McCarthy and Clarke Victorious

The drivers of the Ferrari Challenge series took to the track at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the first of two races for the weekend.  Run under cloudy but dry conditions, everyone was able to maximize the potential of their Ferrari 488 Challenge Evo race cars.

Trofeo Pirelli. Jason McCarthy (Wide World Ferrari) made relatively quick work of pole-sitter Keysin Chen (Ferrari of Beverly Hills) and drove away from the rest of the field on his way to both the win in Trofeo Pirelli AM1 and in the race overall.  Running from green flag to checkers without interruption, the driver’s true pace was revealed as McCarthy finished nearly 10 seconds up on the rest of the field.  In the category, Jordan Workman (Ferrari of Central Florida) and Dave Musial (Ferrari of Lake Forest) finished second and third respectively.  Meanwhile in Trofeo Pirelli AM2, Keysin Chen took the win and drove away from the rest of the category, besting his nearest competitor, Brian Davis (Ferrari of Palm Beach) by thirteen seconds at the checkered flag. John Horesji (Ferrari of Vancouver) rounded out the podium in third.

Coppa Shell. Jeremy Clarke (Ferrari of Beverly Hills) converted his pole position into a race win on Saturday.  It was not a straightforward affair, however, as the safety car had to make an appearance three distinct times in the thirty minute contest due to various on-track incidents.  The first saw Todd Coleman (Ferrari of Denver) make a pair of overly exuberant moves into the two big braking zones on the circuit while the second was generated when Anthony DeCarlo (Ferrari of Palm Beach) made a misjudged lunge as well.  The final caution was brought out when Lisa Clark (Ferrari of Beverly Hills) pushed wide and into the grass before hitting the wall outside the second oval corner.  Through it all, Jeremy Clarke stayed consistent, taking home the win and leading back Christopher Aitken (Ferrari of Houston) and Benoit Bergeron (Ferrari of Quebec) who rounded out the top three.  In Coppa Shell AM, another first time racer, Brad Fauvre (Ferrari of San Francisco) also converted his pole position into a race win, leading Roy Carroll (Foreign Cars Italia) and John Cervini (Ferrari of Ontario) to the checkered flag.