- Ferrari
Shell Historical Challenge, 3rd & 4th
heat -
Nürburgring, July
4-6, 1997
- After 30 years
the waterpump gives up
- Back on the
"Ring" after 24 years
- Old champion =
new champion?
- Home match
There's an old man standing
In the paddock of the Nürburgring who
holds a tiny piece of metal in his hands.
The elderly man is David Piper, and he
tells the crowd surrounding him that this
little part once belonged to the
waterpump of his 330 P2 for more than 30
years. On July 6, 1997, it broke.
Without any cooling for its
engine, David Piper drove the 330 P2 into
the pits immediately - and of course, for
him this was the end of the third heat in
the 1997 Ferrari Shell Historical
Challenge.
On the first weekend in
July, the racing series for old Ferrari
race-cars attended the 2nd Ferrari Racing
Days at the Nürburgring which were -
again - hosted by the German importer,
Ferrari Deutschland Ltd.
Naturally, the second
edition of this event was not of that
importance than in 1996 when the 550
Maranello's world-premiere had been
celebrated at the Nürburgring. This
year, there was no model premiere, and
there was no Michael Schumacher who did
some laps in an F1-Ferrari. But this did
by no means keep the friends of historic
Ferrari from coming to the Eifel for a
second time.
Compared to the 1st and 2nd
heat of the Historical Challenge at Monza
two months ago, the field of participants
had remained basically unchanged.
The well-known Swiss
collector Engelbert Stieger had brought
his 312 PB (s/n 0888); this car had taken
Jacky Ickx and Brian Redman to a glorious
1st in the 1973 ADAC 1000km of the
Nürburgring, the last of seven wins for
Ferrari in this popular and traditional
race.
Stieger's son
Christoph piloted the car 24 years after
its victory and placed 2nd behind his
brother Patrick who drove his father's
512 M s/n 1018.
Thus it was a
successful weekend for the
Stieger-family, and they could take home
some new cups to find a new home in
Engelbert Stieger's private museum called
"Turning Wheels Collection" in
St. Gallen where he displays some 30
Ferrari.
Peter Hardman may have felt
as happy as the Stieger brothers since
the 1996 champion of the Ferrari Shell
Historical Challenge took the lead in the
overall ranking of the Challenge after
the 4th heat on Sunday. The professional
driver, who had been active in the last
year in the USA Super-Touring-Car Trophy,
again proved his abilities and chased the
330 LMB s/n 4381SA around the circuit
with an average speed of 131,108 km/h,
which meant that he was not remarkably
slower than the Stieger brothers in their
much younger and mid-engined 512 M and
312 PB sportscars.
For some German drivers, the
event could be well regarded as a home
match since many of the pilots live in an
area of approximately 150 kms distance
from the Nürburgring. For example, the
multiple 348/F355 Challenge champion
Bernd Hahne of Krefeld. In the Historical
Challenge, he drove his 166 MM/53 s/n
0264M.
The little car now looks
like a Barchetta by Touring, but it had
been originally one of three spyders
bodied by Ferrari (instead of Allemano,
Touring, Farina or Vignale who had been
the major producers of bodies in
Ferrari's early era) using a design by
Dino Ferrari. After s/n 0264M had been
abandoned in a shed in Switzerland for
years, it was acquired in the 1970's by a
famous French collector who decided to
restore it with a Barchetta-body (which
the little Ferrari indeed never had up to
that time); the work was done by Fantuzzi
in Italy.
Another German collector
living in Düsseldorf (in about 150 kms
distance to the "Ring"...) is
Hartmut Ibing. The long-time Ferrarista
brought out his rarely seen 250 MM
Berlinetta Pinin Farina s/n 0298MM. For
the Challenge, Ibing handed it over to
Udo Rüttcher of Aachen (located in about
70 kms distance...). s/n 0298MM is in a
very original state, a fact that provides
the car with a very personal charm
compared to some of its hyper-restored
sisters and brothers.
Count Hermann
Hatzfeld-Wildenburg from Wissen drove
about 100 kms to the Nürburgring in his
250 GT LWB Berlinetta Scaglietti
"TdF" s/n 0971GT. His car had
been repainted from red to black some
years ago, a livery rarely seen on an old
competition-Ferrari. Back in its youth in
the very late 1950's, s/n 0971GT had
spent some time in Jacques Swaters'
Ecurie Francorchamps in Belgium. In 1958,
André Pilette and Jojo Berger drove it
to 9th in the 1000 kms of Paris at
Montlhéry.
One German participant who
up to that time had attended nearly every
event of the Ferrari Shell Historical
Challenge was missing this time: Walter
Schäfer from Hainburg. His 250
GT-powered 500 TR Spider Scaglietti s/n 0636MDTR
had been stolen in Maranello after
Ferrari's 50th anniversary celebration.
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