| Ferrari Racing Days
1999
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- Nürburgring,
Germany, July 2-4
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- Since 1996,
the Ferrari Racing Days in Germany have
been established as one of Europe’s
most important Ferrari-events. Hosted by
the factory-owned importer, Ferrari
Deutschland GmbH of Wiesbaden, the
meeting took place for the third time at
the famous Nürburgring after one year of
absence – last year, the Ferrari
Racing Days had been organized at the
MOTOPARK Oschersleben in the remote
Eastern part of Germany. However,
splendid weather conditions during the
entire weekend attracted between 500 and
600 Ferraristi with their cars plus
thousands of spectators, last but not
least because of the exciting program:
The event included the F355 Challenge,
the Shell Ferrari Maserati Historic
Challenge, regularity runs for
Ferrari-owners and for members of the
Ferrari Club Deutschland (FCD), a
demonstration of both historical and
modern Formula One cars and the unveiling
of the new 360 Modena Challenge car by
Michael Schumacher.
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- Since this
was a "Ferrari-only" event,
there was room for two separate grids of
the Shell Ferrari Maserati Historic
Challenge.
- The group of
the drum-braked cars was dominated by a
Maserati armada consisting of several 300
S, two 150 S and one A6 GCS. Ferrari
entries included a 375 MM Berlinetta
Pinin Farina driven by a well-known
driver using the pseudonym "Hans
Weise", Christian Traber’s 250
MM Berlinetta Pinin Farina, Dieter
Roschmann’s 500 Mondial Spider
Scaglietti, Nicolas Zapata in his 625 TR,
Sally Mason-Styrron in her 166 MM
Barchetta Touring, Bernd Hahne in a 166
MM/53 and various 250 GT LWB Berlinettas.
- Free practice
took place on Friday, qualifying on
Saturday and the two heats on Sunday. As
I already mentioned, the Maserati 300 S
were predominant. In the first race,
Peter Hannen became 1st,
Burkhard von Schenk 2nd and
Klaus Werner made it to 3rd,
followed by William Binnie who ended up
on 4th. The first Ferrari to cross the
finishing line was Plinio Haas’ 250
GT Berlinetta LWB TdF s/n 1401GT. Carlo
Vögele – likewise in a TdF –
and Christian Traber in his 250 MM were
close behind. Bernd Hahne’s 166
MM/53 s/n 0264M with Fantuzzi-body was
surprisingly fast again, thus
strengthening the rumor of his engine
showing some kind of modification... Dr.
Wolf Zweifler took out his Maserati 300 S
for the first time; he was the slowest of
the Maserati 300 S-pilots, but he was
faster than Giancarlo Galeazzi who is
known for his – sometimes –
wild driving style in his 500 TR. Erich
Traber was the only DNF in the first heat
after he had to retire in his 250 GT
Berlinetta LWB TdF s/n 0901GT.
- The second
heat started out with a mass-accident
caused by Burkhard von Schenk who spun in
his 300 S, hitting Klaus Werner and
Christian Traber. While von Schenk was
able to continue the race (he eventually
even ended up on 3rd!), Klaus
Werner had to steer his demolished 300 S
into the pits. Peter Hannen became the
race winner for the second time, followed
this time by Plinio Haas. Peter Lindkvist
from Sweden took his TdF to 4th,
followed by Bernd Hahne and Giancarlo
Galeazzi. Dieter Roschmann, Erich Traber
and Carlo Vögele had been non-starters,
reducing the field of participants
remarkably.
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- Modena
Motorsport GmbH of Langenfeld/Germany and
Axel Urban’s ProTrade GmbH of
Hamburg did once again enter their 312 PB
s/n 0886, driven by Jacky Ickx. The
Belgian ace took both wins in the
category of the disc braked cars. Patrick
Stieger became 2nd two times
in his 512 M s/n 1018. Unfortunately Ed
Davies had been forced to withdraw his
512 M due to technical problems which
occurred after Friday’s training
session, otherwise one would have seen a
battle among these three very fast cars.
Jean Guikas was 3rd in his
Maserati Bora Group IV in the first heat,
but his car suffered a brake-down in the
second heat. The classic car-dealer from
Marseille was able to continue the race
after missing some laps and eventually
ended up on 10th. Well-known
David Piper was present as well and took
his 250 LM s/n 8165 to 4th in
the first heat; in the second he took the
chance after Guikas had dropped out
(temporarily) and drove his old war-horse
to 3rd. Peter Hannen –
yes, he drove in both categories –
was pretty fast in Hartmut Ibing’s
Maserati "Birdcage" and
achieved a 5th in the first
and a 4th in the second heat.
Classic car-expert Mario Bernardi from
Hann. Münden/Germany showed up in his
365 GTB/4 Daytona Competizione Prototype
(s/n 12547). He took the first ever made
Competition Daytona to a 6th
and a 5th position and was
much, much faster than Max Lustenberger
in his later (and more powerful) example.
François Degand had been present on
Friday and Saturday in his yellow 365
GTB/4 Daytona Competitzione, but
unfortunately was a non-starter in the
races due to technical problems.
