Magny Cours, September 23, 2001

The Shell Historic Ferrari Maserati Challenge group visited its second new venue of the year over the weekend of 21/23 September, when the home of the French Grand Prix, Magny Cours, played host as part of a Ferrari Maserati Festival. As with the other new venue, Brands Hatch in July, the meeting was blessed with predominantly fine weather, attracting large numbers of Ferraris out of their garages. The gathering saw an assembly of around three hundred Ferraris from Club Ferrari France and other European clubs, including a surprising number of F40 and F50 models. Apart from the racing, the main focal point of the weekend was the French debut of the new Maserati Spyder, which was presented to the assembly by CEO of Ferrari Maserati France, Daniel Marin, with Teo Camesasca from Maserati.

Small Grids
Perhaps it was the uncertainty caused by the terrorist attacks in the USA the previous week, or general wear and tear caused by a long historic race season, or perhaps a combination of both, but the grids were somewhat sparse compared to previous rounds. The single seater grid A suffered in particular, with only five entries. Both Saturday and Sunday’s races were dominated by the Maserati 250F of Thomas Bscher, with Irvine Laidlaw the runner-up on Saturday in his Maserati 6 CM, with the similar model of Stefan Schollwoeck taking the position in Sunday’s race.

Grid B - drum brake race
The Grid B races for drum brake sports racing and GT cars, continued the Thomas Bscher and Maserati dominance, with victories in each of the two races from Irvine Laidlaw, in Maserati 300 S and 250 S respectively, with the 250 Testa Rossa of Carlos Monteverde taking the final podium place on each occasion. The closest battles in the second race were between the 250 MM of Christian Traber and the 250 GT TdF berlinetta of Plinio Haas for 4th position, which went to the former by a couple of seconds at the flag, and that for 6th place between the eventually dominant 625 TR of Nicolas Zapata and the 250 GT TdF berlinetta of Lukas Huni, with less than a second separating them as they crossed the line.

Grid C - disc brake race
After the 512 S of Jean Guikas was withdrawn with technical problems after qualifying, the Grid C race for disc brake sports racing and GT cars was a one horse race, as the 712 CanAm of Carlos Monteverde driven by David Franklin, dominated proceedings. In both Saturday and Sunday’s races he lapped the entire field on his way to crushing victories. The 365 GTB/4 of John Bosch finished second on both occasions, with the 250 GTO of Frederico Kroymans completing the Saturday podium having beaten the 365 GTB/4 of Carlos Monteverde to the line by just over half a second. In Sunday’s race it was the Maserati Tipo 63 of Ivan Scotti that occupied the final podium position, just beating the Tipo 61 of Thomas Bscher, who had retired on the first lap of Saturday’s race. Vincent Gaye in his 250 GT SWB berlinetta had a great battle with Frederico Kroymans in the Sunday race, just beating him for sixth place by a fraction over three tenths of a second.

Although the grids were thin there was some close racing, and these great warriors of old are always a pleasure to watch.

Race #

Grid A

5

7

19

22

28

Grid B

156

44

150

40

48

33

57

43

151

140

153

38

31

53

155

34

49

Grid C

60

61

62

65

69

70

71

72

73

80

84

85

102

103

161

166

* second entry
** third entry