PIRELLI MARANELLO FERRARI CHALLENGE
REPORT : ROUNDS 12 & 13 : NURBURGRING : 14-16 SEPTEMBER 2001

The last time the Ferrari Challenge visited the Nurburgring in 1999 it was hot, balmy and lovely. What a contrast this year! At one stage the cold rain had the distinct feel of sleet about it.

The double-header was part of the SportsRacing World Cup event, which made for a very busy paddock and the opportunity to gaze at (and listen to) some wonderful 333SPs, one of which won the Championship at the meeting.

The Ferraris had a busy weekend. Friday morning brought a free practice session which was dominated by Nathan Kinch (360/Ch), who was almost four seconds ahead of Gary Culver, Rod Carman and David Ashburn (all in 355/Chs), with Alan Cosby (F512M) next.

Then there were two qualifying sessions and the quickest time from either would count towards grid positions for both races. The first session on Friday afternoon started just as a rain shower had passed. This caused a few drivers, notably Martin Shaw in the Hetherington 360/Ch, to change to wet tyres but this turned out to be a wrong decision as the track dried very rapidly. Kinch again dominated, with Ashburn driving very aggressively to take second, ahead of Culver, Cosby and Ward (355/Ch).

The second qualifying took place at the ungodly and freezing cold hour of 8.00 a.m. on Saturday (7.00 a.m. UK time remember), just as the sun was beginning to rise over the grandstand. Kinch and Ashburn stayed in bed, confident that their times would not be beaten, but Gary Culver set to with a vengeance and just squeezed Ashburn off the front row to line up alongside Kinch, who remained the quickest. Graham Reeder (355/Ch) improved significantly to take over fourth slot ahead of Shaw, Ward and Carman. Two unfortunate non-starters were going to be Cosby and Peter Lowe (308GT4) who both had transmission failures during the first qualifying. They headed back to Blighty. This left just 16 cars on the grid.

Round 12

The first race was, yet again, an 8.00 a.m. one, on Sunday morning. It was wet and cold and everyone worried about how the field would get round the notorious first corner, particularly with everyone just behind Kinch being very closely packed in terms of qualifying times.

As they splashed off the grid and headed towards the slightly downhill first corner in a ball of spray the inevitable happened. Ashburn started to lose it and there was massive avoiding action in the bunch behind Kinch. Ward also spun in the middle of the field but somehow everyone avoided contact, got their cars straightened out and continued racing. Although Culver tried to edge ahead of Kinch it was the latter who held a big lead by the time they completed their first lap. Culver was second, ahead of Carman, Ron Simons (308GTB) and Nuttall.

By the second lap Kinch had a 16-second lead which, by the fourth lap, had become 26 seconds. But behind him there were all manner of battles. Simons reeled in and passed Culver, whilst Ward, who had fallen far back with his first lap spin, was really flying in the treacherous conditions and closing fast. On lap three he was up into fifth place and by lap six he had actually caught and passed the normally unassailable Culver to take over the lead in the "C" class.

Behind there were numerous other close tussles. For lap after lap Graham Reeder, Chris Catt (355/Ch) and Shaw disputed seventh place, whilst Ted Reddick and Fletcher Barnett (both in 355/Chs) scrapped equally closely for 11th place but well behind Richard Stevens (355/Ch), who had no-one to battle with as he splashed around in tenth place. Even at the tail of the field there was no peace as Duncan McKay (308GTB) got past his rival John Swift, who was driving Ashburn's 355 "O" class car, and then set off after Mike Reeder's 355/Ch which he passed in a daring out-braking manouvre on lap seven.

At the front Kinch made it look very easy as he rolled off one superb lap after another to take the win by over one minute. But behind him it was all change as firstly Simons spun from his second place back into fourth, which left Ward in second overall before, on the final lap, he was cruelly robbed of an excellent result when his alternator failed and he had to retire. This put Culver back into second by the time the chequered flag came out, ahead of Simons and then a phalanx of 355/Chs in the order of Nuttall, Carman, Reeder and Catt.

Round 13

The second race was scheduled to take place immediately after the main sportscar race had finished at about 4.00 p.m. Although there had been some intermittent rain showers, the afternoon had stayed generally dry and various glimpses of the sun had given hope that there might be a dry race. No such luck, however, as the heavens opened with icy rain just before the Ferraris were due to head to the assembly area. With the skies black for as far as the eye could see, everyone was on wet tyres - except for Gary Culver who, in an amazingly optimistic move, decided to fit a set of slicks!

On a completely soaking track the field headed gingerly into the first corner and this time they got away with it. Kinch went into an immediate lead, with Ward and Ashburn slotting in behind and Simons already up into fourth place from 11th on the grid. Culver inevitably had slipped straight down towards the back of the field and was slithering around on his slicks in 12th position.

Ashburn was hard on Ward's tail but then an intermittent electrical fault put him back down into fifth place behind Simons and Graham Reeder.

Kinch repeated his disappearing act at the front to draw out a lead of 42 seconds by the end. Ward drove the race of his life to pull away from the rest of the field in an equally secure second place. With his engine back on full song Ashburn, however, threw all caution to the winds as he set about recovering his lost positions.

On lap four he caught and passed Graham Reeder to move back into fourth place and then began to close on the very quick 308 of Ron Simons. It took him a couple of laps to get on his tail and two more laps to get past. At the front Kinch cruised to his second untroubled win of the day, with Ward finishing second, some 11 seconds ahead of Ashburn. Simons finished fourth, with Nuttall taking fifth to round off an excellent weekend for him.

Sixth was Graham Reeder in front of Stevens and Reddick, who had fought a race-long dual which had Reddick in front until it really mattered - on the very last lap Reddick had a moment which handed seventh place to Stevens.

By race-end the rain had turned into a torrential downpour and everyone was just glad to see the chequered flag and get off the waterlogged track in one piece. There were a number of drivers who could have taken the Wilkinson Driver of the Day award but in the end it was presented to Robin Ward for his two excellent drives in his blue Damax 355.

Click here to return to the Pirelli Maranello Ferrari Challenge page.