1992 Ferrari 348 Challenge

#ZFFRG36A7N009215 By Barton Workman for Curated Background and statistical information provided by Jason Berkley Still images courtesy of Bruce Miller Back in the late Summer of 1995, one of the editors from On Trackmagazine called inquiring if I was interested to go out to College Station, Texas to photograph the IMSA World Sportscar Championship (WSC) race taking place at the Texas World Speedway (TWS) combined oval and road course. It was an opportunity to get some work published in the magazine (a big deal to an emerging racing photographer) so I told my editor that I’d do it. Rather than fly out to Texas from Tampa, I decided to have a bit of an adventure and drive as I’d never driven that far west before and I was interested to find some real Texas culture. Why not? Recalling the TWS track from the seventies when Indy Car and NASCAR races ran there, that it was an exact duplicate of Michigan International Speedway and as such it was one of the fastest ovals in the world. The (then) owners of TWS were attempting to revitalize the track’s profile and hosting a full IMSA weekend would seem to be a good place to start. So, the deal was done and I made the drive out to College Station, home to Texas A&M University, some pretty decent Texas Bar-B-Q and the largest sweet iced teas in-the-world. The event was pretty straight forward, a late season 3-Hour round of the WSC featuring the open top World Sports Car Championship (WSC) prototypes of the time, Ferrari 333-SPs entered by Gianpierro Moretti’s MOMO team and Andy Evans’ Scandia team with a two-car entry and Ford powered Riley & Scott cars entered by Dyson Racing as protagonists for overall victory in the main event. There were some big-name drivers present, none more so than ex-Ferrari F1 star Michele Alboreto along with fellow Ferrari drivers Mauro Baldi, Fermin Velez and Wayne Taylor with long time Dyson Racing regulars Butch Leitzinger, John Paul, Jr. and James Weaver in the Ford powered Riley & Scotts. The field was rounded out by numerous other prototypes with GTO and GTU teams filling a respectable thirty-sum car entry for the main event plus the Firestone Firehawk and Ferrari Challenge Series support races. The fledgling Ferrari Challenge Series which featured equally matched 348 Challenge cars entered by various Ferrari dealers from around the country was in its first full season. The new one-make series was still in its infancy and running alongside the high profile WSC events which raised its profile quickly. TWS event co-sponsor Ferrari of Houston owner Giuseppe Risi invited many of his clients and friends out and a lot Texas registered Ferraris were present at the event. The parking lots inside and outside the track were full of road-going Ferraris and paddock itself was packed end to end with racing Ferraris for the WEC and Ferrari Challenge races. To that point, I don’t think I’d ever seen so many Ferraris gathered in one place in my life to be honest, so this was pretty neat! Even by today’s standards, this had to rank among the largest gatherings of Ferraris in the country outside of a National FCA or Ferrari North America meet. The WSC race was won overall by the MOMO Ferrari 333-SP driven by Wayne Taylor followed by Michele Alboreto in the Scandia 333-SP with both drivers did the 3-Hour race solo in the scorching late summer Texas heat. So, over and above the hundreds of Ferraris present at the event, it was a big weekend for Ferrari scoring a one-two finish on the track as well. The Ferrari Challenge races were interesting as this was my first time seeing this new series with basically stock 348s running with modified springs and shocks (as long as they were Ferrari supplied) and update kits with racing safety features such as roll bars, fire extinguishers, racing seats with four-point harnesses among other items as mandated by the rules. As this was early September and the last race of the Ferrari Challenge season, on closer inspection in the paddock the Challenge cars were looking pretty second-hand wearing scars from the season’s previous races. But, the dozen or so entries that showed up at Texas World Speedway were ready to race and a few names stood out. Among them none other than Ferrari super collector Peter Sachs driving for Miller Motorcars, Derek John Hill (son of American racing legend Phil Hill) driving for Ferrari of Beverly Hills, Dr. Stephen Earle for Motor Imports with George Robinson and Paul Frame driving for Ferrari of Houston and featuring Seitel livery on the bright red and yellow striped 348 Challenge cars. The Ferrari Challenge Series had two 26 lap races on the Saturday and Sunday so the competitors got plenty of track time between practice sessions, qualifying and the races. For the gentlemen drivers whom are business men, engineers, ranchers, doctors, etc. in their daily lives, they put their money in with their respective local Ferrari dealers to do essentially arrive and drive races with their 348 Challenges at famous tracks across the country, getting a taste of real racing without the hassle of owning and maintaining the cars. It was an innovative concept giving Ferrari a platform to show their latest V8 creations and gentlemen drivers the opportunity to go racing without all the associated costs which has evolved into the huge multiple Continent series that we see today. Both of the Ferrari Challenge races at Texas were won by Peter Sachs with George Robinson finishing second with Houston resident Paul Frame coming home fifth and sixth in the races respectively. What stood out was the presence of Seitel, a Houston based company that provides seismic data machinery to oil drillers that Frame had built into an industry giant, at this event. Seitel flags and banners were everywhere and primarily on the Ferrari of Houston entered cars. It seemed no matter where you looked around that dusty old track, Seitel had a very strong presence as title sponsor of the race weekend. At the same time, Paul Frame’s name was being mentioned quite frequently over the public address system during the races. So, of course, as Seitel sponsored the event weekend, Frame was gaining just as much exposure during the event as his company even though he was running mid-pack on this occasion, the announcers clearly had their sights set on him. As one of the few attending credentialed photographers attending this event, Ferrari PR people were approaching and asking if I was staying on after the race weekend. As there was a long drive back to Tampa and deadlines to meet, staying on in College Station wasn’t part of the agenda. None the less, they kept encouraging me to hang around a few extra days but never really let on why and I didn’t really gave it much of a thought, unfortunately. Of course, I found out later that Ferrari of Houston had taken delivery of the first of the brand new, U.S. delivered Ferrari F50s (one in Giallo for Frame and the other in Rosso for Risi). The keys to the “fastest car in the world” were delivered to Frame by the “fastest man in the world”, American multiple gold medal winning Olympian Carl Lewis, whom also happened to reside in Houston. The Giallo F50 was being delivered to Frame at Texas World Speedway where he and Giuseppe Risi held a big event to welcome the cars along with FoH clients and media, driving them around the track and giving attending guests and media rides for features that later played prominently in print magazines and specialist television shows. During the 1995 Ferrari Challenge Series season, Frame was a consistently high finisher, usually not on the podium in his first season but further down in fourth through sixth places as series heavy weights Sachs, Robinson, Earle and Hill were the regular podium visitors. From the mid-90s to early naughties, Paul Frame seemed to be just about everywhere when it came to Ferraris in the United States as his profile grew as a collector and Ferrari Challenge participant from the 348 thro