THE F430 ON THE PACE IN THREE COUNTRIES
The F430, in its GTC, Challenge and GT iterations was a
key player in races held in three countries – England,
the United States and Italy, this weekend.
Long Beach (California) hosted the third round of the American
Le Mans Series and for the second consecutive time, victory
in Class GT2 went to the F430 of Dirk Mueller and Dominik
Farnbacher. It was an action packed race which saw the Tafel
Racing car valiantly fight off the final attack of the Porsches
driven by Bergmeister-Henzler and van Overbeek- Pilet, while
the Corsa Motorsport F430, in the hands of Jeannette-Mowlem,
finished fourth. The Risi Competizione cars were out of luck,
with Brix-Friesacher fifth and Melo-Salo ninth, having been
delayed with starter motor troubles. After three races, Mueller
and Farnbacher head the classification on 54 points, a lead
of six over Bergmeister-Henzler.
Silverstone (England) staged the opening round of the FIA
GT Championship and the F430 GTC cars immediately stamped
their authority on proceedings, with four cars in the top
four of the GT2 class. The race took place on a track that
was wet at first, before remaining damp, as reigning champion
Toni Vilander dominating proceedings, with team-mate Gimmi
Bruni (AF Corse,) ahead of the sister car of CR Scuderia,
in the hands of Bell and Kirkaldy, followed by the car with
an all-Italian line-up of Malucelli-Ruberti, driving for BMS
Scuderia Italia: fourth was the other AF Corse 430 GTC, crewed
by Biagi-Montanari.
The famous English circuit also witnessed the second round
of this season’s European series of the Ferrari Challenge
Pirelli Trophy. Main players this weekend were Frenchman Ange
Barde (Modena Motors) and the home grown Michael Cantillon
(Ferrari GB Dealer Team.) Both men did the double in the Pirelli
Trophy and Shell Cup respectively. Actually, the first man
past the flag in the second Trophy race was Andrea Piccini,
driving as a guest of the Ferrari GB Dealer Team and therefore
not eligible for the championship. Also worthy of note, strong
races from Austria’s Philipp Baron in race 1 of the
Pirelli Trophy and Spain’s Angel Santos, with two third
place finishes in the Shell Cup.
Results
Series Driver Points Driver Points Driver Points
Pirelli Trophy Europe Barde 104 Baron 97 Blancardi 90
Shell Cup Europe Cantillon 109 Santos 72 Carboni 66
In the GT Open Championship which got underway at Vallelunga,
there were two top triple finishes for the F430. In race 1,
victory went to Maceratesi-Montermini (Playteam) ahead of
Giao-Couceiro (Playteam) and Pasini-Bonetti (Advanced Engineering)
this latter pairing taking the win in the second race, ahead
of Maceratesi-Montermini and Monfardini-Frezza (GPC.)
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