We wrote it a year ago, shortly after its debut: the 296 GT had already demonstrated on its debut that it could tear apart the competition in the fierce world of motorsport of cars derived from the big series. No sooner said than done. With its dominance last Sunday at the 62nd edition of the 24 Hours of Daytona, the Ferrari 296 achieved a historic result, bringing the Prancing Horse back to the top step of the famous American endurance racing ten years after the last time.
We are faced with Ferrari that makes Ferrari, that beats everyone and that does so with a car derived from a road model. Like old times, like always, like it should be. With a little trick, however, that throws the competitors into despair: the 296 was designed precisely for this, for racing. Then a road version was made. A reverse process to what all manufacturers do today, but a process – and this is the beauty of it – identical to that of the legends of the prancing horse, such as the GTO or the 250 Le Mans.
Thus, at the wheel of this monster, the official drivers Daniel Serra, Davide Rigon, Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado triumphed in the GTD Pro class with the 296 GT3 number 62 of the Risi Competizione team after completing 733 laps, ahead – by one lap … – to the one-time star, the Porsche, .
Historic figures for the Maranello company, which thus marks another record in its roll of honor by obtaining the 17th class triumph in the history of the classic endurance race held in Florida, a traditional round that inaugurates the year of international motorsport (from From 1962 to 1965 the race was held over different distances; from 1966 – with the exception of 1972 – over the 24 Hours). Furthermore, the Maranello company's palmares includes five overall victories in Florida.
For the record, the last victory at Daytona dates back to 2014 when Pier Guidi won in GTD at the wheel of the 458 Italia GT3 of Level Five Motorsport; previously the Ferrari 333 SP of the Momo/Doran team achieved absolute success (1998) with Mauro Baldi, Arie Luyendyk, Gianpiero Moretti, Didier Theys. But as we know, in the glorious history of the stars and stripes event, among the memorable successes, the class ones of the Ferrari 250 GT of Stirling Moss (1962) and the overall ones of the Ferrari F330 P3/P4 of Lorenzo Bandini and Chris Amon (1967) stand out. , who triumphed in the edition – which ended with a parade finish – completed by second and third place respectively for the 330 P4 of Mike Parkes and Ludovico Scarfiotti, and the 412 P of Pedro Rodriguez and Jean Guichet.
In any case, returning to the present day, what matters is that Ferrari won another 24 hours, the third in the last year after that of Le Mans with the 499P and that of the Nürburgring with the 296 GT3: a result which confirms the Red as the queen of endurance. Ferrari goes back to being Ferrari, in fact.
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