Italia at Zandvoort


Story and Photos by Henk Brouwer

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Henk J. Brouwer -- Netherlands

About our Correspondent:
Hailing from Arnhem in the Netherlands, Henk Brouwer is by day a UWV-Accountant, and off hours is a Ferrari enthusiast, photographer and jungle explorer.

We'd rather keep him safe in Europe, where he does fascinating articles such as the von Trips Museum and the Tour Auto. Henk travels with a Toyota Avensis, but his favorite car is the Ferrari 500 Superfast. Married, with two daughters, (Marit and Christel), this intrepid 52 year old Dutchman will cover a number of Historic challenges this year and continue to provide VeloceToday with his reports. The excellent photo of Henk was taken by his friend and fellow enthusiast, Edwin van Nes.

The Circuit of Zandvoort in Holland has a long and interesting history. In 1948 the first auto race took place and three weeks after that the first motorbike race, organized by the Royal Dutch Motorbike Club. The circuit is built in the dunes north of the village and by now quite in the neighborhood of a bungalow park, a housing estate and a residential quarter.

The very first Formula 1 Grand-Prix that counted towards the world championship was in 1952, won by Ascari in a Ferrari 500. Another highlight was the Grand Prix of 1955, with the always-smiling Fangio winning in a non-Ferrari (Mercedes). The lowest ebb was I think the last race that counted towards the world championship in 1985. when the municipality was no longer willing to put money for some modernization and security. Fortunately there were other ways to do the necessary things, like building pit-boxes and V.I.P.-rooms.

On the weekend of July 19th the 14th edition of the Pirelli Italia a Zandvoort took place at this historic circuit. This year the weather forecast -important for the success of this kind of event- was very bad. But when I arrived on Saturday it was cloudy with bright intervals and above all dry. Entering the first paddock I saw, to my astonishment, lots of clubs, dealers, merchandisers and party-tents with promotion teams to invite the young ladies and gents to come and look at the presentation of brand-new car models, car-tuning, etc, or grab a hamburger or a coke. In my experience it all greater than all previous events on Zandvoort, except perhaps the Marlboro Masters. The clubs and dealers represented Lamborghini, Maserati and I saw Alfa Romeo, Fiat and Bugatti. but also Ducati and MV Augusta motorcycles.

There were some races on the track, like the Pirelli Maranello Challenge with their gentlemen drivers, but the action came from the Pearl Alfa 147 GTA Challenge -in their second round- where one always can enjoy the speed and action of these fast cars and enthusiastic drivers. Next there was a race of Italian Historic cars like the Alfa Romeos, Bizzarrini GT Stradale, Abarth 1000s and a Ferrari Daytona .

The organizers had the intention to let all these exotic and less exotic cars on the track on Sunday and indeed that happened. So, there was heavy traffic on the track and in one or two occasions it nearly went wrong. But aside from one spin of a Ferrari F40 in the Tarzan curve (and that was no surprise with the driver having no experience on a track and nearly 500hp behind the driver's seat).

On Saturday Peter Sowerby (in the 360 Challenge) crashed just entering the Hugenholtz curve. He wouldn't finish but on Sunday he was back and won the race before Hans Hugenholtz. For the race of the Pearle Alfa 147 GTA Challenge on Sunday I have to mention the winner Rory Bertram, followed by Tom Coronel (also driving Le Mans) and Sandor van Es, all guys who always can be found on leading places.

A nice spectacle was the 90 years of Maserati on the track, and of course the paddock filled up with Ferraris of member of the Ferrari Club Nederland. All in all, it’s an event that in the beginning was organized by the Ferrari Club and the Importer of Ferrari in Holland Kroymans. Also some German and Belgian invitees were there and one saw the normal modern Ferraris, next to three F40s, four Testarossas, a Challenge Stradale and a few classics like Dinos, a 330, and 250s among others.

A highlight was s/n 0365 GT, a 250 Europe GT Coupe Pinin Farina Series II in silver-gray with a brown interior. At the height of the event there were 85 Ferraris counted for and in the end all these cars went "on track" too for taxi-drives or just for the fun of it. After a while watching these cars doing their rounds for me this event ended and I left with mixed feelings. It was a pity that there were only a few classic Ferraris because in the past I saw more. And, no F 1 demonstration this year, which always attracts many spectators to the event. No Historic Challenge, for which probably more lobbying at Ferrari is necessary. Ah well, I had a good time and I think I made some nice photos too… that's enough for me !! I won't miss it next time…