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After the 512 S of Jean Guikas was withdrawn with technical problems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.
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