It had to be at least one of the biggest gatherings of Ferraris and Maseratis of all time: 250 racing cars and 650 road-going thoroughbreds. All 900 of them descended on the Monza racing circuit, just up the road from Milan, Italy, to help 40,000 race fans celebrate the Prancing Horse’s six consecutive Formula One World Championships on October 30–31 in a weekend billed as the Ferrari-Maserati Festival.
The fun and games were organized by the Ferrari-Maserati Group as a thank you to Maranello’s legions of fans for their unrelenting and near-hysterical support throughout yet another world championship–winning year.
With rounds of the Ferrari 360 Europa-USA, Italia Shell and Italia Pirelli series, there were dozens of 360 Modenas out in support, additionally, the three groups of the Shell Historic Challenge each had two races, and there were races for Trofeo Maserati as well.
The big crowds came out on Sunday as Schumacher, Rubens Barichello, Luca Badoer and Andrea Bertolini put on a mock race after several demo laps. Complete with pit stops, and donuts on the grid, the “tifosi” went wild. They went wilder still when the finals of the 360 Modena races saw a no-holds-barred shunting match, leaving much machinery in ruins and American participant Todd Morici with a sober look on his face.
The historic cars were much more gentlemanly, and had to be in the damp conditions. Thomas Bscher’s Maserati 450S stayed out in front of Werner’s 300S and the flying Carlos Monteverde in the first sports car race. The single-seater grid was smaller, but the quality was stunning with Tony Smith winning in the 12-cylinder Ferrari 246 Dino F1/FL car ahead of Bscher, this time in his Maserati 250F, with Schollwock’s Maserati 6CM putting on a superb sideways show in damp conditions. Carlo Vogele brought an enthusiastic response from the crowd as his Alfetta 158/159 came past the stands flat out in top gear, making a sound that was first heard at Monza more than 50 years ago from the same car.
1960s sports and GT cars had to give way to the sheer speed of two 1980 Ferrari 512BB Ferraris, which made the most of their speed round Monza with Gilbert Sergent winning one race and Paul Knapfield the other.
This superb end-of-season meeting was bolstered even further as the Corse Clienti Ferrari F1 cars put on several high-speed demonstrations. Among the most interesting were Lorenzo Prandina’s “snowplow” 312B3S from 1972, Villeneuve 312Ts from 1975, Paul Osborn’s F93A from 1992 and a total of 18 Formula One Ferraris spanning the years 1972 to 2001 joined by six 333SP sports prototypes.
Submitted by Robert Newman & Ed McDonough
