel also brought his F310 B s/n 179 which was driven for most of the
time by youngster Tim Breuer from Cologne who proved as surprisingly fast – a
yet to discover Formula One talent? The third F1 out of Gabel’s collection to be
seen at the Nuerburgring was his ex-Nigel Mansell 641/2, s/n 120. This car is
extremely hard to drive and more challenging than the faster F310 B or F300.
Engelbert Stieger from Switzerland and his two sons Christoph and Patrick had
arrived with their 312 T2 s/n 025 (ex-Niki Lauda) and the 312 T4 s/n 038 ex-Jody
Scheckter. But they eventually spent most of the time practicing in their 512 M
(s/n 1018) and 312 PB (s/n 0888) for the forthcoming Shell Ferrari Maserati
Historic Challenge which was part of the Ferrari Racing Days hosted at the
Nuerburgring on the following weekend. Bert Stieger’s Dino 206 SP s/n 010
was present as well.
Back to the Formula One cars: Uwe Meissner brought his personal F93 A s/n
145 and was again very, very fast on the track. Axel Urban of ProTrade GmbH
from Hamburg – who does much business with Modena Motorsport – brought
his recently purchased 412 T2 s/n 157; two other examples of the same type
were Cornelius Tamboer’s s/n 163 and Wulf Frensel’s s/n 164, the latter being
the last V12-engined Formula One Ferrari so far.
Celebrities
Many celebrities were present as guest drivers. Jacky Ickx has already been
mentioned. The German rallye ace Walter Röhrl showed up on Wednesday and
tried several cars, including a 512 BB. He proved that even a very tall man can
sit in this car, perhaps not that comfortably...
BMW’s works-driver Prince Poldi von Bayern breathed Formula One
atmosphere as well as Sascha Maassen who currently drives in the Porsche
Cup. Burkhard Nuppeney – the journalist who has become famous in recent
time through his court trial against Michael Schumacher’s manager Willi Weber
– tried Michael Gabel’s F310 B.
Other interesting cars
Modena Motorsport and ProTrade brought their two 312 PBs, s/n 0886 and s/n
0892 respectively. S/n 0886 was again driven by Jacky Ickx.
André Ahrlé – known from GT racing and member of this year’s 24 Hours of
Daytona GT-class winning team – drove his yellow 250 GT SWB Berlinetta
Competizione s/n 1773GT. Collector Karl-Gustav Diederichs from Remscheid
came in his steel-bodied example s/n 3639GT. Event-sponsor Gregor Wolf
drove his 275 GTB/2 Shortnose s/n 06785; the car has a remarkable racing
pedigree including hillclimbs and airfield races in Switzerland in the 1960’s, it
also ran 3 times in the 1000km at Monza. Collector Walter Fink from Stuttgart
took out his similar yellow car, s/n 07045, while the lawyer Michael Feinbothe
showed his red 275 GTB/4 s/n 10925. Needless to say that many, many others
made use of the chance to move their Italian machinery at an "adequate" speed
on the Nuerburgring as well. One will very probably meet again in 2000!
Andreas Birner
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