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Fotografia Corse

GOODYEAR MARANELLO FERRARI CHALLENGE
RACE REPORT : ROUND 9 : DONINGTON

All Bowled Over

Another healthy grid of 28 Ferraris emerged in pleasant sunshine for the second Donington meeting of the year, this time on the short circuit. After its Castle Combe mishap, Peter Cook's F40 was an obvious non-starter, together with the 512M of Alan Cosby, who was still soaking up the holiday rain in Alderney.

Qualifying followed the usual pattern, with Stuart Bowler (F40) ahead of the two Christopher brothers (308GTB and GT4) and Paul Ciardiello. The latter, however, withdrew his 328 following qualifying, due to worryingly low oil pressure.

Amongst the 'O' class Gary Culver (328) qualified ahead of Graham Reeder's 355, but with David Ashburn (355GTS) lurking just behind.

From the start Bowler took a lead he was never to lose. George Christopher immediately fell back with a detached throttle cable and the pursuit of Bowler was taken up by Andy C and John Pogson (F355/Ch). Rory Fordyce's Testarossa lost all but fourth gear at the start and he also dropped back, leaving five 355 Challenge cars to pursue the leading two.

Pogson unfortunately fancied his chances of catching Andy Christopher a little too much and exiting the chicane at the end of the seventh lap he got it all wrong and smote the pit wall a mighty blow which caused the race to be quickly stopped. His car was severely damaged front and back and there was initially some concern when John failed to emerge from it. However, it turned out that the marshals were being ultra careful in ensuring that the doctors checked him over before allowing him to exit from the remains of the 355.

The race result was therefore declared as at the end of the sixth lap, which gave Bowler an unchallenged win, just ahead of Andy C and the unfortunate Pogson. Marco Attard (355/Ch) scored his best result with a fourth place finish and the other two Challenge cars of Mike Roberts and Ian Hetherington ended a mighty duel just half a second apart in 5th and 6th places.

The 'O' class was won as usual by Graham Reeder, but only two seconds behind came Fred Moss (348tb) who also took the fastest lap in the class. Gary Culver was out of contention this time with spongy brakes due to a weeping bleed nipple.

For his excellent drive from 20th on the grid to 12th and fastest lap in the 'O' class, Fred Moss was presented with the Psygnosis Driver of the Day award.

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