PIRELLI MARANELLO FERRARI CHALLENGE

• Although it was still the annual Italia a Zandvoort meeting, it had obviously suffered from a downgrade and none of the factory 360 races were included. The organisation of Ferrari-related race meetings in Europe seems very haphazard these days, with Ferrari Days being separated from 360 Challenge and further separated from Shell Historics. Why don't they get it all together like they managed at Spa? Seems the 360 and Shell boys just don't want the other to upstage them.

• The Reddick F355 carried a message on its tail, allegedly written in Dutch, to the effect that we were sorry we hadn’t more cars in Holland and we thanked the organisers for inviting us to their race meeting. This caused much amusement to Felista Verzijlbergen, the secretary of HARC, who spotted several spelling mistakes.

• Punctures were again a worrying feature - is it something to do with this circuit? Already in the 2003 race there was a number of tyre incidents and this time it was no different with, in particular, Peter Sowerby coming to grief as a result of a puncture. David Back crossed the finish line with a flat tyre in the first race.
  
  
• It was hard work all weekend for Mike Reeder. With his own 355/Ch having been sold he used brother Graham's yellow one fresh from its class-win at Spa in Ted Reddick's hands. At first it had alternator problems, then in Q1 he was black flagged with a non-functioning transponder, then it was clutch slip and, after it had been replace with a standard road unit, a defective oil seal was diagnosed and the whole thing was parked up at the start of Race 2. It's funny isn't it how cars can go from winning races to complete cussedness in one easy move.
  
  
• Mark Leighton was pretty busy after Spa trying to put Ted's engine back together again after he had managed a lap at Spa with no oil pressure. It still needed running-in and Ted qualified quietly and finished eight seconds behind Witt Gamski in Race 1, before then giving it loads and chasing Les Charneca all the way to the flag in Race 2, although it has to be noted that Gamski's best lap was nearly two seconds quicker than either of them.
  
  
• Speaking of lap times, let's indulge in our favourite past-time of comparisons. Last year, even the European 360 racers were pretty amazed when 'Lucy' Carter did a 1:48.5 as his pole time. This year Peter Sowerby managed a 1:50.7 so there's still a way to go. Graham Reeder holds the "C" record with a 1:56.6 in 2003, and this year Witt Gamski was the closest with 1.56.7 which is just about on the button [sorry, Witt !].
  
  
• Phil Burton's white 360/Ch was just crying out for it, so he stuck a St. George's cross on the roof, whether in support of football or the UKIP we're not quite sure. He hedged his bets, of course, by using sticky tape which could quickly be removed if the wrong result ensued. Now that the footballers have blown it, let's see if the tape is still there at Oulton.........
  
  
• You'd think that weighing a car was an easy enough job - but not at Zandvoort. Scrute John May used the 'certified' scales at the circuit and came up with all sorts of wonderful measurements including one 360 that gained 6 kgs by just being pushed on and off. The scales were politely declined and the PMFC portable ones were used instead, and all was well.
  
  
  

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The next picture was unpublishable on a family website - this is Holland after all

Felista Verzijlbergen wonders why it says Ted's hovercraft is full of eels

Mike Reeder was forced into using some dodgy hire car

A bleary-eyed Mark Leighton had rebuilt Ted's engine after Spa...

...who had to take it a bit steady in qualifying to run it in

Burton's "footie" stripes were fortunately quickly removeable

"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers"

pics by Swiftypics & Paul - Fotografia Corse