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A race of attrition and some good, hard competition on the track benefited the Veloqx Prodrive team as second place in the GTS class was claimed by the Ferrari 550 GTS Maranello of Kelvin Burt, Anthony Davidson and Darren Turner. The Britons overcame brake problems early in the race and the loss of Kelvin Burt through illness towards the last quarter of the event to take second place on the podium place behind the class-wining Corvette of Johnny O’Connell, Ron Fellows and Franck Freon.
The teams second 550, driven by Jamie Davies, Tomas Enge and Peter Kox, did not enjoy such good fortune. The car was retired at 7.20pm with a terminal clutch problem. They had been running in a strong 3rd place in class when the problem arose. Jamie Davies told the story: “When I first went out the grip of the car felt good and it was fine but after about five laps I heard a noise and thought it might be the engine but there were no alarms showing so I carried on. As I carried on, I thought I was imagining it, but it felt as though the car was going fractionally slower on the straights. I couldn’t understand it because I was pushing quite hard in the cooler conditions, attacking in the corners and the car felt good, but the laps times just weren’t there. Towards the end, as I was coming out of the hairpin, the car jumped and the clutch jarred and started slipping and it just got worse. That was the end basically.” The Olive Garden-sponsored 550 of the Rafanelli team also retired.
The two JMB 360GTs were quick, but not quick enough to deal with the
Porsches. Fourth in the GT class was the end result for Babini/Pescatori/
Gregoire whilst the Manfredini/Garbagnati/Earle car soldiered on through
various troubles to be classified 12th in class. The final Ferrari, the ACEMCO team's 360GT driven by Zacharias/Lewis/Davis, retired after 233 laps.
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Some mixed
fortunes but also honourable results came from the eight Ferraris entered
for the ALMS Sebring 12 Hour race. Highlight was the second place in the
GTS class for the Veloqx Prodrive 550 but lowlight must have been the
frightening accident which left 360 driver Kevin McGarrity nursing two
broken legs.
