It has been an exceptional year for Ferrari.. Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello have dominated the F1 season for the third year in a row. The sales of Ferrari and Maserati GT cars is positive regardless of the crisis of the car market all over the world. Finally, the introduction of the new Enzo demonstrated Ferrari’s trust in the market, and all the limited production has already been sold.
Every October in Italy, Ferrari organises a big celebration which includes the international finals of the different challenges, and provides a good opportunity for all the Ferrari supporters to spend few hours close to their dream team. Of course the celebration is bigger when there are victories to celebrate, but even in the bad years, support for the event has always been enthusiastic.
This year the event took place in Misano Adriatico, a village on the Adriatic Sea that is about 150 kilometres east of Modena and 50 kilometres from Imola.
The circuit is about 4 kilometres long and is well known in Italy for hosting motorcycle races.
"Tutte le Ferrari a Misano" (All the Ferraris in Misano), covered three days and drew over 50,000 spectators.
During the three days, there were practice and racing sessions for the Historic Challenge (single seat, drum brake and disc brake) and old Formula 1 exhibitions were held. The Historic challenge drew about 25 cars for the drum disk, 30 for the disc drum class and 10 for the monoposto event. The quality of the cars was very high and the models presented were very rare, such as the Alfa Romeo 158 owned by the Swiss Vogele, the Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa of the Brasilian Monteverde and the Italian Brigato, and the Ferrari P4 of David Piper. Maseratis were in racing in the monoposto and in the drum brake class. While in the disc class there were two wonderful Tipo 61 and Tipo 63 with Camoradi colors.
Both practice sessions and races were very hard, due to the high temperature and the competition; historic cars are not easy to be driven and the effort is huge.
The winners of the different races were Monteverde with his Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa, May's Maserati A6GCM and Franklin driving his Ferrari 712 Can Am.
There was also a non-competitive exhibition, when many old Ferrari Formula 1 cars participated, showing that they are still very well maintained and may offer the same feelings as when they were raced by Lauda, Alboreto, Mansell, etc.
But the expectation of the public was mainly concentrated on the big Ferrari event planned for Sunday 12 o’clock.
VeloceToday will feature more of Misano and more great photos in an upcoming issue!
Photo Gallery: Misano, October 18-20
Click on images to view larger images.
Spectacular Alfa 158, currently owned by Vogele of Switzerland.
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The classic A6GCM Maserati Formula 1 car from 1953, May, Great Britain.
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Ferrari 625F1, entered by Boswell from Great Britain.
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From Belgium came this Maserati A6GCS, entered by Devis.
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Traber's Ferrari 250GT MM, ready for the Historics.
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Again from Belgium, Lancksweert brought this Ferrari 375 Plus.
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Not a Monza but a 340MM, entered by Crippa from Italy.
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The Maserati 200SI owned by Zweifler.
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From Italy, this is a Monza 750, owned by Burani.
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A U.S. entry was this Maserati 300S, driven by Binnie.
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Beautiful in yellow--the 250GT Boano, entered by Gertsch.
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Long wheelbase 250GT Ferrari, entered by Haas, another Swiss.
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From France, Marcq entered this Maserati Tipo 61 Birdcage.
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To remind us of why the Americans applied the term "birdcage" to the Tipo 61.
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