Jupiter, 24.-25.01.2013
After our reports on the two Concours at the Breakers and
Mar-a-Lago it is time to finalize our coverage of this year's
Cavallino Classic with the activities of the first two days of the
4-day meeting.
Beside the beauty of the design and the quality of craftsmanship
shown on the lawn cars are still meant for driving and as no other
marque is linked more to the race track than Ferrari it is just
logical to add some track days to the program. The organizers of
from the Cavallino Magazine became aware of this fact very early
and so the track time on the nearby Palm Beach International
Raceway was always an important part of the event although both
the track and the races saw many changes in the last year's.
The raceway located on the Beeline Highway connecting Palm
Beach with Jupiter was known as the Moroso Motor Sports Park
for many year after its then owner Dick Moroso. Just in 2008 the
name was changed back to its original name Palm Beach
International Raceway by the new owners and the track was
rebuild to suit newer safety regulations. A look around at the new
facilities clarifies that the road track is not meant for the big
spectators events attracting a lot of visitors or media as just a few
provisional grandstands are available and the fences running
around almost the entire track lack some hole for the
photographers. Unlike the associated drag racing strip that
regularly attracts larger crowds with its own floodlights for the
evening shows, the road course is rather used by race teams for
some winter tests or track days of different car clubs.
Not just the track changed a lot over the years but also the Ferrari
racing scene. Years ago the Cavallino Classic was part of the
American Ferrari Challenge and during this time a lot of vintage
Ferrari could be seen in Palm Beach. After the Challenge stopped
a few years ago the opportunities to race these cars with like
minded became rare as club racing is not as popular as in Great
Britain and with the ever increasing value the owners of the
multi-million dollar cars became more and more afraid of risking
their investments on the track, a problem that affects all sort of
driving events on both sides of the Atlantic. With the lack of
racing less and less cars are really race prepared these days with
the necessary safety features like fuel cells or roll bar
contradicted to their originality.
Having the last track days in mind the expectations on this year's
event were not very high when entering the paddocks on Thursday
morning. The first impression was that there were less tents and
large team trucks than in previous years and a look at the entry
list and time table showed that there were less modern Ferrari
Racers present, mainly because of a support race for challenge
cars at the Daytona 24h 200 miles north at the same weekend.
On the other side the race schedule featured a new race this year
as a pre-war race was on the program for the first time. Back in
the days of the Ferrari Challenge several owners entered some
Scuderia Ferrari Alfa Romeo 8Cs in the drum brake class so this
race gave some of them the opportunity to enter in another race
beside the normal drum and disc brake class. No less than 4 Alfa
Romeo including a Tipo B and three 8C were entered, joined by
an armada of 5 Bugatti making their debut at the Ferrari event.
After the practice on Thursday 3 of the Alfa were running in the
front of the field followed by the Bugatti, fastest car on the track
was the ex-Nuvolari P3 of Peter Giddings, followed by the 8C
Monza of Ed Davies and the Touring Spyder of Chuck Wegner.
Unfortunately the second spyder of Tom Price did not start in the
race. The Bugatti had a race on their own and although they were
not competing for the podium it seems that they had a lot of fun
as they prefigured their return for the next year Cavallino Classic,
maybe joined by some more cars as the Bugattisti are usually
very adventurous.
Peter Giddings was also the fastest in the second race, the drum
brake class. In his Maserati 250F, an ex-works racer in the hands
of Musso, Behra and Moss he was running well in front of the field
together with the second 250F (2527), also a works car driven by
Fangio back in the days.
Following the two Grand Prix cars was another duo of Ferrari´s
competitor of this period, the 200 SI sports racer again driven by
Wegner and Price who had both a car in every race.
The Ferrari followed on the places, the two true competition cars
of Ed and Leslie Davies racing each other for the entire race in
their 250 TR and the older 375 MM. Less sportive were the 212
Inter (0147E) that was rebodied in the mid 1960s as a California
Spyder and especially the 250 GT Boano (0527GT) entered by
Jack Thomas. The heavy GT car showed the most body roll of all
the cars racing that weekend and Thomas had his hands full
manoeuvring the car though the chicane. Although (or because of
being) slowest of the Ferrari he was handed the Tie of
Sportsmanship by last year's awardee Wegner during the prize
giving at the Yacht Hop very much to the amusement of all the
participants.
The last race on Friday was the disc brake class spanning the
period from the late 1950s to the 1970s. With a period that long
the cars were running at a very different speed. The two front
running 512 BBLM were a lot faster that all the other cars and so
they had to entertain themselves changing positions several times
a lap running side by side until a “photo finish” of Jim Fuchs
inches in front of Todd Morici, but the smiling faces of both of
them showed that they enjoyed it equally.
Two of the eight cars in practice were not able to compete in the
race as the 250 GTO of Tom Price (4757GT) rolled out in the
chicane on Thursday afternoon with an engine failure. More
spectacular was the burst engine of the 365 GTB/4 Daytona
Competition (14065) at the same place leaving a cloud of oil
smoke that could be seen on the entire grounds. With the
chicane covered with oil the fire brigade had to march out and the
practice was red flagged. This left the newest car, a 308
GT/Michelotto, a lonely race behind the 512 BBLM, followed by
the 250 GTs.
Oldest of the trio was the TdF (1321GT) that could be seen on all
the 4 days on the various events. It was running behind the 250
GT SWB and the 250 GTO again in a family race between Ed and
Leslie Davies with the better end for Leslie in her 250 GT SWB
Competizione (2729GT).
The newer cars did not race but had some track time between the
races. The sports and GT cars up to the newest F458 Italia
included several challenge cars but also road cars whose owners
wanted to experience the feel of the circuit simply by putting up a
helmet.
A nice outing had one of the most interesting cars of the meeting
on Friday, the one-off 275 GTB/C Competition (06885). After
sitting in the paddock and on its trailer on Thursday the class
winning Le Mans entry of the Ecurie Francorchamps of 1965 did a
few laps on Friday very much to the enjoyment of the few visitors.
Although the track days are not the highlight of the weekend
anymore they are still an appreciated addition to the following
concours events. A few brave owners are still willing to drive their
prized treasures and one can hope that a few more follow their
example in the next years, the pre-war race was certainly a
superb addition to the schedule and might be extended in future.
As many owners of classic Ferrari own several other cars in their
collection maybe opening the other races to a few other cars of
equal quality might by a solution as well.
Report & images ... Peter Singhof
www.ClassicCarPhotography.de
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