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It was all there. The weather was the kind of hot it gets in the middle of Europe, 4.5 miles of sensational, broad, undulating and technically difficult circuit lay waiting before me and we had got the Brno Grid Girl's synchronised walk-on. Twelve hand-picked, two metre tall, fashion giraffes in red beany hats and little else, who stood unwaveringly in the heat holding aloft my row number. And if that weren't enough, there, to my right, over the wall in the immaculate steel and glass pit area, sat transporter loads of Formula 1 cars and assorted historic machinery. Yet where was everybody? In fact the total absence of people became a constant source of wonderment throughout our weekend in the Czech Republic. You begin to wonder after a while whether there was some huge gala event draining the city in precisely the opposite direction to where we were going, or that some hushed up, dread disease has taken out the population. The Ferrari Show had grown out of an idea by Ferrari Deutschland's Dr Helmut Mander who was interested in giving the most northern group of Ferrari 360 Modena Challenge drivers their own race. Or more particularly a chance of of winning their own race, as Germany currently has no one racing in the series that has been able to regularly get up onto the podium alongside the drivers from Spain or France. Helmut's idea was to make a real weekend fest of it and to also invite 'GT' Ferraris from across Europe to form their own race. The surprise and disappointment was that few took up the offer. Apart from the expected cars from Germany only Peter Anderson and a few friends from Denmark, and the UK, practically the most distant nation, answered the call. Yet the circuit itself is a gem. I had gone across with my trusty 328GTB and my equally trusty mechanical wizard Neil Corns, with the car hitching a lift on the Damax truck. They had brought all the toys for their team to play with. The familiar 355/Chs of Robin Ward, Les Charneca, Chris Catt, Ted Reddick and Lord Rockingham, aka David Grace. With little room on the truck and a forecast of torrential rain, Neil and I had opted for using the four wheel space for a new set of wets rather than slicks, hoping that a Dunlop truck might turn up at the circuit to service the non-Pirelli runners. It didn't turn up and it didn't rain and I quickly realised after first practice that at the rate this curvaceous circuit was wearing out my only only set of slicks, track learning time would have to be kept to the bare minimum. No mention of the Masaryk circuit at Brno would be complete without reference to its history. An old map showed it to be 6.8 miles long and running through the town. And indeed in the days of Dieter Quester in the CSL BMW and Jaguar's 'big cats' it certainly did. A real Spa of the East. Cobbled streets, swooping hills and narrow roads through the woods all at an average speed of over 115mph. Earlier still it was even longer and more dangerous. A series of old black and white photos of both cars and bikes in the modern, glass fronted track suite served as a graphic reminder of what happened when you got it wrong in those days. Today it's shorter, slower and rarely visited. But it's a Ferrari that holds the lap record, Jean Gounon in a 333 SP with a 1:52" lap at some 110mph. To celebrate the old circuit every competitor was invited out for a tour, led by the local police. This turned into a real blast for the twenty or so racers that opted for going. Imagine the sight of Villeneuves old 312T holding back from the high speed convoy to give it a real go on the public roads. The police loved it, the drivers loved it, the towns folk loved it, even the traffic coming the other way that was brutally swept aside by the police probably loved it, and we all hoped, the woman on the bicycle who swerved and disappeared into the trees, might some day come to appreciate this extraordinary sight. Back at the track Dr Helmut had decided that, given the paucity of 'GT's', he would invite the top 12 qualifying 360's to join in our race. We had put in a plea for the worst twelve in order to make a race of it as on this long circuit the top 360's were a good six seconds a lap quicker than a 355, let alone a 328, but to no avail. Scrutineering was a running battle of Czech intransigence over seat belts and fire extinguishers on the one side and waved Blue Books and good old British ingenuity on the other. The race was started as a rolling start with me starting on an unaccustomed 8th row, just behind Chris Catt. As the green light went on I made a good start and as we exited the first right hander I was in 6th place alongside David Grace who had also made a demon start. This wasn't to last for long as my 328 was gobbled up along the straight by several 360's followed two laps later by a hard charging Robin Ward who made a fine pass downhill, on the inside turn which leads to the splendid amphitheatre section. A couple of laps from the chequered flag and I found I couldn't keep Chris Catt behind any longer and by taking advantage of the different line the more modern cars could take under braking, he squeezed by into the first esses. Of the twelve 360 drivers seven had taken the top places. Pasquale Robert Pergli of the Czech Republic was first, Robin and David first of the 'GT's' some six further places behind, followed by the Oppitzhauser 360 which Chris and myself followed home. Les took 13th place and Ted, 14th. A special 'GT' podium was arranged and Robin, David and Chris duly sprayed each other and the female giraffes with local sweet sparkling wine. A good race, but in truth for the last few laps the field was well strung out. Meantime in the pits it was the turn of the locals to entertain us. The change of management in the country has left it with a rich legacy of eccentric vehicles. None more so than the cars used by the marshals. These are stretched Tatras equipped with a 270bhp V8, rubber band suspension and determined drivers who think nothing of luridly drifting these machines like high speed galleons straight from the track into the paddock. There wasalso the home grown, Skoda Estelle chassied F40 which showed up to amaze us all with its ingenuity if not its provenance. After a typical Challenge race on Sunday morning a few of the 360's were running lame or were reluctant to race again and withdrew. For the 'GT's', Sunday was almost a repeat of Saturday. Robin made a better start this time and he and I followed David into the first corner side by side. Metre by metre he pulled away and reeled in David going on to pass him four laps later. Robin really drove well and for a while looked to be right up there amongst the quickest 360's. With worn tyres now causing some pretty wayward if entertaining handling on my 328, Chris once again got his blue and orange 355 by me, even Ted did at one point, and we swapped places for a while till I finally made a pass stick with a somewhat bold move going into the amphitheatre, two laps from the finish, much to the audible pleasure of the crowd. Ted then missed a gear coming onto the straight allowing me to break the tow and hoof it off to the finish, two seconds ahead. 360's still held all the top slots but we all felt that we had done quite well to finish 4th through to 8th up against faster, more modern competition, albeit some way behind the very quickest cars On the GT podium the champagne flowed, David once again soaking the giraffes. In all an odd weekend. A No-Show in one sense. All of the drivers loved the circuit and the races, but except for the battles the Brits were having, the racing was too spaced out and boring compared with the UK and other European events. Yet all of us agreed that the town, the people and the subsequent day off in Prague, made Brno's Ferrari Show a weekend well worth travelling over for. My thanks to Neil of Omega Motorsport and Siobhan, all the Damax boys, and in particular Rick, who liked my car so much he cleaned it at every opportunity! Click here to return to the Ferrari Happenings page.
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