www.QV500.com - Ferrari F40 Part 12: F40 GTE 1995 BPR GT Championship

For 1995's BPR GT Championship, F40 GTE's were run under the Ferrari Club Italia banner and got more back-door assistance from the factory. 90001 was first tested at Vallelunga during the winter and development continued here and at Fiorano during the early part of 1995. However, Luciano della Noce's car was not ready in time for the first two rounds of 1995, the Italian industrialist and his co-driver, Anders Olofsson, debuting at Monza. They made an impressive start too, the Swede qualifying on pole and finishing third, a lap down on the Dave Price Racing McLaren F1 and Larbre Competition's Porsche 993 GT2. A second GTE was completed in time for the next round at Jarama, the new car, chassis 82404, being taken over by della Noce and Oloffson, Mancini, Monti and Ayles inheriting 90001. They qualified sixth for the four hour race but retired early on whilst della Noce and Olofsson faired little better as having again taken pole, they only managed to complete 15 laps before gearbox problems forced them out. Round 5 saw the BPR series head to Germany for the Nurburgring 4 Hours, Mancini, Monti and Ayles qualifying in sixth. But although eventually being classified in 23rd, they were 23 laps down on the winning Gulf-backed McLaren. Olofsson had managed to secure the GTE's third consecutive pole for the race but neither he nor della Noce were able to translate this strong performance in qualifying to the race, 82404 retiring after just a couple of laps, overheating cited as the problem.