A fine entry of 23 Ferrari classics presented themselves bright and (very) early at the Morgan car Club meeting at Donington. Over all it was a quiet meeting with the second paddock looking very empty, so most of the Ferraris slipped into the various pit garages that were available.

Leading the entry was undoubtedly the powerful Daytona of Tim Summers, a proper race-prepared machine, with the added advantage of being able to use 'free' tyres as opposed to the Pirelli road tyres everyone else had to run on. Pirelli don't make Daytona-sized tyres so by special dispensation it was able to run other makes - and was fitted with Dunlop racing tyres. This would give the others some hard chasing to do, but the usual crowd of Jim Cartwright (328GTB), Dave Tomlin (308GTB), Wayne Marrs (328GTB) et all vowed to give it everything.

Cary Culver (328GTB) was having his first Ferrari race of the season and was immediately on the qualifying pace, showing little race rust.

Not unexpected the Daytona was quickest in qualifying - by some 1.5 secs. It was not only due to tyres, Summers was really driving the car hard and deserved his pole. Jim C was next ahead of Tomlin, Culver, Ben Cartwright and Marrs who were all close together on times. It looked like a pair of good races coming up.

Race 1
It was actually warm by the time they formed up on the grid! But then they waited there for a good 10 minutes or so whilst the marshals cleaned up some fluid that had been dropped on the track by Carl Burgar's Mondial which promptly retired to the pits.

When eventually they started Summers went into a lead he was never to lose. Jim C chase hard, and even caught right up at the end, but also had Culver right behind him and Tomlin close by. Those three had an entertaining dice before Jim was able to pull away and then Tomlin slipped into third place ahead of Culver.

Behind the leading group there was a fabulous dice between Marrs, Ted Pearson (328GTS), Nick Cartwright (328GTB), Nick Taylor (Mondial), Nicky Paul-Barron (328GTB), Craig Milner (328GTB) and Ben Cartwright (328GTB) which lasted until lap 8 when Pearson's car suddenly erupted into black smoke and burst into flames as it went past the pits. He pulled off just past the pits exit but the marshals were woefully slow with their extinguishers and it all looked worrying until a fire tender drove out of the pits and extinguished everything. Pearson was out of the car and unharmed, but the organisers wisely decided to red flag the race.

As more than half-distance had been reached there was no restart and the result was called as at the end of lap 8, with the Summers Daytona the winner but only narrowly ahead of Jim C. Tomlin and Culver were only a second apart in the next two places.

Race 2
The grid for the second race was largely the same as the first, with the organisers taking the second quickest qualifying time into account.
Again the Summers Daytona shot into a lead it was never to lose. Jim C chased hard but was simply not able to keep up although he pulled clear of the rest of the field. Tomlin disappeared into the gravel trap on the second lap and this gave Culver the third spot, and that was how the top three finished at the end of the 20 minute race.

But, as in Race 1, there was some great racing behind. Marrs was at the head of a squabbling bunch that constantly swapped positions; in there was Ben C, Nicky P-B, Taylor and Nick C, gradually pulling away from Craig Milner.

This time the race lasted for the full 20 minutes and it was the Daytona that took the chequered flag, with Summers having some lurid slides around the corners to keep his concentration going. Jim Cartwright finished six seconds behind and Culver in a lonely third place but a good result nevertheless after his time away. Marrs, Ben Cartwright and Nicky P-B completed the top six.

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