Six Grimaldi Team Malta drivers returned to Malta earlier this week with more silverware after another successful weekend of racing in the final round of the Campionato Siciliano di Velocita in Circuito held at Racalmuto.

Arriving early on Friday morning the team of six Maltese drivers and their helpers, all under team manager Joe Anastasi, soon settled into their pit garage in preparation for a very useful morning’s testing.

The group was composed of five single seater racing cars, all racing in the various Group F classes, and John Zammit’s much improved Lotus Elise racing in Group S. Johann Spiteri and Matthew Zammit were entered in the very popular under 1000cc class with their Jedi Yamaha and Van Diemen Suzuki, 2008 ICC champion Joshua Anastasi and Etna winner Alan Curmi were entered in the under 1400cc class with their JBR-4 and JBR-3 respectively, both powered by Kawasaki ZZR14 engines, and Jamie Sammut entered his Reynard Cosworth 2000 in the competitive 2 litre class.

First out was John Zammit who, even with a “raw” and dirty track immediately produced very encouraging lap times, but the opposite was the case with Alan Curmi who hardly had time to warm up his engine before discovering an internal gearbox problem which required and “engine out job”.

Helpers Simon and Jason Muscat set to work in the paddock, their super human all night effort being rewarded when the car was just readied in time to qualify on Saturday afternoon. The rest had an uneventful morning, making suspension adjustments, and gradually improving their lap times.

Scrutineering and a ten minute morning session of free practice brought us to the serious business of qualifying. Heat 6 for Group S was out first. This group comprised a variety of highly modified cars, at the end of which John Zammit’s Lotus was on the front row of the grid.

The Formula heat comprised 15 cars including round 3 winner and Formula Gloria champion Michele Quattrocchi driving the Team Autosport Sorrento Radical PR6, Girolamo Arresta’s Dallara Alfa Romeo, Italian Champion Gaetano Piria’s Ermolli Hyabusa and two beautifully prepared Formula Masters Tatuus Honda 2000s from the famous Fattorini Team for champions Davide Ali and Gianpiero Milazzo.

Quattrocchi was immediately in a class of his own, the Radical looking and sounding perfectly suited to the resurfaced 3.7 kilometre track, but behind him Joshua Anastasi and the two Fattorini cars were also showing very well, as was a surprising Matthew Zammit who was comfortably ahead in the 1000cc field of 7 cars.

Johann Spiteri was playing himself in gently but the biggest problem throughout the 20 minute session was one of too much traffic, making it almost impossible to get a clean lap. Jamie Sammut was also making good progress chasing Arresta hard for second best in class, but poor Alan Curmi struck more problems when an oil pipe burst, depositing all his engine’s oil on the track and bringing out the red flag for the session.

With Alan’s car repaired, we were all set for Sunday’s racing, with all six Grimaldi Team Malta cars running competitively, but in the warm up Alan’s car was found to have an oil problem and it was decided not to race it, rather than risk ruining the engine. Again it was John Zammit who set the ball rolling for the Grimaldi team, with a blistering start that saw him take the lead into the first corner and defend it for a further two laps.

In the meantime pole sitter Vincenzo Montalbano had recovered from his poor start and simply sailed past John’s black Lotus on the long straight to pull away and win. Undeterred John battled on to finish an excellent third, less than half a second away from the second placed competitor, but satisfied that he had lowered his lap times by over 2 seconds a lap since last June.

Heat 7 saw 14 formula cars take the grid, but at the lights it was Joshua Anastasi who made a blistering start to dive in between pole sitter Quattrocchi and Milazzo, taking the lead at the first corner and keeping the whole field behind for the rest of the lap.

As they rounded the last corner the red flag was out as two cars had stalled on the grid, so it was “back to square one”. Start number 2 was also a good one for the Maltese champion who again pipped Milazzo to second at the first corner, but Matthew Zammit too had made an excellent start from row 2 to follow Josh in third place.

A gap started to open between Quattrocchi and Anastasi and also between Anastasi and Zammit, but Matthew had his hands more than full enough keeping an eye on his mirrors which were full of Milazzo’s Tatuus. The situation was stable for the two at the front but Matthew was having the race of his life, as was Johann who despite another mediocre start was driving hard and picking off competitor after competitor.

Poor Jamie had broken a CV joint on his Reynard at the start and was reduced to spectating for the rest of the race. Piria, Arresta and Ali were all making good progress up the field but at the flag it was Quattrochi from Joshua, Milazzo, Matthew and then Johann.

The Grimaldi Team Malta drivers had excelled again, with Joshua and Matthew both winning their respective classes, Johann placing second in class, and John placing a much improved third.

Manager Joe Anastasi said: “In our first full championship, the Grimaldi team’s drivers have finished up champions in three classes and runners up in a further two.

But even more important, they showed their friendliness, sportsmanship and good manners throughout. They were exemplary both on and off the track, and it makes me very proud to have been managing such a decent, friendly, and competitive bunch of lads.”