FF Corse are planning a trip to Italy later in the year to visit two Italian circuits, Imola and Vallelunga.

The trip will take place over 4 days with the team undertaking a track day at Imola first on August 28th, before heading down to the Vallelunga circuit for a day on August 31st.

 

 

 

 

Imola is situated around 30 minutes from Bologna towards the Rimini coast and Vallelunga is located further south, just outside Rome. With the two days in between, there is plenty of time to travel between the two venues and the possibility of some sightseeing and well-earned R&R.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For further details and to register your interest, please contact Andy O’Dowd on events@ffcorse.com, or telephone 01327 857601.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FF Corse entered a total of six cars for the second round of the Dunlop Britcar Endurance & Sprint Championships, held at Snetterton over the weekend.

The cars were entered for the Endurance and Sprint races and achieved considerable success, winning a total 6 overall and class wins throughout both Championships.

 

The first wins came in the first 50 minute race, with Bon Grimes & Johnny Mowlem leading the FF Corse Sextet home to win Class 2 of the Endurance Championship, in their Ferrari 458 Challenge GTC. The similar car of Marc Brough and Andrew Bentley won the same class in the Sprint Championship and the David Mason & Calum Lockie entry also won Class 1 in the Sprint division, after snatching the lead at the start of the race. Of other notable points was the Mike Wilds & Dino Zamparelli driver pairing, who put up a strong fight in race one in their Ferrari to take the fight to Bon & Johnny.

 

In the 2hr Endurance race held the same day, Bon Grimes & Johnny Mowlem again upheld FF Corse honours to take the Class 2 win and move to second place in the overall Championship (2 points behind the leader). The Graham Lucking/Leyton Clarke entry was a fighting second in class and challenged strongly throughout the race.

In the second 50 minute sprint race Laurent de Meeus and Jamie Stanley secured their debut first win together, winning overall as well as taking a well-earned class victory. David Mason & Calum Lockie again secure the Class 1 honours in their FF Corse Ferrari 458 GT3.

The next round of the Dunlop Endurance Championship takes place at Silverstone on June 24th.

FF Corse will hold their annual Goodwood exclusive track day at the famous circuit on July 5th this year.

The event features plenty of track time and an open pit-lane format for all the participants. The Goodwood circuit is an incredible step back in time, with the attention to detail and quaint feel unlike any other circuit. It is located within the Goodwood Estate, which along with the circuit houses two golf courses, a horse racing course, a hotel, a stately home and is also home to the Goodwood Festival of Speed. A circuit to be respected, but a must visit for anyone who has not been there before.

Included is an option for accommodation the night before at The Goodwood Hotel, along with a members dinner to be held there the night before.

The numbers of participants is limited.

To register your interest please contact Andy O’Dowd on events@ffcorse.com, or telephone 01327 857601.

 

 

The first round of the European Ferrari Challenge took place in Valencia at the weekend with the new Ferrari 488 Challenge cars.

Having won the AM class Championship and World Final last year, Sam Smeeth (Stratstone Ferrari) has now moved up to the PRO class.

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

The FF Corse team is defending the AM class Championship with two new drivers, Chris Froggatt (HR Owen) and Marc Brough (Graypaul Nottingham). The team continued where it left off last year, Chris achieving two sensational pole positions and experiencing the sweet taste of Champagne with two second place podium visits.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marc Brough also had an excellent debut race meeting in the AM class. Marc (who incredibly only started racing 15 weeks ago) qualified well and raced through to 5th in race 1 and 7th in race 2.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the PRO class, Sam Smeeth had a great start to the season, putting in a solid performance against some very experienced and quick professional drivers. Competing in the top class, Sam qualified on the second row for both races and finished 4th & 5th respectively.

The next round of the European Ferrari Challenge and Club Challenge takes place at Monza in three weeks’ time. 

At the same time as the European Ferrari Challenge, the second round of the GT Cup Championship was also taking place at Brands Hatch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bon Grimes, Laurent de Meeus and James Little (subbing for Graham Lucking) were all participating in their Ferrari 458 GTC Challenge cars. Bon was immediately on the pace and qualified an impressive second overall in the wet qualifying session, against some much stronger powered GTO opposition.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the race it was however James Little who upheld FF Corse honours, taking the GTC class victory. The result was the same in class two, despite Bon’s efforts to wrestle the victory away from James. Meanwhile, Laurent was having a solid debut on the Brands Hatch GP circuit and secured solid 4th and 5th place race finishes. This puts Laurent in a great position to continue his quest of upgrading to race in the European Ferrari Challenge later in the year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Sunday qualifying saw FF Corse qualify an amazing 2nd and 3rd overall on the grid, before an unfortunate coming together in the race put both cars out of the race.

The next round takes place at Spa over the weekend of June 10th & 11th.

7 out of 7 FF Corse drivers visited the race podium over the weekend as FF Corse achieved some incredible results at Silverstone and the Hungaroring.

The first results came in the Britcar race at Silverstone, where Bon Grimes & Johnny Mowlem along with David Mason & Calum Lockie, both finished in the top three overall, winning their respective classes in the first 50 min Sprint race.

In the second sprint race David Mason/Calum Lockie repeated the Sprint race victory to take the top step on the podium. Robert Macfarlane also visited the class podium in the sprint races, finishing second in class in his Ferrari 360 Challenge. The Endurance race also saw an FF Corse class victory with Graham Lucking & Leyton Clarke taking class 2 honours and finishing second overall in the 2 hour race.

The next round of the Britcar Endurance Championship will be held at Brands Hatch on July 29th.

The third round of the European Ferrari Challenge was held in Budapest at the Hungaroring.

Both the FF Corse UK dealer entry cars of Sam Smeeth & Chris Froggatt also visited the race podium in their Ferrari 488 challenge cars, during the busy weekend.

Sam Smeeth was the first to achieve a result with a second place finish overall in race 1, having qualified on the front row for his debut at the circuit, despite having limited testing beforehand. In race 2 it was Chris who achieved success with a victory in the AM class, his first in the Ferrari Challenge.

The fourth round of the Ferrari Challenge will held next month at Paul Ricard (France) on July 22nd & 23rd. The races will be streamed live at http://live.ferrari.com/ and can also be seen on the Ferrari YouTube channel.

 

Donington – September 2nd

 

FF Corse drivers continued their winning form at the Donington Britcar round last weekend with Bon Grimes & Charlie Hollings taking two Endurance class wins and the effervescent David Mason & Calum Lockie taking the overall sprint honours.

The results see both driver pairings leading their respective class championships with 3 rounds remaining. 

The next round of the Britcar Championship is at Oulton Park on October 21^st.

Silverstone – September 1st – 3rd

The International GT Open Championship made their annual visit to the UK last weekend at Silverstone, with regular driver pairing of Ivor Dunbar & Johnny Mowlem sharing the FF Corse run Ferrari 488 GT3 for the race event. 

With eleven PRO/PRO entries, this high level European Championship is quickly turning into one of the most competitive GT championships in Europe. The car and team looked quick in practice, running near the top of the time sheets. Ultimately the races proved tough and progress was difficult thereafter. The first race saw both drivers perform well and record a well-deserved finish after 70mins of racing. 

The second race was held in very tricky damp conditions, with the cars running on slicks. Johnny suffered a quick spin on lap one after contact from another car, then performed well to make up places during the first half of the race, before the PRO/PRO combinations made their mark on the increasingly slippery circuit.

 

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).