F3000 Masters silly season (merged)

[jondownunder]

That was an entertaining race, probably for all the wrong reasons... the moment with Busnelli having his front tyre removed approaching Ascari was seriously scary, not to mention 3rd-placed Persiani's banzai assault on leader Mocci into the first chicane! Can't understand why it had to finish under SC for a sprinkling of rain though. I suppose the race officials had seen enough...

Race 1 results:
1. Jaroslav Janis - Team Charouz
2. Jan Charouz - Team Charouz
3. Davide Di Benedetto - Pro Motorsport
4. Ignazio Belluardo - Scuderia Giudici
5. Fausto Ippoliti - ADM Motorsport
6. Timo Lienemann - Corbetta Competizioni
(no other classified finishers - at least I don't think so)

[SALEEN S7R]

Wasn't a bad race, a few too many accidents for my liking but there was lots of close and exciting racing. Good to see the old F3000 cars back out and racing once again, gotta admit it brought back a few good memories of times gone by.

[jondownunder]

I agree, even if the quality of the field is in doubt, as Euro 3000 proved in 2004 the racing will usually be entertaining.

Here are the final results from italiaracing.net, so it seems Eurosport were wrong in listing only 6 classified finishers:

1 - Jarek Janis (Lola B02/50) - Charouz - 15 laps in 30'46"630
2 - Jan Charouz (Lola B02/50) - Charouz - + 0"892
3 - Davide Di Benedetto - Pro Motorsport - + 1"834
4 - Ignazio Belluardo - Giudici - + 2"676
5 - Fausto Ippoliti - ADM - + 4"188
6 - Timo Lienemann - Corbetta - + 4"985
7 - Michele Merendino - Alan - + 7"338
8 - Massimo Torre - Bigazzi - + 1 lap
9 - Gianmaria Gabbiani - Bigazzi - + 1 lap
10 - Giovanni Tedeschi - Pro Motorsport - retired
11 - Emilio De Villota - Giudici - retired
12 - Gianni Giudici - Giudici - retired
13 - Max Busnelli - Pro Motorsport - retired
14 - Marco Mocci - Alan - retired
15 - Luca Persiani - ADM - retired
16 - Daniel Move - ADM - retired

[SALEEN S7R]

I've got to be honest, I dont recognise any of these drivers. Anyone know what series most of them have raced in prior to this?

[Kidzer]

Jarek Janis, he's a name i've heard before, can't remember where from though - nobody else rings a bell though, good race for a neutral to watch!

edit: Fausto Ippoliti, Giovanni Tedeschi and Max Busnelli also ring a bell, Euro3000 last season perhaps?

[SALEEN S7R]

Yeah now you mention it Jarek Janis does sound familar, but again I dont have any idea as to where...

[jondownunder]

Here's some notes I made for myself - during the "silly season" and updated this weekend - on where each driver comes from. As you can see a lot come from the 3000 Pro Series, Peroni Promotion's series which was essentially replaced by MTC's F3000 Int. Masters:

Davide Di Benedetto (I) - 2004 Italian F3 8th; 2003 F.Renault V6 9th
Giovanni Tedeschi (I) - 2005 World Series by Renault
Max Busnelli (I) - 2005 3000 Pro Series champion; 2005/6 A1GP
Daniel Movè (RUS) - 2005 3000 Pro Series (1 race)
Fausto Ippoliti (I) - 2005 3000 Pro Series 7th
Luca Persiani (I) - 2005 Italian F.Renault 8th
Marco Mocci (I) - 2005 3000 Pro Series 6th
Michele Merendino (I) - from Italian prototypes (?); 1994 Italian F3
Jaroslav (or Jarek) Janis (CZ) - 2005 F3000 Italia 2nd (also '04 DTM, '03 FIA F3000, '02 Euro 3000)
Jan Charouz (CZ) - 2005 F3000 Italia 11th; 2005/6 A1GP
Timo Lienemann (D) - 2005 3000 Pro Series 3rd
Gianmaria Gabbiani (I) - 2005 LMES
Massimo Torre (I) - 2005 Italian F3 8th
Emilio de Villota (E) - 2005 Formula Palmer Audi 8th; F3000 Italia (1 race) (son of ex-F1 driver de Villota Sr.)
Ignazio Belluardo (I) - 3000 Pro Series 9th
Gianni Giudici (I) - 2005 FIA GT (one race); 2004 Euro 3000 (2 races)

This site is great for summaries of drivers' careers BTW: http://www.speedsportmag.de/racing/r...php?sprache=en

[sceptic]

Gabbiani is the son of Beppe Gabbiani, of course. His only previous F3000 experience was in the Bologna Motorshow race a couple of years ago.

Gianni Giudici is old enough to be the grandfather of most of the rest of the field. He knows he is slow, and is only allowed to race on the condition that he retires as soon as he is lapped... which is usually on about lap three or four.

