The start of the Grid Walk with the crowd on their way to the assembled cars

And yes, the crowd seemed bigger than ever this year.

Chris Butler usually does well and Brands and this year was no exception

Nigel Jenkins homing in on the front two at the hairpin

What an event Festival Italia has become. Early morning drizzle didn’t deter the cars, drivers or spectators and a grid of 20 classic Ferraris were rewarded with bright sunshine for practice and near perfect conditions for qualifying. Simpson, Mogridge and Culver took the qualifying podium with Jenkins looking out of place down at P8 and Everingham back on the grid tucked in at P11 right in the mid field.

The now traditional track walk was a great success and followed by the extraordinary rendition of the Italian National Anthem. Surrounded by Ferraris, Abarths, Alfas, Maseratis, Lancias and much more who can fail to be moved by the Anthem filling the bowl that is the Brands Indy circuit?

Race 1 started with mechanical failures for both Ugo and Poulton on lap 1 (clutch and coil pack issues) and 3 Safety Car laps. Once released Simpson held the lead from Culver and Mogridge. Culver in the 328 passed Simpson to take the lead on lap 5 but Jenkins was pushing up from 8^th and by lap 10 had taken the lead, now with Simpson second in front of Culver, and once ahead began to pull away.

The mid pack was as competitive as ever with 8 cars, including Keen and Whittaker in the group 2 308 and GT4 respectively, from Sowter who finished P8 thru to MacFarlane who finished P15 consistently lapping in the 57 and 58 sec mark and putting on a real show for the crowd.

At the finish Jenkins had pulled a 6sec gap from Simpson and Culver who battled to the end to claim P2 and P3 respectively.

Race 2 in the late afternoon and again in near perfect conditions began without incident and soon settled into the pattern of race 1. Mogridge and Cartwright were the early challengers to Culver who took a commanding early lead. Cartwright lost places with a “Clearways Wobble” on lap 8 by which time Mogridge struggling with ABS issues had dropped back. Jenkins was there to take full advantage and for the next phase of the race Culver and Jenkins thrilled the crowd with some terrific close racing with Jenkins taking the win by just 1.1secs.

Once again the mid pack was really competitive with Keen just holding off Whittaker for Group 2 honours.

Paul-Barron won the Best Presented Car award and Chris Butler deservedly won the RnR Performance Cars Driver of the Meeting award.

Driver of the future

Two race wins for Nigel Jenkins

Superformance award went to Nicky Paul-Barron and Barry

RnR Driver of the meeting, Chris Butler