Palm Beach, 24th of January
Half time at the 23rd Cavallino Classic, the driving part of this
year’s Ferrari meeting in Palm Beach came to an end with the
second track day at the Palm Beach International Raceway,
formerly known as Moroso. Just before the static displays of the
concours at the Breakers and the final Mar-a-Lago multimarque
concours the Ferrari enthusiasts once more had the chance to
enjoy their cars on the circuit. Whereas yesterday was just free
practice today saw some competition with three races sorted by
age of the cars with the drum break and disk break era of Ferrari
and a separate pre-war race.
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In the morning the three groups had their timed practice session
for the line-up in the actual races after the lunch break.
The first race was dedicated to the older Ferraris in the drum
break class. Apart from a duo of 250 TR, a 375 MM, a 250 TdF
and a 250 GT Boano also a Maserati 250 F Grand Prix was
driving. As this was the only Maserati this year it was without
competition and pulled away from the field right from the
beginning to a trouble free victory. Following the Maserati was the
first of the 250 TR driven by Chris Cox followed by Ed and Leslie
Davies in the 375 MM and the second 250 TR. First of the closed
cars was Charles Wegner in the wonderful 250 TdF.
After the drum break cars the oldest cars from the pre-war era
had their race and it was the most interesting of the day. No less
than 5 Alfa Romeo 8C were entered this year and the fastest was
again Peter Giddings in his P3. Following him was a pack of three
cars led by Jon Shirley in another P3 followed by the Talbot Lago
and the 8C Monza. Further in the back and lapped more than
once were the smaller displacement models of the Bugatti T37
and the oldest car on track, the Aston Martin from the
Bamford&Martin era.
Last race of the day was the disk break race led from the start by
the 512 M in Sunoco livery driven by Lawrence Stroll followed by a
duo of 512 BBLM. A lonely race had the 365 GTB/4 that had no
competition in its class and was driven between the faster 512
and the following 3 litre cars including the 2 GTO, the SWB and
finally a 275 GTB Competition.
In between the practice sessions and the races the GT and
Sports car had free track time and among the modern 8 cylinder
Ferrari and the Ferrari F40 was the 335 S that did a few laps
today. Brought over to the Cavallino Classic by its new owner and
taken care by Paul Russell’s team the car was well sorted but
driving was a bit difficult for the tall driver as the driving position is
more suited for smaller drivers of the 1950s. With the modern
Ferrari passing left and right the 335 S was driven with care to
bring it back in one piece for tomorrows Concours at the Breakers
were it will be for sure on of the highlights.
After several years with the traditional yacht hop and the award
ceremony on board of one of the yachts this year the award giving
was held in the Beach Club of the Breakers. The entrants and
guests were entertained by an aquatic ballet and the day ended
with a good glass of wine to celebrate the awards.
Tomorrow morning will see the highlight of the Cavallino Classic
with the Concours at the Breakers when again some of the most
important and beautiful Ferrari will be presented at the lawn just in
front of the hotel. This year’s feature will be the 50th anniversary
of the 275 with lots of examples including at least one of the 10
NART Spyder that was already seen today at the track and it
would be a surprise if this will be the only one present.
Report & images … Peter Singhof
www.ClassicCarPhotography.de
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