The second race of the final round of the Coppa Shell Europe Ferrari Challenge at Mugello produced a never-ending series of mistakes, crashes and safety cars, as well as the name of the winner of the last title still to be awarded, the Coppa Shell AM.
After thirty minutes of racing, with two-thirds run behind the safety car, the winner proved to be Ernst Kirchmayr of the Gohm - Baron Motorsport team. He was the fastest and most consistent throughout, capitalizing on the mistakes of those in front of him to take the lead and bring home the last seasonal success of the 2023 Ferrari Challenge.
At first the win looked as if it was in the hands of Axel Sartingen, who had already been crowned champion. But his jump start led to the inevitable penalty to be served with a drive-through. This took the German out of the game, and he was swiftly followed by Murat Cuhadaroglu, who had a contact with Christian Kinch in the early stages of the race.
What made Kirchmayr's race even easier was the accident at Bucine triggered by a collision by Christian Herdt-Wipper against John Dhillon. The two were fighting for second place behind the Austrian, but the contact led to both retiring and the first Safety Car of the race came out.
With these two out of the running, Kanji Yagura moved up from fourth to second, while Manuela Gostner rose from fifth to third. Both however had to defend their positions in the final laps of the race.
Once the Safety Car had run its course, with about 3 minutes to go before the end of the race, Stephen Earle spun and got stuck in the gravel. This caused the Safety Car to intervene again instantly, freezing the race until the chequered flag. Thus, Kirchmayr triumphed ahead of Yagura and Manuela Gostner. Thanks to this result, the CDP - MP Racing team driver clinched second place in the championship behind Sartingen.
There was a class victory for Stefano Marrazzi, who dominated in AM with the 488 Challenge Evo of the Rossocorsa team. But the most important aspect was Motohiko Isozaki's second place. The Japanese driver, who had been fighting with Kirk Baerwaldt for the cup until now, won the class title, finishing ahead of Josef Schumacher of the Eberlein Automobile team.
