Donington Shell Historic - Ferrari Owners' Club

Almost 10 years to the day since the hastily arranged European Grand Prix took place in near monsoon conditions, the Vintage Sports Car Club, in conjunction with the Shell Historic Ferrari Maserati Challenge, promoted a weekend's historic motorsport to commemorate Ayrton Senna's peerless drive - during which he overtook five cars on the first lap and was quite simply in a class of his own.

Interspersed with three, double-header 14 lap races for the Historic Challenge were races for the annual Richard Seaman Memorial Vintage and Historic Trophies commemorating the British driver who was a member of the renowned pre war Silver Arrows Mercedes team.

The paddock garages were occupied by the Shell Historic Challenge competitors (this was round 3 of the 2003 championship) along with a selection of modern F1 cars that were demonstrated in two groups at lunchtime on each day. One was for Ferraris only and the other a selection of cars associated with or raced by Ayrton Senna. How sad that we never saw the two together......

Undoubted "star" of the demonstrations was Earl Goddard in a factory supported F2001 who stopped the clock with a stunning 58.3 sec lap of the National circuit. Familiar names to tifosi also took part in this tribute - Paul Osborn and Dutchmen John Bosch and Frederico Kroymans.

Sadly missing from the Challenge A grid (for front engined pre and post war Maserati and Ferrari) was Spa and Monza winner Thomas Bscher in his Maserati 250F and longtime enthusiast Burkhard von Schenk in a similar car.The somewhat depleted field had Tony Smith in his ex Corner Ferrari 246 Dino on pole with additional runner Stefan Schwolleck in his Maserati 6CM alongside and recent Le Mans Classic winner Willie Green in Carlo Vogele's stunning Alfa 158 third.

Not surprisingly the Dino's pace was such that Smith lead from pole to flag with Schwolleck 2nd and Green 3rd in an uneventful race. In Sunday's race Smith made it 2 wins out of 2 starts with Carlo Vogele in his Alfa158 second and Schwolleck third.

Brazilian Carlos Monteverde has been an ardent Challenge supporter and his generosity in sharing the unique Ferrari 712 Can Am with David Franklin has been reciprocated in Franklin's on track success throughout Europe - and in Challenge C he proved it again in both races. Sadly missing from the grids were Peter Hardman in Harry Leventis's 412P and Leventis himself in his 206SP. However this disappointment was countered by the entry of two of the three 330GTO's made, in the hands of European enthusiasts Carlo Vogele and Eric Heerema, American domiciled Scot Bill Binnie in his 312P and Jean Guikas and Paul Knapfield in stunning 512 BBLMs.

Practice was not without drama - Francois Degand's Competition Daytona "lunched" its engine in the biggest way possible on the start/finish straight and some of us were trying to guestimate the angles of power oversteer that the similarly mounted John Bosch controlled exiting the chicane!

With a mid afternoon start time, David Franklin lead from pole with Bill Binnie and Jean Guikas in hot pursuit; Paul Knapfield's similar car appeared to falter briefly and John Bosch assumed 4th place for the first three laps. Carlos Monteverde in his 206S was charging hard as was fellow Brazilian Andre Lara Resende in the 250LM and it was a measure of Franklin's pace that he had lapped them both by lap 9. Knapfield was driving very well, his FIA GT experience in a Lister Storm helping him past John Bosch who in turn was passed by Monteverde. The win fell to David Franklin in a masterly demonstration of car control from a distant Bill Binnie and French classic car dealer Guikas; Paul Knapfield was 4th and the last of the unlapped cars, Monteverde 5th and Bosch 6th.

Sundays result was exactly the same with Franklin producing a further storming drive winning from the immaculate Paul Lanzante prepared 312P of Binnie.

Over the last three years Challenge B has seen a resurgence in numbers and the racing has been spectacular amongst the disc braked sportscars of the 50's and '60's - and Donington was even better! In practice, Belgian Vincent Gaye, in his much raced Ferrari 250 SWB was also competing unofficially for the longest slide out of the chicane - excellent car control from someone who demonstrates the SWB's versatility by also competing in the Tour Auto and Le Mans Classic each year; and Dutch Ferrari importer Frederico Kroymans in the grid's most valuable car, the 250GTO, was hot on his heels!

Thus sharing the front row were Gaye (on pole) and Kroymans with Bill Binnie (now Maserati 300S mounted) right behind. After the first three laps a pattern was starting to emerge - leader Gaye's slides out of the chicane were becoming ever more lurid whilst Kroymans got closer! Challenge newcomer but historic regular Mark Gillies (in Rodney Smith's Maserati 300S) eased away from Binnie and was clearly in Kroymans sights.....when the inevitable happened. Gaye spun on lap10 and Kroymans assumed the lead. Despite a hard charge from Gaye, Kroymans was the winner with Mark Gillies 3rd and Bill Binnie 4th.Carlos Monteverde had obviously heard about the "chicane slide" competition and despite his best efforts to spin his magnificent Testa Rossa he rounded out the top 6. Sundays race was less eventful with a fantastic controlled, aggressive drive from winner Gaye ahead of Kroymans and Gillies.

Sadly this was the UKs only round of the Historic Challenge but with the continued support of Ferrari SpA and Shell, some of the most desirable tipos ever produced in Maranello and Bologna are where they belong - on track!