Ferrari
Racing Days
Oschersleben/Germany,
July 3-5, 1998
-
- For the third
time in a row
- Formula 1
demonstrations
- Classic Ferrari
on show
- A royal visit at
Oschersleben
- Verdict
Ferrari Deutschland GmbH,
the factory-owned German importer, were
for the third year in a row the host of
the so-called "Ferrari Racing
Days" which included races of the
F355 Challenge "Europe Central"
and "Europe West" and various
races for gentleman drivers, plus
demonstration runs of historic and
Formula 1 cars. A real novelty was the
site of this event: the MOTOPARK
Oschersleben, a new circuit located near
Oschersleben in former East Germany
between Hannover and Berlin.
The weather on this first
weekend in July was too cold and too wet
for July, but nevertheless more than 200
Ferrari showed up at the gathering. The
most interesting cars were naturally the
Formula 1s and the some 20 classic
Ferrari; the owners of the latter had
been invited separately by Ferrari
Deutschland since the importer organized
two parades for classic examples of the
marque held on Saturday and Sunday.
 
The vast majority of the
Formula 1 cars had already been present
at the track day of Modena Motorsport
GmbH at the Nürburgring some days
earlier. Uwe Meissner again drove Michael
Gabel's hot to handle ex-Nigel Mansell
641/2 F1 s/n 120 and performed well.
Helmut Gossens spent a very
long time on the track in his 312 B2 F1
s/n 005, while another newcomer to the
small, but exclusive circle of F1-owners
was less fortunate: Wulf Frensel from
Itzehoe in the very northern part of
Germany showed up in his newly acquired
412 T2 F1 s/n 164, but blew the
engine on Friday. After the
well-known F355 Challenge pilot with his
viking-like hairstyle eventually crashed
his F355, too, on Saturday, he
desparately left the scene in his still
healthy F50.
However, the other F1 pilots
obviously enjoyed the track time in their
cars, although the track is a little
tricky due to its many turns and corners.
Fortunately, the Sunday was dry in the
afternoon after it had rained on Saturday
for almost the entire day, so the
monoposti could finally be taken out of
the pits.
The two oldest Ferrari on
show at Oschersleben were two 195 Inters:
s/n 087S, bodied by Vignale and owned by
Peter Andersen, a fish dealer from
Denmark living in Hamburg, and s/n 0105S,
bodied by Ghia and owned by Walter
Schäfer of Hainburg/Germany. By the way,
s/n 087S had been owned by Schäfer, too,
for a number of years prior to selling it
to Andersen in 1997.
Dieter Roschmann from
Augsburg finally had repaired the engine
of his 500 Mondial Spider Scaglietti s/n
0528MD - in early 1997, he had badly
blown the motor during the Ferrari Shell
Historical Challenge at Monza. At
Oschersleben, he ran in a field of
gentleman drivers in their F355s, 348s
etc. and was the fastest man on the
track! Of course, Roschmann also formed a
part of the demonstration runs for the
historic cars and was the fastest again.
The "contestants"
in this non-competition run included the
250 GT Cabriolet Series II s/n 2361GT
(formerly owned by Wolfgang Count Berghe
von Trips, now owned by Volker Nast from
Hamburg), the 250 GT Lusso Prototipo s/n
3849GT of Siegfried Propfen from Hameln
and the 250 GT Lusso s/n 5377GT of Gerd
Flaskämper from Celle. He latter car has
pretty sporting looks due to its lack of
bumpers and the "Snaps" exhaust
pipes.
A very rare Ferrari also
present at the MOTOPARK was 500 Superfast
s/n 8253SF. The 30th Superfast of the 37
examples made is owned by collector
Matthias Ficht from Munich. Two Daytona
Spyders could be admired as well: s/n
13637, a nicely restored conversion owned
by Wieland Schwarzkopf of Ziemetshausen,
and s/n 14761, a genuine 365 GTS/4
Daytona Spider owned by Swiss enthusiast
Dr. Fritz Hartmann of Speicher.
More contemporary classics
included an absolutely immaculate 365 GT4
BB (s/n 18427) and two 288 GTO. Various
F40s (including a genuine F40 LM) and
three F50s made the variety of popular
tipos nearly complete.
 
A special guest preferred to
stay almost incognito when driving on the
circuit:
HRH King Carl
Gustaf of Sweden
attended the event on
Saturday in a light metallic blue 456 GT,
while a friend of his was driving a new
456 M GT. The king did some laps on the
track - it is unknown to us whether or
not the 456 GT (registered in Paris) is
actually owned by him. In the evening,
the king was a special guest at the
prizegiving to the contestants of the
F355 Challenge Europe West. By the way,
on Sunday, Carl Gustaf attended the STW
Cup touring car event at Nürnberg.
Probably due to the
sometimes bad weather, there were not too
many spectators to be seen in the
grandstands this time. But the enthusiasm
for Ferrari keeps growing in Germany's
"new old" eastern part, and so
it is likely that the Ferrari Racing Days
will be hosted at the MOTOPARK once again
in the future.
Andreas
Birner
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