Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli opened its second round under glorious blue skies and a fantastic crowd as the Challenge drivers took to the track for the first time in their Ferrari 488 Challenge Evos. The day was marked by exceptional competition from the Challenge participants, tight but fair, without a single caution to interrupt the action.
Trofeo Pirelli. Cooper MacNeil (Scuderia Corsa – Ferrari of Westlake) took victory in the opening race of the Ferrari Racing Days weekend, leading from the start, setting the best lap by over one second and cruising to victory by over 13 seconds from his nearest competitor. Second place went to Martin Burrowes (Ferrari of Ft. Lauderdale) who led a small pack of Trofeo Pirelli competitors including Joe Rubbo (Ferrari of Long Island) and Ross Chouest (Boardwalk Ferrari). For much of the race, Joe Rubbo had to hold off Ross, and was ultimately successful, taking the third place on the podium.
Trofeo Pirelli AM. Jean-Claude Saada (Boardwalk Ferrari) made a triumphant return to the top step of the podium after a difficult Daytona weekend. He also took a commanding win over his nearest chasers in the category, winning by seven seconds over Brian Davis (Ferrari of Palm Beach) and a further seven seconds over the eventual third place finisher, Barry Zekelman (Ferrari of Ontario). The most entertaining battle of the race, however, was actually a bit further down the Trofeo Pirelli AM category as Aaron Weiss (Continental Autosports), Dave Musial (Ferrari of Lake Forest) and Brent Holden (Ferrari of Newport Beach) who finished within a second of each other at the end of the thirty minute contest.
Coppa Shell. Jason McCarthy (Wide World Ferrari) continued his excellent run of form, begun at Daytona, with another win and fast lap over second place finisher Jay Schreibman (Cauley Ferrari). There were significant parallels with the Trofeo Pirelli category as Jason was able to also take fastest lap, also by just around a second from his nearest rival. Osvaldo Gaio (Miller Motorcars) took third place, rounding out the podium and just ahead of Gentleman’s Cup winner Mike Louli (Ferrari of Ontario).
Coppa Shell AM. Justin Wetherill (Ferrari of Central Florida) also confirmed his place at the head of the Coppa Shell AM category, taking the win but just missing out on the fastest lap by three one-thousandths of a second to miss out on a perfect weekend. Unlike some of the other categories, however, Justin’s win was far from simple, eking out a win over first-time podium finisher John Lennon (Ferrari of San Francisco) by just over two tenths of a second at the line. Michael Watt (Ferrari of Atlanta) rounded out the podium, taking third place just over one second behind Justin.
Schedule. Ferrari Challenge will return to the track tomorrow with qualifying planned for 8:20AM followed by a XX Programmes session at 9:20AM. Ferrari Challenge racing action will begin with a fan walk at 11:35 before race 1 will get underway at 12:05PM. As was the case today, all on-track action will be available to watch online at live.ferrari.com.