[jondownunder]

Originally Posted by sceptic

Gabbiani is the son of Beppe Gabbiani, of course. His only previous F3000 experience was in the Bologna Motorshow race a couple of years ago.

Gianni Giudici is old enough to be the grandfather of most of the rest of the field. He knows he is slow, and is only allowed to race on the condition that he retires as soon as he is lapped... which is usually on about lap three or four.

I was about to add that afterthought about Gabbiani

That's interesting about Giudici - I knew he was old for this kind of racing (60!) but didn't know he had to retire when lapped. I guess he's out there just to make up the numbers - I would have thought the championship would have a minimum car count they need to meet to satisfy the TV contract?

[jondownunder]

Actually, I was just watching the Eurosport coverage again on Sky+ (I missed the very start of the programme earlier) and Martin Haven was saying it was Gianni Giudici Jr rather than his dad in the car. Is this true?

[sceptic]

Oh, it could have been - I'd have thought it was Giudici Snr though, given how far off the pace he was: It seems very reminiscent of that cold October weekend at the Nürburgring a couple of years ago.

However he is being reported as racing for Corbetta, which is confusing enough when the family team is running.

Incidentally, Gianni Giudici Snr was reported to have bought the three ADM Lola B99/50s at the end of 2004, but ADM ran three cars in the 3000 ProSeries last season and are running three in F3000 IM this year. Which leads to the question: did ADM buy three more cars, or did Giudici buy different cars? And if so, from whom and when?

[jondownunder]

I've absolutely no idea! I've got a picture of Gabbiani driving for Giudici at the 2004 Bologna Motorshow 3000 Pro Series event, and the car isn't in an ADM livery, if that's any clue:



It's all very confusing. The Italian reports listed Giudici (they didn't mention whether Jr or Sr) as driving for the family team. And Lienemann's Corbetta car looked to be in an ADM livery to me - so did they buy a car from ADM, or is ADM running Corbetta's F3000 team?

On top of that, Torre's Scuderia Bigazzi car clearly had a Traini Corse livery - so is Traini running this team (like they ran Gattuso's Vanni Racing car in F3000 Italia last year)? Or have they simply bought an ex-Traini car, perhaps Solieri's Il Motori di Carlotta car from F3000 Italia? That was run in Traini colours last year, but I thought Traini were then only running Gattuso?

And finally, Gabbiani's Bigazzi car seemed to have a JVA base livery. But I thought JVA would enter under their own right after A1GP ended... so have they sold their cars too? So many questions...

[jondownunder]

Race 2 results BTW:

1. Janis
2. Belluardo
3. Charouz
4. Di Benedetto
5. Persiani
6. Lienemann
7. Ippoliti
8. Torre

Exciting finish, with Janis and Belluardo crossing the line side by side - Belluardo seemed to think he'd won at first.

[sceptic]

OK, so it is definitely Giudici Junior racing (or not racing as is the case here).

So the next question is, is he the son or grandson of Gianni Giudici Snr?

The Corbetta cars were both listed as ADM on the timing sheets on Friday, but have now been corrected to say Corbetta, so I would guess that ADM is probably running that team as a satellite.

JVA only ever had two cars and used both last year. But maybe they have sold one, or just leased it to Bigazzi. And if Bigazzi is Traini in disguise, why not use their own cars? Or do they only have one (the Vanni car)?

Bigazzi were the only one of the teams who raced who were not at the test day. I spoke to the organisers at that test, and they didn't mention Bigazzi, but they did say JVA would be racing. I should have gone to back Monza this weekend I think - I'd probably have answered a few more questions if I'd been there.

[jondownunder]

Originally Posted by sceptic

And if Bigazzi is Traini in disguise, why not use their own cars? Or do they only have one (the Vanni car)?

I'm guessing that could well be the case, as it would appear that last year their other car from Euro 3000 2004 (assuming they had only two) had already been sold/been leased to Il Motori di Carlotta:


Glauco Solieri - Il Motori di Carlotta, F3000 Italia 2005

[sceptic]

I think it is pretty certain that Traini did only have two cars - they have never entered more than two at a time.

Next question then: where did IMDC get their second car from (they ran two in the final round of F3000 Italia)?

[jondownunder]

That one I've no idea of... this is the car you mean, but IMDC ran it for Giuseppe Strano in five F3000 Italia races last year:



Looking at my notes, it seems that "New Racing Team" (whoever they are) were entering in collaboration with I Motori di Carlotta last year. Not that it helps work out where Strano's car came from!

Or have they simply bought an ex-Traini car, perhaps Solieri's Il Motori di Carlotta car from F3000 Italia?

"...from F3000 and 3000 Pro Series?" I should have asked.

[Roninho]

didn't janis do a one-off in champcar?

[sceptic]

Originally Posted by sceptic

JVA only ever had two cars and used both last year. But maybe they have sold one, or just leased it to Bigazzi.

Latest news: JVA no longer have any F3000 cars. So they won't be doing IM.