We were treated to a glorious day for the Festival Italia event at Brands Hatch on the 14th of August. Amongst many of the attractions the event hosted rounds 7 and 8 of the Pirelli Ferrari Formula Classic, the 2nd year the Ferrari owners club have supported the event. The two 20 minute races were run on the Indy circuit which makes for great spectating. An impressive entry of 24 cars were entered for both 20 minute races. Nick Cartwright was running his 328 GTB in the Group 4 Class.
Through the day we were treated to F1 cars demonstration laps, a big presence from Abarth also including demonstration laps and an all comers race with a wide variety of cars competing.
The classic series had a 20 minute free practice in the morning shortly followed by a 20 minute qualifying. There was also an extremely busy grid walk for the spectators as the cars sat in grid formation prior to the first race.
Nick, slightly disappointed with his qualifying position of 11th on the grid made a great start and gained several places. An exciting race followed as the front running cars soon caught up the back markers making it a very busy race as they fought their way through the back of the field. Gary Culver took the overall win in his Group 4 328 GTB with Richard Cooke in 2nd place in his 355. Nick finished in a respectable 6th position taking 2nd place in class.
For Race 2 Nick was also 11th on the grid. Not quite the same get away this time being the victim of contact with another car into the first corner knocking the steering out slightly. Once through the first corner Nick was running in 8th place behind Peter Everingham and Chris Goddard. Numerous attempts were made to get past Goddard and get after Everingham but the positions remained the same until the chequered. Gary Culver also claimed race two fending off a hard charge Richard Cooke.
