F3000 Italia 1999

As the field made its way to the Misano circuit, there were a few changes on the driver front. Thomas Biagi, a regular F3000 driver since 1995, made his Italian F3000 debut for GP Racing. Oliver Martini, another F3000 regular, made his second appearance in the series, this time driving for Draco. The Italian team which took F1 driver Ricardo Zonta to two International F3000 wins in 1996 was also making its series debut. Victor Maslov once again returned to race in the International series, while Greece's Nikolaus Stremmenos took over the ADM Competition drive abandoned by Cesare Manfredini. The saddest absence from the entry list was the Italian rookie Riccardo Moscatelli. He had tragically died while fitness training prior to the race. A minute's silence was later held in his memory.

Thomas Biagi kept up his form from free practice to take pole in qualifying. Once again Marco Apicella finished the session second, while Werner Lupberger would start third. Giorgio Vinella and Oliver Martini qualified fourth and fifth. Paolo Montin, qualifying sixth, was the fastest driver without previous F3000 experience. Apicella's Monaco teammate Alex Yoong qualified ninth. He was returning to action for the first time since a horrendous crash at Eau Rouge in the Spa International F3000 round two weeks earlier.

Veteran F3000 driver Marco Apicella took his second win in the Italian series, the first man to do so, in round 5 at Misano. He passed Thomas Biagi and led from start to finish in his Monaco Motorsport Lola T96/50. Biagi, a regular in International F3000, took pole position for GP Racing ahead of Apicella. On row two were Werner Lupberger, the winner of the previous round at Donington, and series leader Giorgio Vinella.

Apicella led the impressive 17 car field after making a perfect start, but fellow Italian Biagi followed his gearbox until he managed to pull away during the closing laps. Lupberger, driving for the John Village Automotive run Edenbridge team, held off Durango's Paolo Montin to take third, while Vinella finished 5th with back pains. It was just enough to keep the championship lead. Montin was heading for a podium finish, havinb passed Vinella and Oliver Martini at the start, until he cracked his exhaust and had to settle for fourth. Sixth place went to Ananda Mikola.

Alex Yoong matched his ninth place from qualifying in the race. Chased hard by Martini for the first ten laps, he opened up a gap and was running in seventh before the electrics went after he knocked the cut-off switch. He restarted the car but dropped to ninth by the chequered flag.

Prior to the race two separate tragedies had struck the F3000 community. Before the race started a minute's silence was held on the grid for Riccardo Moscatelli and International F3000 ace Gonzalo Rodriguez. Moscatelli, a point scorer in the Italian series, had died suddenly while training on a mountain bike. He was 29. Uraguayan Rodriguez, 27, had been tragically killed in practice for his second Champ Car race at Laguna Seca the previous day.

After round 5 Vinella leads the standings with 21 points from Lupberger and Apicella on 20 points. Marcelo Battistuzzi is fourth with 13 points.

[http://uk.oocities.com/unofficialf3000/italianf3000/italia995.htm]