May 1, 2018

Imola 2018


This year our season started out at the wonderful racetrack of Imola. We decided early on that we wanted to do this race. Nicky Pastorelli knows this track well and he knew the GTO would be great for the track. This would be the first time that we take one of the cars this far. So we decided to leave the Daytona behind.

On Friday it started out with a short but intense free practice of just 20 minutes, that even had a red flag situation to shorter the practice even further. But from the first lap out we immediately took P1.Even with more than a second between us and the number 2 of the day.

On the Saturday it was time to shine again and hope we could hold on to the P1. And again we were really dominant and took pole early on in the 45 minute qualifying. We decided on forehand to scrub in the second set, because we expected to have more then enough time to do so. So from minute 30 we went back in the pit to wait out the rest of the qualifying. We saw the competition coming nearer and neared, but when the clock hit zero we were still on pole.

After that we did some checking on the car, refuelling, tire change and some spanner checking. But all was fine. No damage, leaking or anything else. So she was ready again for being used as everyone’s model.Because by Saturday the Italians discovered the GTO and she was really popular amongst the visitors.

Sunday at the end of the morning it was time for the race. Nicky just came out of the Lola of the Hart family and had to jump into the GTO to make it on time to the head of the grid. At the moment the flag dropped and the racing started Nicky didn’t have to look back and started with the domination of the Masters Gentleman Drivers in Imola. When just over half of the race the Hart Cobra coupé dropped out there was only the Gans / Wolfe Cobra left to make it difficult. But we were pulling away from the field 2 seconds a lap, even at the end of the race.So no one came near. When the finish flagged dropped, we lapped everyone except the P2 Gans / Wolfe Cobra… We can easily say this round of the Cobra vs Ferrari wars was won by Ferrari!