Bahamas Speed Week 1966 - Ferrari 365 P2 Drogo #44

For the WSC60s Ferrari 365 P2.

I may be away on holiday at the moment when this post releases, but I assume the update for the pack has released by now. If not, it's coming out before the 25th of January.

This excellent car was modelled by the great NPanic of NP's Garage. Having done pretty much all major liveries for this car, I withheld one for Patreon because I'm evil like that.

This car has quite a sad story to it, formerly owned by Scuderia Filipinetti who only raced it successfully once at Le Mans in 1966. Following a string of non arrivals or non starts, the car was sold to Venezuelan rich racer Rodrigo Borjes Zingg, who intended to race it internationally. He was warned by friends and family about the car, as it was his first big engine sports car - this one especially not being beginner friendly. Undeterred, Zingg set off to the Bahamas for the Speed Weeks of 1966, not knowing it would be his last race.

As quoted from racing driver memorial:

The last edition of the Nassau Trophy Race was held on Sunday, 04 December 1966 on the Oakes Field course, in Nassau. Rodrigo Borjes, a young Venezuelan driver at his debut at the track, lost control of his newly delivered Ferrari 365/P2 during the first lap, going too fast at the first turn beyond the bridge. The car with a full tank of gasoline rolled, ending upside down and caught fire. Borjes managed to extricate himself from the burning wreck, which was already involved in huge flames, walking away from the car with his overalls still burning. He fell to the ground and turned several times trying to put out the fire from his suit, with his face and hands already seriously burned. The attendant fire truck arrived to the place of the accident more than five minutes later. Parked behind the pits, as the truck entered the narrow pitlane it found itself boxed in, being too tall to fit under the bridge an route to the scene. It couldn't back up because several racers had pitted briefly and the cars were now parked behind the truck. The truck driver tried to pass on the right side, knocking down a chain-link fence. When finally the firemen arrived they got the fire under control, although the main hose of the vehicle was faulty.

The rescuers found the driver lying without consciousness nearly the burning car. Borjes was taken to the Princess Margarita hospital in Nassau. A week later, being the state of his health still worrying, he was airlifted to the intensive care unit of the Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, Florida, United States. Sadly he succumbed to his injuries six weeks later, on 11 January 1967. It is believed that the death occurred in consequence of the damage to the driver's lungs, caused by the fire.

The accident dramatized the completely inadequate safety standards at Nassau races. This was the last edition of the Nassau Speed Weeks, in 1967 the long-time ruling party that governed the Bahamas was voted out of office in favor of the "Progressive Liberal Party". The new government put an end to the Nassau racing event which wasn't more organized.

I had to make this livery with only a handful of real photos of the car, hence why it's more of a guesstimate than most my other liveries. Considering the crash happened so early on, it is a wonder real photos exist of the car in the first place.