Ferrari Shell
Historical Challenge
Club Ferrari France 30th Anniversary
Dijon-Prénois, June 26-28, 1998
- Ferrari
Shell Historical Challenge
- New
stuff in the Historical Challenge
- The
races
- Some
rare cars of the French Ferraristi
 
The
weekend of June 26 to 28 has seen one of the
major European Ferrari-events of the year: At the
circuit of Dijon-Prénois in eastern France, the
Club Ferrari France celebrated its 30th
anniversary. The programme of the festivities
included races of the Ferrari Shell Historical
Challenge, and the turnout of cars was
tremendous.
 
The
participants had entered about 60 (!) cars this
time; this remarkable number did not cause any
problems since this event was a private one not
open to the public, and the schedule had made it
possible to divide this enormous field into two
sections for either drum- and disc-braked cars.
The circuit of Dijon-Prénois is very remote and
does not have any grand stands and only some
lawns and small hills adjacent to the track are
open to spectators, but nevertheless it has once
been the site of the French Formula 1 Grand Prix.
For the Historical Challenge, this was the first
event to be hosted on this track.
 
Looking at the entry list, it was
obvious that some "new" participants
and/or guest starters had joined the circle of
the Challenge drivers, and some of the latter had
brought some cars which had not or rarely been
seen in earlier events.
Stephen
Dudley from Wisconsin/USA showed up in his very
original 166/195 Inter Berlinetta Vignale s/n
0071S which he had already driven in the
"Tour Auto" and the "Mille Miglia
Storica".
Another
1998 Mille Miglia starter, Olivier Cazalières
from Paris, participated again in his 225 Export
Spider Vignale s/n 0192ET, and Italian collector
Umberto Camellini presented his painstakingly
restored 340 MM Spider Vignale s/n 0280AM. The
latter car is the 1953 Mille Miglia winner, then
driven by Marzotto and Crosara!
 
Christian
Traber from Switzerland brought two cars out of
the huge collection run by him and his father
Erich: 250 MM Berlinetta Pinin Farina s/n 0316MM
and the 750 Monza Spider Scaglietti s/n 0562M.
Challenge-organizer
Jean Sage displayed his mighty 375 MM Berlinetta
Pinin Farina s/n 0358AM which still showed some
marks that had remained from the mud bath during
the Festival of Speed at Goodwood a week earlier.
The well-known French collector did eventually
not drive his car in the races - he obviously did
simply not have the time due to his role as
"organizing wizard" responsible for
nearly everything.
Another car formerly owned by Jean
Sage was driven by Nicolaus Springer. The German
collector living in Switzerland piloted the rare
860 Monza Spider Scaglietti s/n 0604M.
Dealer and enthusiast Corrado
Cupellini from Italy showed up in a 500 TRC s/n
0670MDTR. This very original Ferrari had not been
seen for years; its early history is completely
unknown to historians, it is just known that it
had slumbered in the collection of Giulio Dubbini
of Padova/Italy for years or even decades.
Cupellini had recently acquired the car from
Giulio Dubbini's heir, Federico Dubbini.
The latter was among the starters,
too, in his 250 Testa Rossa s/n 0716TR.
Two
other Italians had brought their 250 GT
Berlinettas with long wheelbase, also known as
"Tour de France": Renzo Beltrami had
come with his well-known s/n 0767GT, and Mauro
Bompani from Modena drove the excellently
restored s/n 0879GT.
Another
competitor who is not seen very often in the
Challenge was Gerhard Schwing from Germany who
piloted his silvergrey 250 GT SWB Berlinetta
Competizione, s/n 1887GT.
A
rare 275 GTB Competizione Series I had come to
France from England: Martin McGlone's s/n 07407,
a right hand driven example that has spent its
entire life in the UK.
P.
Paul Pappalardo did not only bring his 250 GTO
s/n 5111GT, but also the spectacular yellow 412 P
s/n 0850. But the former Ecurie Francorchamps car
remained undriven during the weekend. A new car
in the Challenge was Dino 206 SP s/n 030 of
Rosario Parasiliti. This beautiful car had not
been seen in events since 1990 or so.
 
The weather was warm, the sky
sometimes clouded, sometimes very sunny, the
track was dry - overall excellent driving
conditions. The two heats of the drum-brake cars
were dominated by Paolo Bozzetto in Pietro
Brigato's 250 Testa Rossa s/n 0758TR, but Carlos
Monteverde in his yellow example was always close
after him.
Competing
outstandingly was also Nicolaus Springer in the
860 Monza who took a 3rd position in the first
and the 2nd position in the second heat.
Unfortunately, the rear axle of David
Cottingham's 500 TRC s/n 0682MDTR broke during
the first race on Saturday evening, so he was a
non-starter on Sunday, as was Nicolas Zapata: The
625 TR s/n 0612MDTR of the Mexican refused to
work on Sunday, too.
 
