And Ferrari?
The Risi Competizione 333 SP was close to the pace in qualifying, and
was running strongly in the early part of the race, leading on several
occasions until it had gearbox problems which dropped it down the order.
Once this was resolved it was again fighting hard until eliminated in an
accident just before the 16 hour mark with David Brabham at the wheel.
The Mastercar SRL Team from Italy entered two cars, a 360 Modena and
an F355 prepared by Erich Prinoth. The F355 had a team of Russian
drivers, but was never really on the pace despite looking and sounding
fast. The 360 Modena was nearer the mark, but suuffered mechanical
problems during the race. It sat in the pits for a long time and then came
out to try and complete the last lap to qualify as a finisher, but expired in a
cloud of smoke in the infield section.
The Ferrari of Washington 360 N-GT was substantially quicker than the
other 360 entry and the team was hopeful of a good result. However a tyre
failure in the infield section, just over half an hour into the race, lost it 28
laps before it could be brought back to the pits. It was then a case of
playing catch up, and retrieved four laps on the leader during the next
twelve hours, being amongst the fastest GT category cars during the night.
Further trouble occurred when the gearbox failed just before dawn, losing
two hours while it was changed and effectively ending any hopes of a good
result. But the team didn’t give up, although the replacement box had
shorter ratios causing the engine to redline on the banking, and it was
consistently the fastest car in its class for the final four hours of the race.
The result was not what they hoped for, but they were encouraged, as the
car used the same engine for testing, qualifying and the race, and apart
from the problems encountered ran faultlessly, needing only fuel, tyres and
one brake pad change during the whole race.
Historic Prelude
On the Friday morning a one hour HSR (Historic Sports racing) Race was
held. This attracted a wide and varied entry from a Lola T70 to Porsche
962s. It also provided good close racing through the field, and the
opportunity to see some rarely seen models including various Nissan
prototypes and a Rondeau, unusual to see even in its native France. Victory
went to the 1992 Spice-Chevrolet GTP driven by Duncan Dayton and car
owner Jim Mullen, ahead of the Akin/Bean 1988 Nissan GTP and the 1990
Nissan GTP of Brian DeVries.
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