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Palm Beach, 24th of January

Half time at the 23rd Cavallino Classic, the driving part of this year’s Ferrari meeting in Palm Beach came to an end with the second track day at the Palm Beach International Raceway, formerly known as Moroso. Just before the static displays of the concours at the Breakers and the final Mar-a-Lago multimarque concours the Ferrari enthusiasts once more had the chance to enjoy their cars on the circuit. Whereas yesterday was just free practice today saw some competition with three races sorted by age of the cars with the drum break and disk break era of Ferrari and a separate pre-war race.

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In the morning the three groups had their timed practice session for the line-up in the actual races after the lunch break.

The first race was dedicated to the older Ferraris in the drum break class. Apart from a duo of 250 TR, a 375 MM, a 250 TdF and a 250 GT Boano also a Maserati 250 F Grand Prix was driving. As this was the only Maserati this year it was without competition and pulled away from the field right from the beginning to a trouble free victory. Following the Maserati was the first of the 250 TR driven by Chris Cox followed by Ed and Leslie Davies in the 375 MM and the second 250 TR. First of the closed cars was Charles Wegner in the wonderful 250 TdF.

After the drum break cars the oldest cars from the pre-war era had their race and it was the most interesting of the day. No less than 5 Alfa Romeo 8C were entered this year and the fastest was again Peter Giddings in his P3. Following him was a pack of three cars led by Jon Shirley in another P3 followed by the Talbot Lago and the 8C Monza. Further in the back and lapped more than once were the smaller displacement models of the Bugatti T37 and the oldest car on track, the Aston Martin from the Bamford&Martin era.

Last race of the day was the disk break race led from the start by the 512 M in Sunoco livery driven by Lawrence Stroll followed by a duo of 512 BBLM. A lonely race had the 365 GTB/4 that had no competition in its class and was driven between the faster 512 and the following 3 litre cars including the 2 GTO, the SWB and finally a 275 GTB Competition.

In between the practice sessions and the races the GT and Sports car had free track time and among the modern 8 cylinder Ferrari and the Ferrari F40 was the 335 S that did a few laps today. Brought over to the Cavallino Classic by its new owner and taken care by Paul Russell’s team the car was well sorted but driving was a bit difficult for the tall driver as the driving position is more suited for smaller drivers of the 1950s. With the modern Ferrari passing left and right the 335 S was driven with care to bring it back in one piece for tomorrows Concours at the Breakers were it will be for sure on of the highlights.

After several years with the traditional yacht hop and the award ceremony on board of one of the yachts this year the award giving was held in the Beach Club of the Breakers. The entrants and guests were entertained by an aquatic ballet and the day ended with a good glass of wine to celebrate the awards.

Tomorrow morning will see the highlight of the Cavallino Classic with the Concours at the Breakers when again some of the most important and beautiful Ferrari will be presented at the lawn just in front of the hotel. This year’s feature will be the 50th anniversary of the 275 with lots of examples including at least one of the 10 NART Spyder that was already seen today at the track and it would be a surprise if this will be the only one present.

Report & images … Peter Singhof
www.ClassicCarPhotography.de

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