Ride In A Ferrari
10th Anniversary and Final Edition event
Saturday 6th June 2009
On Saturday, 6th June I was almost scared to look out first thing in the morning, so bad had been the weather forecast for the day but as it turned out we had a dry day and the sun even made an appearance. By the end, I was surprised to discover I’d even acquired some sunburn.
The first Ferrari in at this final year’s event was a Ferrari 328 GTS, the first model I ever read about in a motoring magazine. This was closely followed by our second, a black 456M GTA, still my favourite Ferrari model. Special mention should be given to one owner, who has attended every single event I have organised for ten years and he was there again this year with his Mondial Cabriolet, popular for taking Dad’s and children out together all day long.
I was particularly pleased to see the variety of cars we had this year with Bentley Hampshire providing a new Bentley Continental GT Speed model for rides; a Maserati 4200GT and a Dino 246 GT plus a new Ferrari 430 Scuderia proving one of the most popular for rides throughout the day. The same Jaguar XJS we have seen for the previous two years came as a guest car and mostly to entertain a friend of mine who’s still saving to buy one. Two Ferrari 308 GTS models reminded many people of the TV show Magnum and many wanted to rekindle memories of the show by riding in one of them.
A new car highlight was a Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano brought all the way from north London. A Ferrari 348 ts from a local owner who is the manager of the Halifax Bank in Dorchester, an Aston Martin Vanquish and a Corvette rounded out the 16 cars in all that attended this year, slightly below my expected estimate but by no means detracting from the excitement experienced by the paying public.
Many people decided, perhaps because it was the last event, that they wanted to ride in the latest cars we had available and many chose to ride in the 599 GTB or 430 Scuderia. Others were pleased to see some of the older cars including the Dino and a Ferrari 250 GT Lusso.
Special guests included a family from Gillingham in north Dorset who are members of the Jennifer Trust charity. Their young son, George who has Spinal Muscular Atrophy, enjoyed sitting behind the wheel of the Bentley getting belted in as if ready to drive.
Some of the things I had wanted to do or people I had hoped to see, didn’t materialise this final year. Derek Bell, Kim Wilde or Jennifer Ellison either contacted me to say they couldn’t attend or obviously had other commitments. The local media represented by local radio stations and newspapers were, I think, more occupied by D-Day commemorations throughout Dorset at the Tank Museum and Nothe Fort in Weymouth as they didn‘t attend either. The top prize in the Tombola draw, of a Ferrari California brochure, was soon snapped up by a young fan early in the day. Other prizes were all won and claimed except two, which I donated to the Jennifer Trust for the prize draw at the Annual Conference weekend.
By 4pm with many drivers having had to leave for other commitments, we discovered we had made £2500 to share equally between the Jennifer Trust for Spinal Muscular Atrophy and Ridgeway Ward at Dorset County Hospital in Dorchester. This total was in part, achieved with the support the event received from Southern Motor Services at Crossways, near Dorchester in Dorset who paid for the running of the event this final year, in return for their name being advertised on all the promotional posters.
Heather Brown from Jennifer Trust and Stacey Hodges from Ridgeway Ward posed for a photograph with me and the presentation cheque in front of the Mondial Cabriolet. The money raised will help with either providing services, buying equipment and funding research; or completing a Resources Room, buying text books and more teaching aids.
This wasn’t the only presentation on the day as I was given a paperweight by Heather Brown depicting the Jennifer Trust’s “Holding Hands” logo and the slogan “Help for Today, Hope for Tomorrow” for all my hard work and fundraising on their behalf over the last few years and for helping to raise in excess of £10,000.
All my work for charity, for the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign, for the Wessex Association for Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus and for the Jennifer Trust for Spinal Muscular Atrophy over the last ten years, has been mainly inspired by one of the greatest friends I ever had. Her name was Emma and she was right by my side at school for nearly ten years of the best friendship I ever had. Doing something in her memory and for others living with SMA today and their families, has been incredibly rewarding for me.
The theme of working or being side by side with people has continued for me, working beside staff from the Jennifer Trust charity to help others with Spinal Muscular Atrophy since 2003.
I have felt that Ferrari and other “guest” car owners and all the enthusiasts and customers I have welcomed to the event over the past ten years, have been side by side with me to help ease some of the conditions mentioned. The looks on people’s faces say it all when they complete a ride with any of the drivers we have had providing rides over the years, especially in cars such as the Ferrari F40, F50 or Enzo, when I have been lucky enough to attract owners of such cars.
The efforts of all the drivers with equally fantastic cars like the 308GTB, F355, Testarossa or more modern 599 GTB Fiorano as we had this year, have also always be massively appreciated.
After the New Year and when a lot of people have hopefully had chance to read this report, I hope to provide an overview to be posted here permanently, of all the work I have done for the Jennifer Trust for Spinal Muscular Atrophy in the last six years.
See also:
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