Ferrari Challenge North America completed its North American calendar with a spectacular pair of races at Homestead-Miami speedway on Sunday. With no ease to the heat and humidity of the weekend, drivers persevered and demonstrated the best aspects of the Ferrari Challenge series.
Mark Issa is Coppa Shell Champion. Today’s action confirmed the first Ferrari Challenge champion for the 2019 season. Mark Issa, with his second place finish in Sunday’s racing action, has been confirmed as the Coppa Shell champion, beating out Brian Davis for the title. Mark earns the championship in his inaugural Ferrari Challenge season on the back of six wins and three second place finishes. Along the way, he demonstrated both speed and consistency earning numerous pole positions and fastest laps, while also only missing the podium in two races from 12 opportunities. Congratulations Mark!
Trofeo Pirelli. Benjamin Hites (The Collection) took the win in race 2 of Trofeo Pirelli action on Sunday, after Cooper MacNeil (Scuderia Corsa – Ferrari of Westlake) again suffered mechanical problems that prohibited him from converting his pole position starting spot. From the very beginning, Cooper was in trouble as Ben was able scythe around the outside in the fast turn 1 and generate a lead that he would never relinquish. Further back, Marc Muzzo took his second podium of the weekend but finished over 20 seconds adrift of the young Chilean driver. Martin Burrowes (Ferrari of Ft. Lauderdale) took the third spot but was well off the pace after spinning through turn 1 and rejoining. Ultimately, it was not all doom and gloom for Cooper as a small Trofeo Pirelli showing at Homestead meant that he still finished fourth in the category and took home those valuable points.
Trofeo Pirelli AM. Trofeo Pirelli AM saw a bit of a repeat from Saturday’s action as ZIad Ghandour (Boardwalk Ferrari) tried to chase down Dave Musial (Ferrari of Lake Forest) for 1st position, and ultimately fall short. Thus Dave Musial had a winning weekend, carrying three seconds of margin to Ziad when the two crossed the checkered flag. A battle between Brent Holden (Ferrari of Newport Beach) and John Megrue (Ferrari of Long Island) also raged for much of the race, as it did on Saturday. Brent was able to muscle his way past the aggressive defense that John offered and secured a third place finish for his efforts.
Coppa Shell. Roberto Perrina (Ferrari of Seattle) was re-categoriezed to Coppa Shell after his remarkable performance on Saturday and promptly went on to claim a dominant win over Mark Issa (Ferrari of Atlanta) on Sunday. Mark Issa, however, did exactly what he needed to do, securing enough points to win the 2019 Coppa Shell championship in North America. With a 45 point gap to Brian Davis (Ferrari of Palm Beach), Mark has exactly the maximum number of points that Brian could score, meaning the championship would come down to the number of wins and second places each driver earned. While the two could theoretically match win totals for the season, Mark took three second place finishes to Brian’s one and has thus been crowned champion of the Coppa Shell category in 2019. Osvaldo Gaio (Miller Motorcars) also made a triumphant return to the podium, finishing third place, just two seconds ahead of a hard-charging Brian Davis (Ferrari of Palm Beach) who ultimately came home forth.
Coppa Shell AM. Ian Campbell (Ferrari of New England) ensured his season began and ended in the best possible way after taking a win in race 2 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, beating out Jay Schreibman (Cauley Ferrari) by just under five seconds as they crossed the stripe. Sureel Choksi (Ferrari of Denver) also made it to the podium after crossing the line a further six seconds adrift of Jay Schreibman.
Schedule. Ferrari Challenge North America has now completed its North American season and will return to Italy for the FInali Mondiali at Mugello. On track action for North American competitors will begin on October 23rd and continue through October 27. Championships will be decided in racing action on Friday and Saturday while all three regions will race together on Sunday for the World Finals.