Palm Beach, 23rd of January
The 23rd edition of the annual Cavallino Classic started today with
the first of two track days at the Palm Beach International
Raceway. As in previous years the first day saw just few cars on
track and looking at the prices just from last week’s auctions in
Arizona it is not a big surprise that less and less cars of this
value are raced these days. Although again three different race
groups were set up with the drum brake and disc break classes
plus an own pre-war field barely more than half a dozen cars per
session were seen on the track, more or less the usual suspects
from the previous meetings.
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Ed and Leslie Davies alone brought five cars to play against Tom
Price and Charles Wegner in their known cars. Although the
groups were small it was nice to see a duo of 250 TR (0748TR
and 0756TR) as well as a duo of 250 GTO (3705GT and 4757GT)
running side by side.
In the disc break class no less than 3 512 BBLM were seen
(29509, 29511 and 31589), even a forth was spotted in the
paddocks (26683) that just finished its restoration back to the
1979 Le Mans specification, most likely this car will be rather
seen at the concours on Saturday than tomorrow at the second
track day.
After a morning and an afternoon training session the first day
saw the traditional Jet Aviation Center Reception at the Palm
Beach Airport. In between the newest jets classic and modern
Ferrari were parked, the owners enjoyed a relaxed evening with
some good wine, food and models showed the latest fur
creations. At the end of the evening the best Ferrari by public vote
was awarded and it was never as close as this year. Two
exceptional racing Ferrari made most spectators a hard decision,
on one side the brutish 335 S (0764), on the other side the sleek
250 LM, both cars were entered by Europeans. At the end the
250 LM succeeded, brought over by the Cottingham brothers from
DK Engineering.
Tomorrow will see the second track day, and as the 335S is
supposed to drive in one of the open categories there will be
another highlight. In the evening there will be a slight change from
the previous editions as the award ceremony for the races will not
be held in the harbour during the yacht hop but there will be a
pool party at The Breakers instead.
Text & images ... Peter Singhof www.ClassicCarPhotography.de
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