PIRELLI MARANELLO FERRARI CHALLENGE
RACE REPORT : ROUNDS 2 & 3 : SPA FRANCORCHAMPS : 26-28 APRIL 2002

• Most drivers didn't bother to turn up for the Wednesday free practice session thinking it would be over-crowded with all sorts of cars. Well they should have turned up because only four cars did and they had the track all to themselves for hour after hour. Culver and Stevens took full advantage and there were undoubtedly a few others who could have benefited from all this extra track time.
  
  
• Poor Gary was really hobbling around the paddock. He had slipped a disc a couple of weeks earlier and even walking, never mind driving a racing car, was painful. Given the pressure he was under from one or two drivers he performed brilliantly to take the two wins.
  
  
• Unlike previous Spa Ferrari Days this meeting seemed completely flat. The Shell Historic entry was minimal. There were no Ferrari single-seaters and the paddock, which is usually bursting at the seams with Ferraris, was half empty. Apparently the Belgian Ferrari Club had not been invited to participate, explaining the absence of many road-going Ferraris, and there were strong rumours that the Shell Historic series would in any case be cancelled at the end of this year. There are simply too many events these days for genuine historic vehicles.
  
  
• First Beckham and now Jarmyn. The world was again rocked when Paul put his foot down a hole and broke a bone in his ankle. Never mind the yells of pain coming from the snapper, we all thought, where are we going to get our future PMFC pictures from? Get well soon Paul.
  
  
• Unnameable PMFC driver to team manager after qualifying: "This thing's undriveable, there's no grip at all". Team manager, after having a look: "Try driving the ***** thing a bit faster, the mould marks are still on the slicks".
  
  
• A number of drivers made welcome reappearances. Phil Nuttall had borrowed David Ashburn's 355 for this event and thoroughly enjoyed himself, and Rockingham supremo David Grace arrived at the last minute (as is normal for him) with the ex-Rory Fordyce 355 and acquitted himself well in both races.
  
  
• Someone who didn't appear was Ian Hetherington in his 550 Maranello. After testing it at the Club's Silverstone Track Day on Wednesday he decided that it was not worth making the journey to Spa . By then, however, the entire SCS entourage was already on its way and Duncan McKay had so many mechanics looking after him that he just didn't know what to do with them all. His biggest concern was getting the bill for that lot.
  
  
• Comparing PMFC lap times with European Challenge times is always good sport, although the comparison is not always favourable. This time, however, Culver's 2:40 secs would have put him on the front row of the "gentlemens'" 360 race, although the pole position for the Class One race was 2:36.
  

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