Palm Beach International Raceway, 22nd of January, 2016

After a sunny Thursday at the former Moroso Race Track the second day of the annual Cavallino Classic was more some sort of water games than proper racing. After a horrible weather forecast the timetable was rescheduled to get the races done before the lunch break. After some free warm up laps to get the track clear of water the first timed practice for drum break cars was started early at 9am with the actual race following right after. The biggest race group of the day had some dry spots with partly wet track and few aqua planning but still enough to get some drivers in serious trouble.

Right after the start Bruce Davies in the families 375 MM pulled away to a trouble free victory keeping the 4.5 Litre Ferrari on track to the finish. Behind him things went not as smooth as his father made contact with the wall just before the end of the race leaving the 1956 MM winning 290 MM with a very short tail. But this could not spoil his mood as he just climbed into his Alfa Romeo 8C Monza to start in the next race. Unfortunately the tie of sportsmanship was not presented this year as this would have been certainly for Ed Davies for driving both the Alfa Monza and GTO after his morning crash rather than leaving the track in anger.

Fastest of the 250s was Charles Wegner in the 250 TdF followed by Tom Price in the 250 TR.

Just as the pre-war group started their timed practice session the rain was back again in full force leaving the open wheeled racers in heavy spray. Interesting to see for the few spectators who made it to the track despite the bad weather there are certainly better ways to spend the day than carrying these priceless machines through the flood. Fortunately their tyres are narrow enough to give them at least some grip in the wet and after the race was started Peter Greenfield in his 8C Monza and Peter Giddings in the P3 had a duel with changing lead from start to finish with the better end for the Monza.

The last race of the day was dedicated to the disc brake Ferrari starting with the 250 GTO up to the 512 BBLM. Three of the GTOs and two of the BBLM braved the weather but the stronger BBLM were almost impossible to drive in the rain without proper rain tyres. Normally playing with each other for the lead both James Fuchs and Todd Morici struggled with the power of the 512 both on the straight and in the corners. Chris Cox was the first of the GTO calling it a day leaving into the paddocks after the timed practice and soon after the start the race was cancelled with ever increasing rain. At the end it was Tom Price leading by the time in his GTO to be named winner and receiving his trophy at the evening reception that also had to be replaced into the ball room of the Breakers rather than outside at the pool.

At the end all were happy that most of the cars came back home safe and the pleasant anticipation for the coming concours days was taking over. Not only because of the expected high quality field on the lawn but also because of the torrential rain Cavallino 25 will stay in memory for a very long time. After a short night the cars will be unloaded tomorrow early in the morning to be lined up in front of the hotel to be placed on their selected spots on the different lawns. Fortunately the weather forecast is much friendlier than it was today so a proper concours without incidents could be expected.

Report & images ... Peter Singhof
www.ClassicCarPhotography.de

Keywords assigned

Alfa Romeo P3 s/n 5006
Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Monza s/n 2111042
Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Monza s/n 2211114
Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Touring Spider s/n 2211088
Ferrari 250 GT Europa Vignale s/n 0295EU
Ferrari 250 GT Europa PF Coupé Speciale s/n 0407GT
Ferrari 250 GT Boano s/n 0527GT
Ferrari 250 GT LWB TdF s/n 0905GT
Ferrari 250 GT LWB TdF s/n 1321GT
Ferrari 250 GT SWB Berlinetta s/n 2083GT
Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider s/n 4107GT
Ferrari 250 GTO s/n 3445GT
Ferrari 250 GTO s/n 4757GT
Ferrari 250 TR s/n 0748TR
Ferrari 250 TR s/n 0754TR
Ferrari 275 GTB/C
Ferrari 290 MM s/n 0616
Ferrari 365 GT 2+2
Ferrari F40
Ferrari 412 MI s/n 0744
Ferrari 458 Challenge
Ferrari 512 BBLM s/n 29509
Ferrari 512 BBLM s/n 29511
Ferrari 512 M s/n 1040

Ford GT40
Maserati 4 CM s/n 1120
Maserati 300 S s/n 3072

Bugatti T37 A