Tutte le Ferrari ad
Imola
Autodromo Enzo e Dino
Ferrari
Imola/Italy,
November 6-8, 1998
-
- 1998 Finals
- Ferrari
Shell Historical Challenge
- Ferrari
Shell Historical Challenge – the
drum brake races
- Ferrari
Shell Historical Challenge – the
disk brake races
- Formula Uno
- F333 SP
- 1999?
Splendid
weather conditions made the "Tutte le
Ferrari ad Imola" event become a great final
of the 1998 season. Not only the participants of
the world’s various F355 Challenge series
– including Japan, the USA and Venezuela
– gathered at the famous circuit near
Bologna in Italy’s Emilia Romagna region,
but also the contestants of the Ferrari Shell
Historical Challenge and many owners of
historical Formula 1 cars of our favorite marque.
Additionally, the Scuderia showed up with one
F300 to be driven by Ferrari’s official
Formula 1 test pilot, Luca Badoer, and the Auto
Sport Racing Team took part in the event with
their well-known yellow F333 SP, piloted by
Lilian Bryner. In short, everything that makes a
great Ferrari event was there.
  
Since this
was 1998’s last of four events in total to
see the participation of this great series, it is
no wonder that there were almost no
"new" cars in the field. One of a very
few changes among the participants was the fact
that Corrado Cupellini had handed over his 500
TRC to Egon von Hofer. The latter in turn gave
his 250 GT SWB Berlinetta Rebuild, s/n 1791GT, to
the Italian to drive. This 250 GT SWB has a
clouded history and exists at least two times
today – I personally do not think that one
of these two cars is actually "more
genuine" than the other, by the way...
 
Mario Bernardi was
back in his 365 GTB/4 Daytona Competizione
Prototype; since the crash during the Spa Ferrari
Days in May, the car’s front section had
been repaired and the car has been gifted with a
new layer of paint as well.
Multiple Le
Mans-entrant Anders Olofsson could be seen in the
cockpit of Claes Jung’s Dino 206 SP s/n 016
which had formerly been driven at many occasions
by Tommy Brorsson.
Uwe Meissner and
Axel Urban of Modena Motorsport and ProTrade
respectively brought their 250 Europa GT
Berlinetta Speciale Pinin Farina s/n 0403GT -
entered by Axel Urban’s business partner
Peter Paul – and the 250 GT LWB Berlinetta
Scaglietti TdF s/n 1037GT for Mr. Urban himself.
These cars had been seen during the Spa Ferrari
Days only this year. Jacky Ickx drove the 312 PB
s/n 0886, entered by the same team for a customer
from Puerto Rico.
  
London specialist
dealer Gregor Fisken showed up in Bernie
Carl’s 250 GTO ’62 this time; the 250
GTO ’62 s/n 3705GT of Ed and Leslie Davies
is well-known already, but at Imola it sported an
interesting sticker on the tail for the very
first time reading "Baby on Board"; I
was told that this was a mechanic’s idea to
make known that this Ferrari’s lady driver
is pregnant!
 
Frits
Kroymans’ 250 GTO s/n 4757GT was seen racing
once again; the Dutch Ferrari importer had paused
for a number of events. Peter Hardman, too, drove
a 1962 250 GTO, s/n 3505GT of Harry Leventis; up
to that time one had become used to seeing Mr.
Hardman race in Mr. Leventis’ 330 LMB.
 
Jon Masterson from
California showed up in his beautiful 1956 250 GT
LWB Berlinetta Scaglietti TdF s/n 0585GT.
In short, there
was plenty of material to fill two racing
categories: One for drum braked and one for disk
braked cars.
Saturday’s
drum brake race saw some hot action, Paolo
Bozzetto and Carlos Monteverde fighting for the
win in their 250 TRs. In the end, Bozzetto came
in on first while the Brazilian collector crossed
the finishing line only 0,796 seconds later; he
drove the fastest lap of 2.22,760 min at an
average speed of 124.320 km/h.
 
Matt Grist became
third in his pre-war Alfa-Romeo, followed by the
two 500 TRCs driven by Ernst Schuster and David
Cottingham. These two pilots were fighting hard;
the German eventually won the duel after
Cottingham had spun in a chicane.
 
Unfortunately,
Christian Gläsel was a non-starter since his
father’s 250 Testa Rossa apparently had some
technical problems. Otherwise one would for sure
have seen a fight between three 250 TRs instead
of two.
 
