More than 35,000 Ferrari enthusiasts converged on the Nürburgring in Germany last weekend for Ferrari Racing Days 2006. Since 1996 the Ferrari Racing Days event, which takes place every two years at the track, has stood for sheer fascination, emotion and passion, and it represents a highlight of a special kind for customers and fans travelling from all over Europe.

The Ferrari Racing Days got underway in earnest at the Nürburgring last Saturday with the first races of the weekend in the European Ferrari Challenge Pirelli Trophy championship, in this the penultimate round of the season. In the one-make series for F430s, the main Pirelli Trophy category saw victory go to the crew of Germany's Wido Roessler and Austria's Philipp Baron (Tamsen) with car no.7 crossing the line ahead of Dutchman John Bosch (Kroymans/Barron Racing) and the Irishman Michael Cullen (Rossocorsa.) As for the gentlemen drivers in the Shell Cup, Ireland's duo of Coleman/Flux (Kessel Racing) took the win ahead of the Swiss Konstantin Ioannidis (Kessel Racing) and Luxembourg's Pierre Schroeder (Modena Sport / Yellow GT Challenge.) In the separate class for the 360 Modena, top honours went to Germany's Bjorn Grossmann (Autohaus Gohm / G2 Racing.)

The spectacular event came to an end last Sunday with an appearance from Michael Schumacher. The Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro driver entertained the huge crowd of spectators, (around 1000 Ferrari cars also turned up over the three days) with a series of demonstration laps at the wheel of a Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano and an F2005, with which he did some race starts, donuts and quick laps. On the German track, along with the other "test drivers," Schumacher also debuted his personal FXX car, built for the research and development programme of the same name. "It's an honour for me to take part in this programme," said the 7-times world champion," especially as it allows for an interesting exchange of technical information."
 

On the subject of the event itself, Schumacher added: "the atmosphere of the Ferrari Racing Days is incredible with so many fans. I am very happy to be here."

The weekend also featured the historic single-seaters prepared by Maranello's F1 Clienti department, which did some untimed laps, as well as around sixty Prancing Horse road cars that took part in a special regularity event. Also on track on Sunday were the F430 cars competing in the last races on the card in the European Ferrari Challenge Pirelli Trophy (in the photo, the drivers with Michael Schumacher). The main Pirelli Trophy category ended in victory for John Bosch (Kroymans/Barron Racing) in race-2, with the Dutch driver crossing the line ahead of Ireland's Michael Cullen (Rossocorsa) and Switzerland's Henri Moser (Kessel Racing). Thanks to this result, France's Ange Barde (Modena Cars) is already mathematically the 2006 champion. As for the gentlemen drivers in the Shell Cup, Germany's Dennis Huebner (Baron Service) took the win ahead of Switzerland's Lloyd La Marca (Modena Cars Racing) and Ettore Contini (Kessel Racing). In the separate classification for the 360 Modena, first past the flag was Germany's Bjorn Grossmann (Autohaus Gohm/G2 Racing).

The European one-make series is back on track for the final round of 2006, as part of the Ferrari World Finals, at Monza from 25 to 29 October, when also on the card will be the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro team for its usual end of year salute to its fans, with all the other racing activities of the Prancing Horse.