Cheste, Valencia: Valencia’s Ricardo Tormo circuit staged the event most eagerly awaited by the crowd of Ferrari faithful. Against the backdrop of the World Finals, the event which has brought the Prancing Horse company’s racing season to a close for the past eighteen years, the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro Formula 1 team took to the track along with some of the main competitors in the various international GT championships to salute the crowd of over 15,000 who had gathered at the Spanish track.
The parade got underway when Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa, driving a 1954 375 Indianapolis and 1957 500 TRC respectively led out a 1961 California driven by Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo and the President of Santander Bank, Emilio Botin. Bringing this extraordinary display of jewels from the past to a close were three Ferrari Californias, with on board, Ferrari CEO Amedeo Felisa, the third driver for the Formula 1 team, Giancarlo Fisichella and two official test drivers, Luca Badoer and Marc Gene, as well as local hero Alvaro Barba, along with his team-mate Pierre Kaffer, winners of the International GT Open championship.
In the second part of the exhibition, Barba and Kaffer then took turns at the wheel of one of the F430 GT2 cars brought on track by the Italian AF Corse team, winners of the Drivers and Teams titles in the Spanish International GT Open series, along with three star drivers, Gimmi Bruni, Jaime Melo and Toni Vilander, standard bearers for the Houston-based Ferrari team, Risi Competizione and AF Corse, in the prestigious Le Mans Series and the American Le Mans Series. Bringing the celebrations to a close, Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso took to the track for a few laps at the wheel of two F10s, with Luca Badoer in an F60, as well as doing some simulated pit stops. Finally came the traditional photo of everyone involved in these four busy days in Spain, prior to a final farewell to the partying crowd.
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