On Sunday, Carlos
Monteverde was missing for a serious reason to be
explained later, so Paolo Bozzetto could take his
win easier than on Saturday. Matt Grist came in
on 2nd, and David Cottingham was
third, following to an exciting battle with Ernst
Schuster again. The German collector had dropped
out in the seventh of eight laps.
Some very
fast motor racing could be seen in the Historical
Challenge’s category of the disk braked
cars. The major battle was of course going on
between the sports-prototypes of the early
1970’s: Ed Davies, Gary Pearson and Patrick
Stieger raced in their 512 S’ and 512 Ms,
  
while Jacky Ickx,
Christian Gläsel and Christoph Stieger were out
on the track in their 312 PBs. David Piper in his
330/365 P2 and the two Dino 206 SPs of Parasiliti
and Olofsson proved as very fast again, too.
   
On Saturday, Ed
Davies was out of the race after just one lap,
Patrick Stieger ended up in the gravel after a
spin and his brother dropped out with technical
problems.
  
Last but not
least, Gary Pearson blew the engine of Brandon
Wang’s 512 S in the final lap when he tried
to catch his main rival, Jacky Ickx.
The Belgian ace
took the win, followed by Christian Gläsel,
Rosario Parasiliti, David Piper and Anders
Olofsson.
  
One should also
point out that only one of the several 365 GTB/4
Daytona Competizione entered in the race was
faster than the older 250 GTOs of Hardman and
Fisken: David Franklin in Carlos
Monteverde’s Daytona Competition. This
should be mentioned to point out the outstanding
performance of the mighty above mentioned
GTO-pilots.
  
On Sunday, the
field had been reduced by six cars. The ranking
read Jacky Ickx on 1st, Christian
Gläsel on 2nd and David Piper on 3rd,
followed by Anders Olofsson, Rosario Parasiliti
and Ed Davies.
Sixteen
historical Formula 1 cars had been brought to
Imola to be driven in demonstration laps on both
Saturday and Sunday. The session on Saturday late
afternoon was overshadowed by a serious accident
of Carlos Monteverde: The Brazilian collector was
severely injured when he crashed into a wall in
his old 1950 375 F1 after the Curva Tosa. In
early December, he was still in an Italian
hospital.
Most of the F1
cars had already been seen during Uwe
Meissner’s Nürburgring track day or at the
Ferrari Racing Days at Oschersleben earlier that
year. Some "new" cars included Guido
Ferrari’s 312 B3 s/n 009, Jean Guikas’
312 B3 s/n 014 and the ex-Nigel Mansell 640 F1
s/n 110 owned by the boss of Motor Srl.,
Modena’s and Bologna’s franchised
Ferrari-dealership.
  
Helmut Gossens
from Germany could be seen for the first time in
his recently acquired 642 F1, s/n 124, and Dr.
Heinz Schumann from Berlin drove his 412 T1 s/n
155. Axel Urban’s ProTrade GmbH had entered
a 412 T2, s/n 163, and Fritz Grashei showed up
with his F310, s/n 171. The German collector
handed over the steering wheel for the weekend to
his friend Dieter Streve-Mülhens.
  
On Sunday, Luca
Badoer pleased the crowd on the grandstands with
some very fast laps in the F300 – the lost
world championship seemed to be forgotten
already.
Swiss Lilian
Bryner proved that her yellow 333 SP s/n 020 is
almost as noisy as the F1 cars. Her demonstration
run was followed by a ceremony in which several
private racing teams were honored for campaigning
333 SPs successfully.
  
Piero
Ferrari and Jean Todt handed over the bronze
Prancing Horse to the Auto Sport Team of
Bryner/Calderari/Zadra and to Giampiero Moretti.
On Sunday,
about 200 Ferrari could be seen in the parking
lot, including several F50s, a 250 GT Coupé
Pininfarina and an one-owner 365 GTB/4 Daytona
held in an unusual color: "Blu Viola
metallizzato" – metallic violet!
Looking at the license plates of the cars, one
could notice a 550 Maranello from Moscow and a
456 GT from Greece.
 
The schedule for
1999 has not yet been set, and according to our
knowledge it is not 100% sure whether the Ferrari
Shell Historical Challenge will be continued or
not. It is not yet clear where and when the next
"Tutte le Ferrari..." event will take
place; at least it’s for sure that it will
be the last one in this millenium!
Andreas Birner
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