Racing in the city
Lodrino / Campione d'Italia,
September 26-27, 1998
- Loris
Kessel Auto
- For the
third year in a row
- About 140
Ferrari in attendance
- Celebrity
guest drivers
- Gran Premio
di Campione d’Italia
- Other
cars of particular interest
- A
Sunday on the Lodrino airfield
- Ferrari
Day Ticino 1999
Loris
Kessel, a former race driver who even had three
Formula 1 entries in a Brabham-Ford BT4 back in
1976, runs the franchised Ferrari dealership for
the canton of Ticino, the Italian speaking part
of Switzerland. The premises of Loris Kessel Auto
– the company’s trading name - which
are located in Grancia near Lugano, also house
Rolls-Royce & Bentley and Maserati.
 
For the
third year in a row, Loris Kessel has hosted his
"Ferrari Day", a gathering of Ferrari
customers and –friends. This year, the
painstakingly planned event took place on
September 26 and 27 on two sites: At the airfield
of Lodrino (some 30 kilometers north of Lugano)
and in Campione d’Italia, a small town
located on Lake Lugano which should –
geographically – be a part to Switzerland,
but actually is an enclave belonging to Italy.
 
The inhabitants
are Italian citizens, but the official currency
in Campione is the Swiss Franc. For these and
some more reasons, this town is somewhat special.
However, in the 1930’s one had hosted a
Grand Prix in the streets of Campione
d’Italia which was probably very close to
the famous Monaco Grand Prix as far as the
atmosphere is concerned.
 
There are the same
narrow streets, the same differences of altitude
and last but not least Campione does even have a
Casino. Well, Loris Kessel somehow managed to
convince the local authorities that the time had
come to revive this Grand Prix, and so he was
allowed to host his 1998 Ferrari Day Ticino on
the "circuit" of Campione
d’Italia.
  
The number
of participating cars for the entire event had
been limited to some 140, plus several special
participants who brought more than just one car
with them, mainly talking about the owners of
historical competition and Formula One cars which
were entered in the "Grand Prix of
Campione".
 
For safety
reasons, it was not possible for the owners of
the "normal" modern Ferrari to take
part in the Grand Prix which was open only to the
above mentioned competition and F1 cars plus some
"official" cars provided by Loris
Kessel Auto, including three F40 and one
customer’s yellow F50. One should also
mention that a remarkable number of Ferraristi
had come from nearby Italy to attend the event.
Loris
Kessel’s still excellent relations to the
world of motor racing became obvious when one
noticed that three celebrity drivers (or to be
more exact: three former Ferrari Formula One
pilots) were present that weekend: René Arnoux,
Jacky Ickx and Arturo Merzario.
 
The famous drivers
piloted one F40 each (the cars provided by Loris
Kessel) and René Arnoux once even drove the
already mentioned yellow F50 which was the
official pace-car of the event.
The event
started on Saturday morning at the airfield of
Lodrino which is apparently run by the Swiss
airforce. This was the check-in site for the
participants and guests, and during the morning
it was already possible to do some laps on the
parcours which had been established on the
airfield’s runways. About midday, one drove
to Campione d’Italia where the cars were
left in the Casino’s parking lot.
 
The paddock for
the "Grand Prix" – not a real
competition, of course, but actually consisting
of several fast demonstration laps – had
been placed there as well, and so it is no wonder
that Campione faced a massive number of
spectators although the weather was not that nice
unfortunately. It was relatively cold and short
showers of rain were frequent during the day.
However, large grand stands had been erected
along the track and many spectators had gathered
on the balconies of the mansions adjacent to the
circuit.
Noted Swiss
collector Engelbert Stieger had brought almost
his entire "Turning Wheels Collection"
to Campione; some of his cars were driven by his
sons Christoph and Patrick – well-known
through their engagement in the Shell Historical
Challenge – while some of the others were on
display only in the paddock tent and on
Campione’s market place, including
Stieger’s latest addition to his collection,
the 250 MM Spider Vignale s/n 0332M. Also on
display: His 250 LM and the Dino 206 SP.
 
Christoph and
Patrick drove the 512 M and the 312 PB as well as
the rarely seen yellow 250 GT SWB Berlinetta
Competizione (s/n 1931GT), the 250 GTO ‘62
and the 312 T4 Formula 1. The 512 BBLM (s/n
27579) had been prepared for action, too, but
eventually remained undriven.
 
 
The Formula 1
demonstration – which was the most
spectacular one of the day, of course – also
included Corrado Cupellini in his Dino 246/156
Formula 1 s/n 0011, Guido Ferrari in the unique
312 B3 "Spazzaneve", Enrico Comerio in
his 312 T3 and Jo Vonlanthen in a turbo-charged
F1/86.
 
The latter had
also brought his 1954 500 F2 with him which was
on display in a building. On show in front of
that building: A 1997 F310 B Formula 1 (s/n 175),
apparently provided by the factory. Freddy
Plangger from Germany showed up with his F92 A
F1, but for some reason the car remained unused
during the weekend.
But the
performance of the Stieger brothers in the 512 M
and the 312 PB together with Fredy
Lienhard’s 333 SP was outstanding, too;
especially as far as the noise was concerned, the
run of the sports prototypes was very close to
the one of the Formula One cars.
Another very
impressive car, not only by its acoustics: Max
Lustenberger’s 365 GTB/4 Daytona
Competizione s/n 13855, 5th in the GT
class in the 1972 24 Hours of Le Mans, then
entered by Luigi Chinetti’s N.A.R.T.
Aside of the
competition and formula cars, there were some
interesting historical road cars to be seen at
Campione as well. Loris Kessel had organized some
demonstration laps on the track for these cars,
too, the oldest one being the 250 GT Coupé Boano
of Giovanni Piero Rotundo from Italy.
 
Andreas
Feigenwinter was present with his 250 GT Coupé
Pininfarina which featured the adequate Texas
registration plate "ENZO". Among the
four Daytonas present at Campione was one nicely
restored white example with perspex headlight
covers and one spyder; unfortunately it is
unknown whether the latter was an original one or
a conversion. Another car from the 365-family did
not look like something special at the first
glance, but a look at the serial number of Fredy
Bieri’s red 365 GT4 2+2 revealed that this
car was the very first prototype of this Ferrari
four-seater.
After the
Saturday had ended with a gala dinner in the
casino of Campione, Sunday started at the Lodrino
airfield. During the entire day, the participants
could use their cars on the parcours on the
airfield, and the Swiss Ferraristi are well-known
for their intense relationship to track days
especially since Switzerland has a speed-limit on
motorways of 120 km/h only. Although it rained
all the morning, the weather conditions did not
keep the participants from chasing their cars
around the corners. A hangar had been turned into
a restaurant where an excellent Italian buffet
was offered. In the afternoon, the sun broke
through the clouds and helped to increase the
average speed on the runways which dried up quite
quickly. Jacky Ickx took passengers around the
track in an F40 and also tried an F355 GTS. In
short, simply a perfect track day.
 
Good news:
According to my current information, Loris Kessel
will host his fourth Ferrari Day Ticino in 1999,
and the event will probably again include the
fantastic Gran Premio di Campione. For
information one should contact Loris Kessel at:
- Loris Kessel
Auto SA
- CH-6916
Grancia
- Switzerland
- Tel.: +41 /
(0)91 / 99 45 571
- Fax: +41 /
(0)91 / 99 44 494
by Andreas Birner
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