Lawrence Stroll and Rob Walton each took a pair of overall wins in the third round of the North American Shell Ferrari/Maserati Historic Challenge, conducted this weekend at the Mont-Tremblant circuit north of Montreal.
Stroll drove the ex-Roger Penske/Sunoco Ferrari 512M to wins on both Saturday and Sunday in the Disc Brake Group. Walton’s wins in the Drum Brake Group were at the wheel of a Maserati 300S. Walton qualified on pole for Saturday’s Drum race over Jon Shirley, driving a similar 300S. Peter Giddings gave Maserati a sweep of the top three positions in his 1934 8CM, the well-known Whitney Straight racer. This car, chassis 3011, has been described as the most important Maserati single-seater of all time.
The husband and wife team of Ed and Leslie Davies rounded out the top five, Leslie’s 250 TR ahead of Ed’s ex-Briggs Cunningham 375 MM Pininfarina spyder. In the race itself Walton took an immediate lead over Shirley, whose Maserati suffered a camshaft problem, preventing him from mounting a challenge to the leader. In addition to his overall win Walton took the class win.
Giddings and Ed Davies were class winners as well. In the Disc group Stroll had qualified just ahead of Ed Davies, who was racing an almost identical 512 M. Todd Morici’s 512 BB/LM started third, just ahead of Jim Fuch’s similar car. In this race Walton entered an unusual 275 GTB/C, a car sometimes referred to as a “GTO/65“. He was fastest qualified in a class which included four 250 GTOs and a pair of competition 250 SWB berlinettas. Stroll led every lap of the race.
Davies was never far from Stroll, but could never get close enough to try to pass, and when rain began with most of the front-running cars on slicks, the checkered flag was brought out several minutes early. Class winners were Stroll, Morici, Walton, and Bob Benedict in a Michelotto 308 GT/M.
There were no weather issues on Sunday. Starting positions were set by Saturday’s race results, and Walton again led every lap of the Drum race. Walton, Giddings and Ed Davies repeated their class wins. In the Disc race Stroll again led every lap. Davies was able to stay with Stroll until the pair began lapping backmarkers, and Davies was help up enough to allow Stroll to pull out an almost 30 second lead, taking both the overall and class wins.
Morici repeated his 512 BB/LM class win over Fuchs, and Benedict duplicated his Saturday class win. In the 250/275 Berlinetta class Walton traded his 275 for a 250 GTO, and started from the back of the grid. Defending Disc champion Tom Price led the class in his GTO until only a couple of laps from the end. Walton had almost caught up to Price, and took the lead (and class win) when Price suffered a harmless spin.
Bose, one of the series sponsors, presented special awards to Leslie Davies for her sportsmanship and long-term support of the series, and to Jim Fuch and his Motion Products crew. Fuchs had an engine problem in his 512 BB/LM on Friday, and the crew completed an engine change overnight, allowing Fuchs to have two trouble-free races.