Not
that fast, but very spectacular was the drive of
Olivier Cazalières in his 225 Export: He always
crossed the esses on three wheels only since one
of the rear wheels lost ground contact in the
sharp turns!
As
to the disc-brake cars, Christian Gläsel took
the win the first heat in the 312 PB s/n 0882,
but Patrick Stieger in the 512 M s/n 1018 nearly
touched Gläsel's gearbox, finishing just one
second behind him.
 
Gary
Pearson in Brandon Wang's 512 S s/n 1016 would
have won, but in the first race on Saturday, the
glorious car dropped out in the final lap due to
a problem with the fuel pump. But Gary took the
win on Sunday, while Christian Gläsel came in on
2nd.
 
Peter
Hardman once again drove the rare 330 LMB s/n
4381SA. The professional driver's name is
programmatic: He drove it hard and took two class
wins.
 
Leslie
Davies had a great time in her 250 GTO '62 s/n
3705GT on Saturday: In the first heat, she
managed to keep the two male contestants in
identical cars in distance and won the duel!
On
Sunday, however, Nicolaus Springer s/n 4153GT and
Paul Pappalardo s/n 5111GT obviously had the
better luck and came in on 1st and 2nd in class
respectively. But Leslie Davies took the Ladies'
Cup home to Florida.
 
By
the way, classic car dealer Jean Guikas from
Marseille was very fast in his 275 GTB/2. This
car s/n 07765 took Claude Bouscary to the French
hillclimb championship back in 1967, and for this
reason the street car is eligible for the Sheel
Historical Challenge.
About 200 Ferrari attended the
event, the majority of them naturally owned by
members of the Club Ferrari France.
 
The
most spectacular one, however, was the 333 SP s/n
022 of the French Equipe Jabouille, piloted by
Collard and Sospiri in the ISRS and in the 24
Hours of Le Mans. Amazingly, the 333 SP arrived
on Saturday morning, was driven only a few laps
at noon and then vanished in the truck again.
One
of the 38 Series I 250 GT Cabriolets attended the
event: s/n 0979GT, owned by someone in Paris. The
metallic grey car looks extremely original, but
the owner pointed out that it has been (at least
partially) restored once years ago.
 
Two
250 GT Pininfarina Coupés were present as well
as a 250 GT SWB Berlinetta: s/n 3073GT was on
display on Saturday, brought to Dijon by the
German dealer Axel Schütte and some of his
friends.
 
Engelbert
Stieger had not only entered two cars in the
Historical Challenge, but did also have his
immaculate 250 GTO '62 s/n 3589GT transported to
the Bourgogne. Two rare 330 GTS' (100 examples
made) could be admired as well as an even rarer
365 GTS (20 made): s/n 12477, a Swiss two-owners
from new car, was presented by Tiziano Carugati,
an independent Ferrari dealer from Geneva.
 
Not
less than three 275 GTB/4s had come, too,
including the very original s/n 10589 owned by
the Bajol family from Toulouse.
 
Some
365 GTB/4s, two 275 GTS' and a 365 GT 2+2
completed the nice variety of historic street
models that could be seen at the event.
Definitely not intended for street use were both
the 308 GTB Michelotto s/n 18971 of François
Domet and the 512 BB "Competizione" s/n
24127 of Jean Guikas.
 
He
did drive this special on Friday only when the
track was open to the Challenge contestants for
training and proved as very fast. S/n 24127 looks
almost like a stock 512 BB, except some spoilers
and a large alloy rearwing adopted from the 312
T3 Formula 1. But this car in the white and red
livery of Thomson is one of only three 512 BBs
which had been factory-prepared for the 1978 24
Hours of Le Mans, two of them (including s/n
24127) were then entered by the Ecurie Pozzi. The
extremely noisy engine provides about 460 hp.
Many
F40s and two F50s were not missing either, and
the latest car at Dijon was a 456 M GT (s/n
112023), painted in one of Ferrari's newly
created colours, "Grigio Ingrid"
("Ingrid Grey"); the champagne metallic
is a reminiscence to the 375 MM Berlinetta
Speciale Pinin Farina s/n 0456AM formerly owned
by Robert Rossellini and Ingrid Bergman which
featured this very livery.
Both
the event and the weather were fantastic, and the
double win of Ferrari in Formula 1 on Sunday even
made everything perfect.
. 
Andreas Birner
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