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FERRARI WORLD FINALS Valencia, Spain - 12-15 November 2009 by Nathan Beehl

For the first time in 17 years the Ferrari World Finals were held outside Italy. After being held on tracks such as Ferrari´s own Mugello Circuit, or the home of Italian motor racing, Monza, the FWF moved to the Curcuito Ricardo Tormo, Valencia, Spain. Why? Speculation was two-fold, could it be due to the Banco Santander sponsorship for 2010, or could it have anything to do with the recent signing of a twice Formula 1 World Champion to the Scuderia Ferrari team as replacement for the departing Kimi Raikonnen? Rumors were plentiful--he´ll be here, he won´t be here because Renault won´t release him, he´ll be here but not in official Ferrari uniform. As it turned out Fernando Alonso made his first Ferrari appearance dressed in casual clothes with no Ferrari branding. Being in Spain Alonso was mobbed wherever he went, and seemed to take all the autograph requests and pushing and shoving in stride. Scott Tucker could do no more than take two FNS Challenge class victories, but just missed out on the 2009 Championship by 5 points (Photo Copyright Anton Beehl This is more than could be said for the parade lap. An open red California was prepared for Ferrari boss Luca de Montezemolo to drive and Alonso and Felipe Massa were perched on the back to wave to the crowd. The trio trundled off down the pit lane and at the first corner, where most of the fans sat, LdM decided to get nearer the fans. He turned off the track obviously not realizing that the outside of the corner was a gravel trap and not tarmac. Within a few yards the California was axle deep in gravel and Massa and Alonso were trying to push the stricken car back onto the track. Of course, there was no way that would happen, and the three of them were soon sharing a perch on the back of a second California. Needless to say the fans went crazy--it even made the evening TV news. The usual highlights of the FWF began with the exhibition laps by the AF Corse F430 GT2s, the team which won the constructor´s and team´s titles in the FIA GT Championship, and the Risi Competizione F430 GT2 which won it´s class in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, driven by team drivers Jaime Melo and Pierre Kaffer. Making its first public appearance was the recently announced 599XX, another FXX Type program. News is that the 599XX is 1sec a lap quicker round Fiorano than the FXX it replaces, and that take-up of the program is good. The main highlight of the FWF is, of course, the F1 demonstration. On this occasion there were four F1 cars in attendance, two F2007s with Luca Badoer and Marc Gene having the privilege, and two F60s with Massa and Giancarlo Fisichella driving. Somehow Fisichella´s Ferrari season was summed up when he first of all stalled in the pit lane and then after two or three laps parked his F60 in the gravel pit on the outside of turn 3. Massa continued his unofficial test session with a couple of practice pit-stops, then the three remaining F1s did a series of do-nuts over the start/finish line. When the smoke cleared, the whole F1 team with LdM and Piero Ferrari assembled on the grid for the traditional end-of-season team photo. But the FWF is more than just a Sunday afternoon exhibition and celebration. It covers four days of practice, qualifying and racing for various Ferrari championships. There are the Ferrari Shell Historic Challenge (two classes), and numerous F430 Challenge races including the final two rounds of the FNA Championship. There are also practice/test sessions for the F1 Clienti cars and the FXXs. The FXX Program replacement - the 599XX - made its first public appearance at Valencia. (Photo Copyright Anton Beehl) AMERICAN INTEREST North American interest was provided by the eight drivers who brought their cars all the way across the Atlantic for the Finals. Scott Tucker and Mark McKenzie were the main challengers for the FNA Series, but they and the rest of Team USA were mixed in with the hot-shoes of the F430 Challenge Europe. As the Europeans had raced at Valencia only a month earlier they had a distinct advantage, although Team USA still achieved some excellent results. There were two races that would count towards the Championship, and the final race on Sunday which was a stand-alone event. Coming into Valencia, Scott held a 75 point lead over Mark, but knew that they would both have to drop the scores for two races. So it was going to be close. What did Mark think of the Valencia circuit? "I love it. We did not test here, but as a driver´s track it´s a track that´s hard to go really quickly on (author´s note: there are a lot of third gear corners, and some drivers described it as ´a bit Mickey Mouse´) but there´s good visibility through the track. Not like some of the hilly tracks in North America which need a lot of track time to learn." Practice showed that the two contenders were very closely matched. In one of the Thursday practice sessions Scott recorded 1m42.607 and Mark 1m42.617, only .01sec apart. The first race was on Friday. Scott finished a very respectable 6th OA, with Henri Richard (USA) 8th and Mark 10th, so 1-2-3 in Class USA. The race for the Championship continued. Race 2 was on Saturday. The field of nearly 40 Challenge cars hurled themselves into corner 1 and somehow scrambled through, but at corner 2 chaos ensued. At least five cars scattered into the travel trap and grass infield and we had to wait for the field to come round to see who was still involved. Both North American competitors were still running--Scott in 5th and Mark in 9th or 10th. Scott finished 5th with Harry Cheung (FNA) 8th and Mark 9th. So Scott had done all he could. He won both races and now it was just on count back. The final result for the Championship could not have been closer--Mark 2005 pts. and Scott 2000 pts. Scott was pleased "We won both races (in FNA class) yesterday and today. It's been a great season for us; we swept both races at five tracks." FNA challenger Henri Richard leads 2009 FNA Challenge winner Mark McCormack and Harry Cheung at Valencia (Photo Copyright Anton Beehl) Mark, understandably was delighted, "We had two third places (in FNA class) and won the Championship by five points. There were ups and downs over the season. Last year was my first year but we re-committed and did more testing and the season went well. Scott raised the bar, hence the testing and redoubling of our efforts." Although one does have to question whether a Championship where a driver with 10 wins loses overall to a driver with 3 wins is really scored correctly? Regrettably none of the American entrants made the Shell Historic Challenge, which was a shame as The Group A race could have done with more than 12 competitors, although they were represented in the F1 Clienti and FXX Programs. Harry Cheung (left) Scott Tucker (center) and Mark McCormack (right) at the end of a close run Championship. (Photo Copyright Anton Beehl) Rumors are that next year the Ferrari World Finals will be in Abu Dhabi. We should know for sure around June/July 2010.

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