Sitting behind the wheel of a Ferrari 488 Challenge Evo is Massimo Perrina, a young Ferrari Challenge racer from the Seattle Washington area who has recently had a stellar 2024 season of challenge racing.
Everything started for Perrina at a very young age: “Me and my dad were both really into Formula-1 and racing so we both wanted to try out go karting as a hobby at first.” Both of them searched around the area for a place that hosted professional karting which they eventually found in Sumas Washington.
For the next four years Perrina had constantly worked to balance school and racing until 2019 when he had to pause his racing due to a collarbone injury. Unfortunately 2019 was his final year stepping inside of a kart due to Covid’s arrival later that year.
After recovering from his collarbone injury, the Sumas race track had flooded due to storms and location so this prolonged his hiatus further which meant that he had to actively look for new opportunities.
Determined to pursue racing, he immediately took up a golden opportunity given by his uncle to race BMW E46 spec cars in a race league in Kent. Perrina explained, “The first time I ever stepped into a race car was when I was about 19 years old.” This was much different from Karting as the power behind a car is much greater than a go-kart.
Perrina had competed in two race weekends, placing the best out of any novice which was a major accomplishment to kick off his racing career, drawing attention from his dad, who was a challenge racer himself. Although things were going well for him, he had to take a break from racing due to college taking up most of his free time.
During his college years, his dad had brought up a surprising question; “He had asked me whether I wanted to try driving a Ferrari, which completely surprised me and I quickly accepted the offer.” Perrina had been very fortunate because his family had owned the Ferrari of Seattle dealership for years which helped him get into challenge racing.
Perrina had then travelled to Watkins Glen International Raceway in New York to make his first race in a Ferrari. The car that he drove during this first race weekend was a Ferrari 488 Challenge Evo which was a non street legal race car that was completely different from any car he has ever been in.
When competing in Ferrari Challenge races or mostly any car race, all of the cars are spec which means that they are all internally built the same to keep everything fair for everyone. If the Ferrari company decided to change cars, every racer in the league would have to switch to whatever car becomes the standard racing car.
A Ferrari 488 Challenge car is half the weight and four times the horsepower of an average street car, weighing only 1,300 kilograms with an impressive 670 horsepower. Perrina recounts his first experience with a Ferrari, “being behind the wheel of a 670 horsepower car is an incredible feeling, the handling and immense power was an exhilarating experience.”
After he finished his first challenge race weekend, placing in the top five, it was a good start to his first season, which motivated him to keep improving. Throughout the rest of the season, he placed very well in every race as he got used to his new car.
2024 is Perrina’s third season of racing as a Ferrari Challenge racer, and it is his best season yet. He won nine out of ten races, ten pole positions, and nine fastest laps over the whole season, which gave him a 100-point lead over the second-place racer.
His cousin Gigi Perrina shared her excitement about Massimo’s recent season: “I’m so proud of Massimo and everything he’s accomplished this season in the Ferrari Challenge.” She has been cheering her cousin along throughout his journey to Ferrari racing and has been a great motivation to Massimo throughout his career.
