JMB 360 Wins N-GT Championship
Estoril, 21.10.01

There was considerable Ferrari interest at the final round of the FIA GT Championship in Estoril. The Prodrive 550 Maranello had already won two rounds of the Championship and was threatening to take another. In the smaller N-GT class the JMB team's 360 Modena driven by Christian Pescatori/David Terrien had a chance of taking the title if it finished ahead of its nearest rival, a Porsche GT3R.

Qualifying was held in showery conditions and this gave rise to an unusual grid, with an N-GT class Porsche in pole position. The 550, driven by Rickard Rydell and Alain Menu, was fourth quickest but dropped to fifth when the vagueries of the weather intervened during the Superpole shootout. The 360 was even more affected by the variable weather and would start down in 20th place on the grid, the sixth quickest of the N-GT cars.

The Championship for the 360 was won just after the start. There was a mass coming-together at the first corner. The Porsche of Luca Riccitelli, which was leading the N-GT Championship, was forced into a long pit stop to repair bodywork damage. This effectively put it out of the race and all the Ferrari had to do was cruise round and finish at least third in its class, which it duly did.

The Prodrive 550 ran at the front end of the field for most of the race, although on sheer pace it was not able to compete with the two Listers of Jamie Campbell-Walter and Julian Bailey. With the changeable weather conditions it profited from good strategy and tyre choices but a coming-together with another car necessitated bodywork repairs in the pits and this dropped it down to an eventual 23rd place finish, 11 laps behind the winners, Hezemans/Bleekemolen in a Chrysler Viper.

One of the stars of the race came from an unexpected quarter: the Lamborghini Diablo normally driven by so-called "gentlemen drivers" (ie not poor and of moderate pace) was put into the hands of the talented pairing Oliver Gavin and Peter Cox. They thundered the car towards the front of the field and finished fifth, making one wonder what a properly constituted effort could achieve with a Lambo in 2002........

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