Ferrari 70th Anniversary Event in Maranello: Part Two
In the evening, a celebration ceremony was held on a huge stage and all the guests were housed from any rain in a covered 4,000 seat tribune build for the event. As soon as the show started, the expected storm overwhelmed the Fiorano circuit and a massive rain fell down for the length of the show.
The welcome to the celebrations was by Ferrari Chairman and CEO Sergio Marchionne, who thanked all owners, fans and supporters for sharing 70 years of passion for the make. After the raising of the Italian flag by Cadets of the Military Academy and playing the Italian National Anthem, we were treated to a look back to the early years of a young Enzo Ferrari who realized his dream to become a racer driver and later on a builder of his own cars. Highlights of the GT road cars where shown on the podium accompanied with period music and actors and dancers. So along came the 125 S, 250 GTO, 250 GT California, 512 Boxer and LaFerrari. Sports cars and GTs from the rich history were shown by way of the current lineup of Ferrari factory GT drivers. Among others were the 2014 Le Mans Class winner 458 GT2, the last Ferrari Sports car 333 SP and the FXXK for client racing.
They then showed a film with F1 highlights, and the audience showed who were still the favorites among Ferraristi. There was a loud applause when Gilles Villeneuve appeared on the big screen and goosebumps (where you could feel the emotional atmosphere) when Michael Schumacher’s 5 world titles where shown and a long heartfelt applause was given to the great champion. After the film, Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen where greeted on the podium and Marc Gene drove a recent F1 car over the stage to end the F1 chapter of Ferrari’s history. A fireworks display ended the show and after a break, pop-rocker and Ferrari collector Jay Kay and his band Jamiroquai entered the stage for a concert.
On Sunday morning, a drying Fiorano circuit was the center stage for the Concours d’Elegance. 20 different classes where formed to host all entered cars. Ed Gilbertson (Honorary Chief Judge) and Adolfo Orsi (Chief Judge) with their 39 jury members had the difficult task to choose the class winners and the Best of Show. In the afternoon, with even a peek of sunshine, the 1-2-3 winners of each class where honored on the podium and after this ceremony it was with the announcement of the Best of Show in GT and Competition that the festivities came to an end. With the Ferrari board members Piero Ferrari, John Elkann and Sergio Marchionne also on stage, the 2 winners were announced: Ronald Stern with his Testarossa Spider one-off for Gianni Agnelli (62897) for best in GT and the 1953 Mille Miglia winning 340 MM Vignale Spyder of Umberto Camellini (0280 AM) won Best of Show Competition.
And so ended the wonderful celebrations for Ferrari’s 70th Anniversary.
Part One available here. Info and images from Hugo Garritsen at hugo.garritsen@planet.nl.
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