Overlooked in the racing order at Maranello, the Ferrari 430 Scuderia has however taken the first important racing win of its career as the Kessel Racing prepared car took full advantage of difficult conditions to claim victory on Sunday in the final round of the FIA GT Championship. That win came in the second race of the weekend and right after the 430 Scuderia had scored its best result to date with a fighting second place finish in race one.

With the Ferrari F430 having long since become an uncompetitive proposition in the FIA GT3 Championship, Swiss based Kessel Racing took it upon themselves to self-prepare a batch of 430 Scuderias for use in this year's series, although the cars haven't stood out so far in the season. At the sixth and final double-header round of the year at Zolder over the weekend, four of these 430 Scuderia racing machines were in action, one from Kessel Racing for Stefano Gattuso/Lorenzo Bontempelli and JMB Racing for Philippe Rambeaud/Pascal Ballay and a pair entered by British-based CRS Racing for Chris Goodwin/Klaas Hummel and Danny van Dongen/Phil Quaife.

In the opening race Christopher Haase and Christopher Mies took their third win of the year to regain the lead in the drivers championship with just one race remaining. The race started behind the safety car because of the wet conditions with Haase, in the Phoenix Racing Audi R8 LMS, starting on pole position. Jens Klingmann (Alpina BMW Alpina B6 GT3), starting from the front row, got a good start to take the lead as the green flags waved but once again the car failed to reach the chequered flag and this promoted the Kessel Racing 430 Scuderia of Gattuso and Bontempelli to their best result of the year, in second place. "Lorenzo had a very good start, he started in sixth position, but at the end of the first lap he was third," said Gattuso. "He was able to push hard during his stint and he gave me the car in a very good position. The race was very difficult, during the pitstop I put on some slick tyres and the track was still slippery in some places. There was also a lot of traffic with the Belgian GT cars but this is a good result for us and the whole team. I’m very, very happy. We are starting in 13th position this afternoon but I hope we can get a good start and hand the car to Lorenzo in a good position," added the Kessel driver. Florian Gruber successfully held off the attentions of Cesar Campanico in the Team Rosberg Audi to take third place in the Fischer Racing Ford GT.

Race two saw Gattuso and Bontempelli go one better. In the confusion of the pitstops and technical problems caused by a power outage the pair stormed through from thirteenth on the grid to take the first win for a Ferrari this season. "This is fantastic, a win in the last race of the year," said Gattuso afterwards. "We started in thirteenth place and we over took a lot of cars. At the end of my stint it started to rain and the track was very slippery. We decided to stay on slick tyres and it was a very important decision for us and we took the first victory of the season, which is very important for me and the whole team. We all worked very hard during the season with the car and we are happy to get this result in the final race of 2009. Lorenzo and I would like to dedicate this victory to Loris Kessel, the team owner of Kessel Racing, and we will see everyone again next year." None of the other trio of 430 Scuderias made the top ten in either race.

Meanwhile in the difficult racing conditions Phoenix Racing's Haase and Mies brought their Audi R8 home in 4th place to claim the 2009 FIA GT3 European Drivers Championship. When rain fell just before the pitstop window the safety car was deployed as cars started to slide off the track.  Behind the Kessel Racing 430 Scuderia, Csaba Walter brought the Alpina BMW Alpina B6 home in second place to claim his and Claudia Huertgen's first podium, with the final podium slot going to the Matech GT Racing Ford GT of Eric de Doncker and Christian Mamerow. However the day belonged to Haase and Mies, with the two young German's celebrating into the evening with their Phoenix Racing Team. "I'm delighted, it was unbelievable," said Haase afterwards. "For me this is the best result in my career; I'm so really happy to be the new FIA GT3 European Champion together with Christopher.  I think I need to sleep for one night to be sure I am not dreaming. The Audi R8 is a very good car, I think the experience from Audi and the professionalism of Phoenix Racing was the key for us to win this championship. I'm not sure what I will be doing in 2010 but I will continue in motorsport and winning this championship will be a big help. We will see." Julien Rodrigues and Thomas Accary finished the season on equal points with Nicolas Armindo and Cesar Campanico but the French duo claimed the runners-up position on countback thanks to their victory in Germany.