The FCS drivers was in for a busy Saturday with 4 sessions on the track. Before midday two practice sessions did not come up with any larger surprises but cemented the seeded group of the Challenge series still were the fastest. However, it was clear that the cars behind them was much closer than seen in the 2004 season.

After the lunch break it was time for the qualification heat. No surprise that Esa Schroderus was fastest in his 360GTR with 1:03.4 . It seems that Esa has really got hold of this car that for many years had a unfortunate destiny in Sweden. 2nd was Mäkinen and Gregersen 3rd. The new group of 360 contestants was lead by Jørgensen, Rygaard and Morten Nielsen and only a few 10ths of seconds divided their positions from 3-6.

Newcomer in FSC, Alfred Dittberner (S) was very convincing all weekend in his ex-Rygaard 355GT being fastest of the 355 group already in the qualification. Main competitors Flemming Jensen(DK) and Hannu Nieminen(FI) could not match his pace at this stage.

Race 1

In the beautiful sunny afternoon the first race of the weekend was exciting for many of the teams as it was the debut time in FSC for the new drivers and many of them wandered around in the pit as ”nerveous wrecks”. Debutants Torben Petersen, Morten Nielsen, Dittberner, Nieminen, Jukka Mietinen, Fredrik Østereng and Chr. Overgaard should demonstrate their skills in racing Ferraris and for some it was even their first experience as a race driver.

Beside this nervousity the race itself was quite undramatic and the cars kept their positions most of the race. Esa took the lead to never give it up. Mäkinen and Gregersen had a short fight for positions in the first lap, but Mäkinen gained second position and this also became the final result.

Only dramatic moment was when Bonnichsen hit Rygaard after the start and pushed Rygaard´s car around 180 degress face to face with the other drivers coming into the difficult corner after the straight. Rygaard had to let all the cars pass before he could turn the car right again and jumped from 4th to last. He started to fight his way up through the field but his car was too damaged to continue and in lap 10 he was flagged out although he was in 11th position.

This incident gave car no. 17 Allan Jørgensen his chance to move forward in positions and in the first 5 laps he fought with Morten Nielsen (66) for taking the overall 4th position and also become the first drivers in the newly established Trofeo Shell Cup. Bonnichsen came in 6th taking the 3rd price of the Shell Cup.

In the 355 category  Alfred Dittberner passed the finish line first, but was later penalized for rolling his car before green light. The 20 seconds penalty for Alfred gave Flemming Jensen the first position in the Trofeo 355 in this heat. Unfortunately Hannu Nieminen (FI) was taken out of the race by the officials because he had an open window in the passenger side and no NASCAR net. This is not allowed  according to DASU regulations, but is apparently allowed in other countries.

Remarkable performance by Chr. Overgaard not being last car driving the underpowered 348 Challenge car.

Race 2.

The dry weather continued on Sunday and after the morning Warm-up it was time for Race 2 and just as important, time for the new starting order for the second race. Like many other race series FSC has chosen to let the first 6 drivers of race 1 start in reverse order.

It meant that on pole position was Bonnichsen and beside him in the first row was newcomer Morten Nielsen, Second row was Petersen and Gregersen followed by Mäkinen and Schroderus.

When the the red light turned green Bonnichsen had overheated his clutch and did not move at all. Nielsen started almost as bad with lots of wheel spin and instead it was Gregersen who took the lead followed by Petersen and Mäkinen. Petersen dropped down to 4th position and Mäkinen and Schroderus started hunting Gregersen in the lead. In lap 4 Mäkinen outbraked Gregersen at the end of the long straight and shortly after Gregersen spun of in the Poetsch corner and dropped to 6th position in front of Østereng and Rygaard who fought hard for the 7th position.

These positions maintained for a few laps but in lap 8 things turned upside down. Mäkinen and Schroderus touched and both spun off after the Big Mac corner leaving a free 1st position to Torben Petersen. Mäkinen came back in 2nd position and started to chase Petersen, but Schroderus dropped to 6 position for the rest of the race. Morten Nielsen was suddenly 3rd but was soon overtaken by Gregersen who recovered positions due to the last incident. Unfortunately Bonnichsen also spun of in lap 8 and when he re-entered the track, he came in just before Mäkinen and Gregersen, but the marshals did not take notice of the fact that Bonnichsen was 1 lap behind and did not show any blue flags.

Somewhat confused Bonnichsen started fighting for positions and held back both Mäkinen and Gregersen for a period in which Petersen secured his first victory in FSC and even as a debutant. What a great performance! Mäkinen came in second and Gregersen third. A hard fight for position 4 between Nielsen and Girsel was won by Nielsen.

In the 355´s Dittberner seemed to control the race totally but Nieminen caught up with him doing impressive fast laps in his 355 Challenge, but could not pass Dittberner who very skilled defended his position. Flemming Jensen had no good pace in his 2nd race and could not thread the leading 355´s. Jeppson and Pettersson had really close fights followed by Miettinen who also ended the race doing lap times around 1:10. Sætre and Bonnichsen was not particular successful in this race with Sætre having problems with his car. Overgaard did better and better with his old 348 Challenge doing 1:11.855. Impressive for a debutant in this underpowered car.

After the race everybody agreed that the new start order really made the race very exciting and dramatic and after the two races the standings are very close in the top and it looks promising for the next races to come.

A very fine start for the Ferrari Scandinavia Challenge 2005, lots of track time, fine racing and most important non really bad incidents. Fastest driver of the weekend was to no surprise Esa Schroderus setting a new lap record of 1:03.852. The previous record was held by Rene Rasmussen in 1:04.092 from last year.

photo by Kenneth Bjerg

photo by Kenneth Bjerg

photo by Kenneth Bjerg

photo by Kenneth Bjerg

photo by Kenneth Bjerg