Ferrari Challenge | Imola, Shell AM Europe, Race 2: Cheung wins again, Skrimpias champion
by Julian Thomas · AutosportThe Formula Racing driver also won the second Ferrari Challenge Shell AM Europe race from Paolo Scudieri and Andrea Levy, third despite a penalty for a contact with champion Skrimpias.
Race 1 winner Eric Cheung dominated proceedings once again at Imola to take another win in the second and final encounter of the 2024 Ferrari Challenge Coppa Shell AM season. The Canadian, at the wheel of a Ferrari 296 of the Formula Racing team, got off to a perfect start from pole position and powered his way towards victory right from the early laps.
Cheung immediately pulled out a gap over his rivals and took the chequered flag at the end of the 30-minute race with a comfortable advantage of almost 10 seconds on the first of his opponents.
The racing was a lot more exciting behind Cheung as there was a three-way battle between the 2024 Coppa Shell AM champion, Zois Skrimpias from Greece and the Italians Paolo Scudieri and Andrea Levy.
Skrimpias did well to climb from sixth to second place in the early stages of the race, with Paolo Scudieri doing the same thing, latching himself onto the tail of the 296 of the Ineco - Reparto Corse RAM team.
Exactly halfway through the race, Scudieri made the decisive overtake to move up to second, and then a few moments later, on lap 15, Skrimpias went off the track due to a contact with Andrea Levy's Ferrari.
Rossocorsa team’s Italian thus moved up to third place, with Skrimpias slipping back to sixth once again, more than 15 seconds behind the race leader.
In this way, the Greek missed an opportunity to get on the podium, although he had already looked to be in clear difficulty for several laps against both Scudieri and Levy.
A few minutes after the contact, Race Direction began to assess Levy's move on Skrimpias, and an inevitable 10-second penalty for the Rossocorsa driver would be added to his final time.
Skrimpias, once he got back into the swing of things, managed to make a comeback on Guy Fawe and Henrik Kamstrup, who were battling for fourth, but without having any real opportunity to get into the fight.
With just moments to go, Andreas Koenig and Norikazu Shibata made contact, with the latter coming off worse and slipping to ninth while battling for seventh. Sandmann finished the race between the two, while Shintaro Akatsu completed the Top 10.