While Pearson and Hardman were regular starters in the entire 1997 season, some new participants could be
seen at Enna as well:
Most spectacular was the 857 S s/n 0588M, owned by Jean-Claude Bajol from France. The car with an
unusual rearwing was driven by Willie Green, who is well known in England for his many entries in historic
racing.
The Brit could not be very fast in the 857 S (by the way, its four-cylinder engine had been replaced by the V12
of a 250 GT, but the ex-John Edgar car was a treat to see anyway.
Also a new face in the series: Giorgio Schoen, the official Ferrari-agent in Milan. He drove his 250 GT LWB
Berlinetta Scaglietti "Tour de France" s/n 1335GT, accompanied by the two identical models of Carlo Voegele
from Switzerland s/n 1385GT and Nicolaus Springer s/n 0909GT, the Switzerland-resident German collector.
Organizer Jean Sage would have liked to race his freshly DK restored 375 MM Berlinetta Pinin Farina s/n
0358AM at the event, but a defect oil-filter kept the car from being entered.
Another non-starter was the 250 GTO '62 s/n 3387GT of Bernard Carl, also due to technical problems. So, the
car could at least act as a donor of a front-axle which was implanted to P. Paul Pappalardo's GTO s/n
5111GT for the race.
Michael and Eddie in action
For probably most of the 120.000 Sicilian spectators, the F1-demonstration run of Michael Schumacher and
Eddie Irvine was the highlight of the weekend. Starting their F310 Bs at full throttle and disappearing in clouds
of burned rubber caused frenetic applause among the tifosi.
Back to the Historical Challenge:
The first heat of the drum-brake cars was won by Matt Grist in an Alfa Romeo C35 which had once been an
official Grand Prix-car of the Scuderia Ferrari back in the times of the 750 kg-formula.
After the track had been hit by heavy rain just before the race, the light Alfa Romeo GP-cars had an
advantage; only the 250 TRs could keep up with them; Gary Pearson, of course, had the best performance
among them.
Carlos Monteverde, who has compiled one of the world's most important collections of race-cars during the
year, had a fantastic debut and placed his yellow 250 TR s/n 0738TR on a sensational 3rd position. And he
was even able to reach the same position in the second heat on Sunday!
Showers of rain
Due to the massive rain, the Stieger brothers and Marc Caveng decided not to participate on Saturday. Their
two 512 Ms (s/n 1018 and s/n 1050) and the 312 PB (s/n 0888) were left in the dry box for the day.
So, in the heat for disc-braked cars, David Piper and his 330 P2 (s/n 0836) "inherited" the pole from the
withdrawn cars and eventually took the win. David Franklin in the cockpit of Carlos Monteverde's 365 GTB/4
Daytona Competizione (s/n 15667) came in second.
Jean Sage had entered his 250 GT SWB Berlinetta Competizione (s/n 2165GT) in this race. The car could be
seen racing for the first time after the restoration which had become necessary after the heavy crash during
the 1996 Ferrari Racing Days at the Nürburgring.
While Sage safely reached the finish, Gerhard Schwing dropped out of the race in his SWB Berlinetta s/n
1887GT which had suffered a severe damage on the engine. Just one of many defects which occurred on the
cars during the weekend. The number of non-finishers had never been this high in the Ferrari Shell Historical
Challenge.
Am Sonntag endete allerdings ein Duell Sages mit Gerhard Schwing für den Deutschen wenig erfreulich:
Seine silberne Berlinetta (1887GT) erlag einem kapitalen Motorschaden. - Die Rennstrecke von einst stellte
auch Anforderungen von einst an Material. Noch nie zuvor waren soviel technische Defekte im Laufe eines der
historischen Ferrari-Rennen aufgetreten.
The results on Sunday: Gary Pearson became 1st OA, followed by Pietro Brigato and Carlos Monteverde (all
three of them driving 250 TRs).
Patrick Stieger took the win in the disc-brake heat in his 512 M, Marc Caveng became second (also on 512
M) and Christoph Stieger finished third in the 312 PB.
Even David Piper suffered ignition problems on Sunday, but this did not bother him very much.
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