With the end of Round 11 in Bahrain the 2006 FIA GT Championship has come to its conclusion. As expected, the GT season has largely been one of frustration and exasperation for Ferrari fans. When Maserati was part of the Ferrari group it might have seemed like a good idea to re-badge an Enzo as the MC12 to give the once-great marque some profile, but it back-fired when Ferrari divested itself of Maserati and the tipo has regularly beaten the ageing Prodrive 550M and the under-achieving N-technology 575GTC.

There's also the fact that the Prodrive Mk.II is rapidly becoming the car to have and that it's badged as an Aston Martin, instead of Ferrari. The Russian Age Racing DBR9 took the win in the final round in Bahrain after missing out so narrowly in Dubai.

The 550s of Labre Compétition made a valliant effort with three wins, finally finishing third in the teams' title chase behind two Maser teams. In addition, the drivers' title was intially claimed by Labre's Gabriel Gardel until his 550M was excluded from the results in the last round at Bahrain for not having the required 3 litres of fuel left in its tank. The results remain provisional pending the results of an appeal.

The old enemy Porsche has dominated GT2, anihilating the ageing 360GTCs with third the best result achieved by the tipo. One of these was by Scuderia Ecosse and were it not for the success they achieved in British GT, Ferrari would have had a thin year in '05 GT racing.

Ferrari's continuing and gloriously succesful competition heritage is a vitally important part of the legend and therefore attractiveness of Ferrari; also we were never going to take Maserati to our bosoms. The poor F1 season has also shown the risks of putting all its racing eggs in one basket. We need success in several areas of competition and for the Factory to bring about its own nemesis in GT racing was unfortunate. Let us hope that Scuderia Ecosse redress this in FIA GT next year with their new 430GTCs.

Meanwhile Porsche have re-entered sportscar racing with their new LMP2 car, how long will it be before we see another Porkie winner at Le Mans?

Round 9 took place in Zuhai on 23 October with the GLPK-Carsport Corvette taking the win and the Labre Compétition 550M of Lamy/Gardel beating the Masers into third and fourth. Deletraz & Piccini's GPC Sport 575GTC came home fifth.

Round 10 was in Dubai on 18 November. The Russian Age Racing Aston Martin DBR9 led until eight laps from the end when it retired with a mechanical failure. Lamy and Gardel started from the back of the grid and took a stunning win in their 550M. Deletraz/Piccini/Lemeret were sixth in the GPC Sport 575M, Fomenko/Vasiliev ninth in the Russian Age Racing 550M with Zacchia/Blanchemain/Vosse behind them in the second Labre 550M. Thurnundtaxis/Buncombe/Casadei finished third in GT2 in their JMB 360GTC.

Round 11 was the final round, held on 25 November in Bahrain. The Aston DBR9 driven by Christophe Bouchut and his new team-mate Antonio Garcia converted pole into the win ahead of a Maser. The Labre 550M of Lamy/Gardel finished fourth but was disqualified, leaving Cioci/Montermini's GPC 575GTC best Ferrari down in fifth.


Next Round: Bucharest: 23 April 2006!

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Dubai
Bahrain

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