Today I went to Sears Point (properly referred to as Infineon Raceway, but as I started going there 35+ years ago, it will always be Sears Point to me) to check out the Ferrari Challenge. This is a series of races sponsored by Ferrari for owners of modified F430s and historical racing Ferraris. This year there are also five F1 cars (I saw five, there may be more tomorrow) and a whole row of FXXs, which look like Enzos but which are part of a special program run by Ferrari that costs around $2 million to participate in. 
I’m not a huge Ferrari fan, at least, I wasn’t before today. I went in order to get some practice taking photos of fast machines, as I will be brining the camera on this year's trip to the US MotoGP event at Laguna Seca. I’d intended to rent a long lens but was too busy this week to get to the rental place. So I took my standard kit, the 30D with the 24-70mm.
For some reason I continue to be amazed each time I stumble upon a new sub-culture, and the group of Ferrari owners/enthusiasts I got to observe today is really something. First, to participate other than as a spectator requires considerable means. These people are rich, who play with Ferraris as toys. I had no idea what kind of wealth I was seeing until I started talking to a very nice guy who told me that he was there in support of his boss, a Miami developer who owns and races two F430s. The team brings the cars in a 40-ft two-level trailer, accompanied by a second trailer for the motorcycles and a rockstar-style bus to hang out in. A team of four or five uniformed mechanics tends to the cars, and family members and friends come along to enjoy the weekend. It's a pretty nice hobby, I must admit. The boss is too busy to practice racing: he just shows up to each of the six FC events and does the best he can, which seems to be pretty well indeed.
The cars themselves are amazing, and I took A LOT of pictures. I’ve gone quickly through them and picked a few that I liked immediately to include here. It will take days to edit the rest, and by edit I mean throw the vast majority away. I managed to observe a few more interesting things, as well, and will try to post some more pics and comments next week.
2 comments:
Very nice pictures there Scott, and nice t hear how the other.. errm.. 1% live.
Would have liked to have been there.
Thanks for the compliment on the photos.
I was hoping to return today to see the F1 cars and FXXs run, but it is pouring rain. I got lucky with the weather yesterday.
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