The circuit “Riccardo Paletti” in Varano de Melegari, hosted last September from 25th to 26th, the fifth round of the Italian Challenge Formule Storiche, promoted by the GPS of Tommaso Gelmini. Fifteen competitors struggling for the victory, all the best drivers were present, except the Brescian Angiolino Baiguera,
The victory in both races went to a Formula 3 1000 cc, more competitive on the twisty circuit of Parma, but the winners were different : Tommaso Gelmini, in his Matra in the first race and Francesco Zadotti in Tecno in the second one. The other places on the podium went respectively to Zadotti and Paolo Marzatico in the first race; to Bruno Ferrari in a Branca F Junior and  Marzatico again in race two. It must be said that Marzatico raced in a Formula 3 1600 cc Branca, waiting to retrieve a new engine  for his Branca Formula Junior and therefore he did not take any points for the challenge. For this reason,  in race one the points for the third place went to  Patrizia Sbardolini in her  Merlyn Formula  Junior, author of a great recovery,  and to the Swiss Guido Haschke in a Cooper T59 in the second race, who showed a great growth, also  thanks to a new arrangement of the car that Angelo, in word and deed, mechanic of GPS Classic was able to prepare after the directions given by the pilot after  race one. Among the front-engined cars, the two races, have been dominated respectively by Franco Beolchi in  his American Apache F Junior and Tazio Taraschi in the family’s car; Taraschi suffered from a problem at the differential during the qualifying tests, that worsened during  race one and was finally  solved  on Sunday morning, when the same driver replaced the broken part.
The event was particularly selective for the cars, in race one Piero Lottini in the March 703, Alessandro Ripamonti in Osca F. Junior, Ferrari and Leo Bartoli in the Moroni Formula Junior stopped. In race two, the flag of surrender was raised by Gelmini, who stopped at the pits after the warm-lap, Achille Minoia in De Sanctis, Sbardolini because of the breaking of the axle shaft, Gigi Baulino in Lotus 20/22 with a gearbox problem and  Arturo Merzario in the wonderful Chevron B9, driven in the '60s by Tim Schenken due to a mechanical problem.
Entering into details of the two races, it must be said that in the first one Gelmini's superiority was absolute. The only one who could cope with him, at least until half of the race and however kept at a safe distance, was the Roman Zadotti. A more combative performance was expected from Merzario, sixth on the grid, but  some physical problems and some troubles with the gearbox prevented it. Three minutes before its end,  the race was stopped by the red flag because the rain began to fall with varying intensity on the track which made it difficult to drive the cars, considering that there were immediately a few spins.  
 Anyway, the unluckiest was the Brescian Bruno Ferrari, who couldn’t even take part in the tests, because his car refused to start. He lined up in the race, after the repair of the electrical problem, but he could drive only four laps, recovering from the last position to the fourth, because he had to stop due to the breaking of the head gasket. The fixing required a night of work for Virginio and Moreno, Ferrari’s mechanics, who replaced the head gasket, the valve seats and the control unit that had given electrical problems, allowing Ferrari to take part in race two, starting from the last line. This race was more interesting, with Patrizia Sbardolini, that thanks to a good start, took the lead before being overtaken by Zadotti at the first curve and by Ferrari, who after a few laps recovered a lot of positions till the third place; he then overtook Marzatico and started to attack  Zadotti, who however never gave up.
"We had a very hard 30 minutes’ race, says Zadotti, who won the Italian Fiat 500 championship in 1975, just in Varano. Our physical conditions were undoubtedly put to the test. I am very happy with my car that after the problems in the tests and in a part of race one, hasn’t given me any trouble".
The last round of the Challenge Formule Storiche will be held in Vallelunga on next 23d and 24th October. "The challenge is a great novelty, says Sergio Peroni, of the Peroni group that organizes the Italian Historic Championship. The cars are beautiful and the quality is more and more increasing. We are working for the next year and hope to have them with us as they are an interesting and particular moment in the Italian Historic Championship."
ANGELO SENECI