Monteverde gets a double helping at Brands

Changeable weather did its best to ruin the second Ferrari Festival at Brands Hatch, but the weekend still proved a delight for fans of the Prancing Horse.

The Shell Historic Ferrari/Maserati races provided Carlos Monteverde with an excellent weekend. He won both drum-braked sportscar races in his Ferrari Testa Rossa, and then watched David Franklin win both disc-braked events in his loaned 712.

These events brought some wonderful cars to the grid: in the pair of races for drum-braked cars, Bill Binnie’s Maserati 300S gave chase to Monteverde; the Ferrari 512 of Dutchman John Bosch led the chase of Franklin’s Can-Am racer when the discbraked cars took to the track.

Mixed in with the Ferrari events were races for Thoroughbred Grand Prix Cars and the FORCE F1/F5000. Sadly, both of them were run on the fight Indy circuit rather than the glorious Grand Prix track, which hosted the balance of the weekend’s races. But with no international track licence for the GP loop, the two FIA-sanctioned series had to be switched to the 1.2-miler.

The TGP dice brought the weekend to a close and Fredy Kumschick took another victory in his Williams FVVO7C in a restarted race. With a car in a risky position, the race was halted, then run over 28 laps rather than the intended 30.

Prior to the stoppage, Kumschick, Richard Eyre (FW08) and Duncan Dayton (FWO7C) made a glorious sight, storming around the 43sec lap in close formation. However, Dayton was delayed at the restart when his engine didn’t fire, and Kumschick outpaced Eyre for victory. Michael Whatley’s title bid continued with another class win in his Ensign.

More rain heralded the start of the FORCE race, but some drivers gambled on slick tyres. Former Classic F3 racer Peter Williams led the field in his March 761 until he slithered into the huge gravel trap at Paddock Hill Bend just after half-distance. Nick Crossley then took over to win in his March 73A, finishing almost 30sec clear of Frank Lyons (Lola T332). The Williams FW06 of Andrew Wareing was best of the F1 cars.