PADDOCK STORIES

• By common consent, it was one of the best Maranello races ever seen. The battles were tight, cars were often three abreast, the final outcomes were always in doubt and, on top of it all, not one car actually touched another! That alone, in view of recent happenings, was worth noting.

• Whilst the spectators enjoyed the closeness of the PMFC racing, the organisers themselves could not have been more helpful towards the Ferrari people in the paddock. Every request from the competitors was instantly acted upon, helpfulness was in the air and it all made a pleasant change from some of the Gestapo tactics of weekend officials who are given an armband for their 15 minutes of fame.

• A newcomer to the series, Nick May, in Zest Racings' Testarossa, was a name that some of you may be familiar with. Never one to take an easy route, he was a contestant in the British Touring Car Championship in the 1980s in, of all things, a Maserati! He drove some stunningly quick laps in the wet qualifying session, being easily the fastest.

• Sleeping arrangements became the subject of paddock gossip when one team, which shall remain nameless (but comes from Knutsford), returned from a beer or two in the wee hours of the morning and got rather confused amongst the dark corridors of the hotel. There was a loud scream the next morning when a certain mechanic awoke to find himself sharing a bed with, er, another.

• John Seale's ability to put together one banzai lap in his 355 Challenge was never better demonstrated than at Zolder. Whilst his quickest lap during the two races was 1:51.9 he did a stunning 1:50.5 to grab pole position, over 1½ secs ahead of the next man.

• Photographer-extraordinaire Paul Jarmyn's flashy Lexus pulled into the paddock after its run from the UK and, with an enormous sigh, spat out both of its front tyres. Panicky 'phone calls ensued and team patron John Christopher rustled up a pair of new Pirellis and brought them over with him from England.

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Race Report

Results & Points Standing