European Ferrari Challenge
April 26th – 29th 2018
In a repeat of last year achievements, Chris Froggatt scored an incredible double victory in the European Ferrari Challenge round at Silverstone this weekend. The victories now leave Chris leading the European AM Class after four of the fourteen races have been completed.
The dominance of the British drivers was backed up with podium finisher Jack Brown. Jack was making his debut in the European Ferrari Challenge. Driving the car in competition for the first time, Jack qualified on pole position for both races and drove a pair of solid races to finish as runner up in both, surely a future star in the making.
Also making his debut in the Ferrari 488 Challenge race was Laki Pantelis. Laki is generally more experienced in the world of classic car racing, having achieved a remarkable over 140+ podiums in various classic marques, including a victory in the recent Goodwood Members Meeting. Laki acquitted himself well with two trouble free runs in the races, despite limited testing and pre-event mileage.
John Sawbridge was back for his second race weekend in the Challenge and drove well in his stunning Sennaesque tribute livery. In the races John finished 4th in the first race and was running fourth in the second race, before losing a place after being hit and spun round in the closing stages.
Laurent de Meeus competing in the Coppa Shell Class, qualified an impressive 5th for race 1 and was racing well before an unfortunate off on the penultimate lap halted any further progress. In the Pirelli Pro-Class Sam Smeeth also achieved a couple of fourth place finishes after a couple of strong drives challenging for the podium.
Silverstone also saw an additional eleven new Ferrari 488 Challenge cars participate with FF Corse in the second round of the Club Challenge programme. The non-competitive track-day activity took place on the Thursday and was a huge success. The number of participants is now close to capacity on the remaining four European track events.
The next round of the Ferrari Challenge Europe and Club Challenge is at the fabulous Spa-Franchorchamps circuit in Belgium in two weeks time (May 10th – 13th).