- The number of
GTOs on the track was remarkable: Four
1962 250 GTOs and the 330 GTO s/n 4561SA
of Carlo Vögele were involved in the
battle. David Franklin was fastest in
Harry Leventis lime green s/n 3505GT (8th
in the first, 7th in the
second heat). Fabrizio Brigato performed
well in his 250 GT SWB Berlinetta
Competizione, becoming 7th and
6th in the races, but Gerhard
Schwing took out his example (s/n 1887GT)
for the first time after a total
engine-rebuild and proved that his
mechanic had done an excellent job (12th
and 9th). Bart Rosman’s
s/n 2179GT had just received a new
paint-job, but the engine obviously
caused some problems, leaving the
Dutchman behind on 15th and 12th.
- Not that
fast, but a real treat to see were the
275 GTB Competiziones of José
Albuquerque and John Giordano,
representing both the 1st and
the 2nd series of these rare
Ferrari tipos. The third Maserati in the
pack was Edmond Péry’s Tipo 63.
- By the way:
On Saturday, the participants of the
Shell Historic Challenge were offered the
opportunity to do some laps on the
Nürburgring’s famous Nordschleife.
Even Jacky Ickx was seen on the track,
but in Helmut Gossens’ 312 B2
Formula One s/n 005! Seeing the former
Grand Prix driver blasting around the
historical circuit in his former car
really generated some kind of time-warp
effect!
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- 21 Formula
One Ferrari had been brought to the
Nürburgring, including the latest F399
(s/n 190) which was driven by Michael
Schumacher on Sunday. The other cars
included the examples which had already
been present during the "Wolf
Challenge" on Wednesday and
Thursday, plus Jean Guikas’ 412 T2
s/n 161 (Jean Alesi’s
Canada-winner), an F310 B (s/n 172) owned
by the Factory as display car and Heiner
Tamsen’s F310 B s/n 180, a former
Schumacher-car. Corrado Cupellini had
brought his 1960 Dino 156/246 s/n 0011,
and Dr. Heinz Schumann from Berlin had
given his 412 T1 (s/n 155) to Ferrari
Deutschland to have it on display in
front of the catering tent.
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- Among the
many hundred Ferrari in the parking lots
were some special and/or historical
examples: Swiss enthusiast Andreas
Feigentwinter had come in his nice 250 GT
Coupé Pininfarina s/n 1349GT (showing
the Texas plate "ENZO") and
long-time Ferrarista Reinhard Sammüller
from Munich had driven his 250 GT SWB
Berlinetta s/n 2669GT (engine #2209GT) to
the Nürburgring. The 250-family was
completed by some GTEs, several Lussos
and two Cabriolets, the latter including
Volker Nast’s well-known dark green
example s/n 2361GT which was formerly
owned by Wolfgang Graf Berghe von Trips.
Jürgen Rohwer from Hamburg showed up
once again in his rebodied 250 GTE that
now carries the Drogo-body which had once
been built for Ulf Norinder’s 250
GTO ’62 s/n 3445GT. Matthias Ficht
from Munich had driven all the way in his
immaculate 500 Superfast s/n 8253SF and
even took part in the regularity contest.
Dr. Wolf Zweifler – likewise from
Munich – had come in his yellow 365
GTS/4 Daytona Spider s/n 16689. Two
converted examples were present as well.
- The number of
360 Modenas present during the event was
quite remarkable, although the majority
of the cars were demonstrators of
franchised dealers. Ferrari Deutschland
had the very first prototype on display
which has no paint covering its alloy
skin.
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- The largest
part of the crowds had come on Sunday to
see one person: Michael Schumacher was
flown in by helicopter at noon, landed on
the track, was picked up by Ferrari
Deutschland’s chairman Maurizio
Parlato in a 355 F1 spider (s/n 112078)
and did one lap around the track to greet
the fans. After that Schumacher was
rushed into his motorhome two put on his
racing dress. He then took out the new
360 Modena Challenge (s/n 112193) which
had been hidden in a pit under a cover
during the entire weekend and did a
demonstration lap. Ferrari’s
star-pilot eventually stopped between the
grandstands and the pitlane and was
surrounded by photographers within
seconds. The photo-shooting of the German
Grand Prix ace with the new Challenge car
was followed by an interview performed by
Rainer Braun, a former racer who now is a
very famous TV-commentator of motorsport
events in Germany. After that, Michael
Schumacher entered the car again to do
some more laps on the track, this time
followed by a pack of ten or so stock 360
Modenas. In the meantime, his F399
Formula One car had been moved onto the
track. Schumacher swapped the cars
(surprisingly, the Challenge car was
rushed back into the pits and was never
seen again during the rest of the day)
and burned a lot of rubber when he
blasted off to please the crowds on the
grandstands. He was soon joined on the
circuit by several of the privately owned
Formula One cars (including Jacky Ickx in
Helmut Gossens’ 312 B2). Almost
every Formula One tipo of the last decade
was out on the track. As soon as the
demonstration was over, the star was
taken back to the motorhome and left the
Nürburgring while the crowds were still
concentrating on the Formula One cars on
the track.
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- We do not yet
have a confirmation of the Ferrari Racing
Days taking place next year again, but if
so, they will for sure be the most
important Ferrari-event in Germany again.
Andreas
Birner
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