2008 Mont-Tremblant Historics Race Report

July 28, 2008

FERRARI SHELL HISTORICS AT MONT TREMBLANT: DUELS OF THE TITANS

The field for the Ferrari Shell Historic Challenge event last weekend may have been slightly smaller than usual, but fans were treated to four exciting races, with titans batting for the win in each. Le Circuit, the winding 2.65 mile track in the old Quebec ski country of Mont Tremblant, was an ideal setting for those duels.

Cars racing in the Shell Historics are separated by their brakes into older cars with drums, and the newer cars with discs. "Newer" doesn’t mean new; the newest cars permitted in the series were built in 1980.

Peter Giddings has long dominated the Drum Brake group, in a variety of single-seater Alfa Romeos and Maserati. His drives in an ex-Tazio Nuvolari 8C/35, particularly in the rain, are among the legends of the series. Giddings sold that Alfa to fellow racer Peter Greenfield, and for the past two years has been racing his ex-Moss Maserati 250F. For the Mont Tremblant races Greenfield brought one of his two -- yes, two -- 8C/35s; Giddings reached into his bag and showed up with yet another of these very rare cars. (This one has the engine once used by American racing hero Rex Mays for the Indy 500.)

Giddings and Greenfield shared the front row for the first Drum Brake race, started under imminent threat of rain. The pair of 1935 Alfas leading the field created was a picture rarely seen since the 1930s.

Giddings out-accelerated Greenfield into Le Circuit’s fall-away first turn, and while Greenfield was able to keep Giddings in sight he was never able to challenge for the win; rain and water pooling on the track caused the race to end a bit earlier than planned.

The script was similar for the second race, except that one was on a dry track. Giddings and Greenfield again shared the front row (from their one-two finish the previous day); Giddings took the lead at the green flag, and took the win over Greenfield by almost ten seconds.

The two big Alfas led the Drum race, but there was other competition -- and other interesting cars -- in the field as well. As Giddings and Greenfield dueled at the front, points leader Jon Shirley and Peter LeSaffre had their own duel, both in 300S Maseratis. LeSaffre prevailed in both races, but Shirley retains a strong lead in the Drum Brake championship. 

Tony Schwartz and Mark Lindman were other trophy winners, Schwartz in his recently acquired Maserati 200SI, and Lindman in an early 212 E. Both cars have unusual histories: Schwartz’s is the first 200SI, and is still in bare aluminum, revealing many of the construction techniques. Lindman’s 212 was originally bodied by Vignale, and in that guise twice competed in the Mille Miglia. Famous Italian author and racer Count Giovanni Lurani had the car rebodied as a Spyder California in the early 1960s.

The other titanic duels of the event were at the front of the Disc Brake races. Three Ferraris were involved; each with 12 cylinders, each with five liters displacement, but only two in classic Ferrari red.

Lawrence Stroll knows Le Circuit as well as anyone could; he owns the track, and oversaw its complete renovation to current standards. Stroll also owns the famed Roger Penske/Sunoco 512 M, and has had it restored to high standards as well, still in the Penske blue in which it raced in 1971. Stroll qualified the ex-Penske car on pole, and won both races, but Jim Fuchs and John Giordano were close behind, and never far from each other.

Fuchs races his 512 BB/LM, restored to evoke the Pininfarina and NART appearance from 1979. The flat-12 was derived from the road version of the Boxer Berlinetta for the "silhouette" formula of the late 1970s. The BB/LMs had little racing success in that period, but in the hands of Fuchs, a past series champion in both Drum and Disc groups, the car has been a frequent winner. While Fuchs couldn’t catch Stroll, he still took a pair of trophies for class wins.

The third "big" Ferrari was the 512 S of John Giordano, in short-tail berlinetta specs. (Giordano also has the rare long-tail bodywork used at LeMans in 1970.) Giordano was one of the early supporters of the Shell Historics, but this is the first year he is running the full season. While he couldn’t catch Stroll, the sight and sounds of his 512 took spectators back to the great days of Ferrari sports car racing.

The sounds of these three cars almost overshadowed another great duel among the 250 and 275 Berlinettas, and again Peter LeSaffre and Jon Shirley were involved, but they weren’t alone.

For these races LeSaffre had one of the rare 1966 275 GTB/C racers from 1966. Only 12 were built, and by coincidence, this one was once been owned by Giordano. Shirley’s weapon of choice was his 250 GTO, perhaps the best known vintage Ferrari. (And almost equally rare; only 36 were built.) LeSaffre and Shirley were joined in the class by Nick Colonna’s 250 SWB, a competition berlinetta, and Scott Stupay’s 275 GTB.

LeSaffre again won both races; one on a damp track, while the other was dry. Shirley was second on Saturday, and Colonna finished as runner-up on Sunday. With the pair of wins LeSaffre, like Fuchs a past champion in both groups, extended his lead in the 2008 Disc Brake championship.

The Shell Ferrari Historic Challenge, for authentic racing Ferraris built prior to the 1980s, racing Maseratis of that period, and pre-war Alfa Romeos of the type raced by the Scuderia Ferrari, is organized by Ferrari North America and sanctioned by the Grand American Road Racing Association. The series, now in its 11th year in North America, is sponsored by Shell Oil and Officine Panerai watches.

The Shell Historic Ferrari Challenge will next compete at Laguna Seca Raceway, near Monterey, California, on August 15th as part of the Monterey Historic Automobile Races.