FERRARI formula classic

It's been many years since the Ferraris visited that short little Mallory Park circuit. The place has quite a Ferrari connection with the owner, Chris Meek, being a keen Ferrari collector and racer and Mallory was, of course, the scene of the first ever Pirelli Maranello Ferrari Challenge race (or whatever it was called in those days) some twenty years ago.

This time it was the turn of the formula classic Ferraris to turn up for the second and third races of their 2005 season, with a late but welcome change from having just one race to having two.

All the front runners were there, the only notable absentee being Nicky Paul-Barron whose 308 was still suffering from a number of minor glitches, and it was a respectable 17 car field that headed into the single morning qualifying session. It was little surprise to see Round 1 race winner, Gary Culver, put his 328 on pole position ahead of William Jenkins (308) and Nick Taylor (Mondial t). Richard Atkinson-Willes put himself into an excellent fourth slot in his 308GT4 in front of the 328s of Mike Spicer and John Pogson. The latter had a replacement engine fitted after his dramatic Oulton Park blow-up and he felt disappointed to be some two and a half seconds behind pole position.

Sam Whitman's famous blue 308 was seventh (this car having performed excellent hillclimbing and circuit duties over its many years) and then came a great effort from Marco Pullen, who put his Mondial into eighth slot despite gear selection problems, just ahead of Jon Goodwin who again nicked his wife's 328 for this event, his own Mondial still broken from Oulton Park.

Race distance was governed by a 20 minute race time and with lap times in the 54 second bracket it was expected that about 21 or 22 laps of this 1.3 mile circuit would be covered.

FIRST RACE

The Ferraris started off the afternoon's racing and with a 2 x 2 grid and a rather narrow track we hoped that everyone would get away without any problems. Poor old Gary Culver certainly didn't. His 328 jumped out of first gear as the flag dropped and he was swamped by the field, dropping down seven or eight places. Jenkins also made a tardy start off the front row and this let Taylor and Spicer through into first and second. As experienced hillclimbers they of course know how to do a start!

At the end of the first lap they came streaming through nose to tail, Taylor leading from Spicer, Jenkins, the fast-recovering Culver, Atkinson-Willes, Whitman, Pogson (another slow starter) and Goodwin. Taylor continued to lead but by lap four Culver had caught right up and he went through into the lead on the next lap. Jenkins also moved ahead of Taylor and closed right up on Culver at the front.

Behind the two leaders Taylor began to slip into the clutches of Spicer as the heavy Mondial's brakes began to feel the strain. Behind these two pairs there was a great dice between Atkinson-Willes, Whitman and Pogson and then came Goodwin in a very lonely eighth place, with Swift equally lonely in ninth, ahead of Group 1 leader Stuart Anderson in his 250TRC replica. Then came a titanic struggle between David Barker's 400GT, Pullen's Mondial, Peter Everingham's 328 and Peter Hitchman's 328, with Tristan Simpson soon joining the back of this queue in his 308.

At the front the distance between Culver and the chasing Jenkins seesawed a little but was rarely more than a second or so. Spicer had got past Taylor for third place and eventually Atkinson-Willes got past Taylor as well, with Whitman still staying ahead of Pogson and, some way behind, Goodwin. On lap 12 Pullen was forced to retire with no gears and on the same lap Everingham also pulled off with ominous oil smoke rising from his engine compartment.

Then, on the last lap, there came high drama as the leading Culver, with Jenkins close behind, came to lap John Swift, who in turn was trying to lap the slow Dino of Colin Campbell. In the confusion Culver got held up, Jenkins was through in an instant and headed straight for the chequered flag. They were just half a second apart as they flashed across the line, with Mike Spicer in third some 25 seconds behind and Atkinson-Willes in fourth. In the run up to the flag Pogson squeezed by Taylor to take fifth spot, with Whitman finishing just a second behind Taylor's Mondial. Positions four, five, six and seven were covered by just a couple of seconds, it had been that close throughout. Goodwin finished a lonely eighth although he had Swifty closing in on him, and then came the well-driven 250 of Stuart Anderson who took a deserved class win ahead of the Barker 400GT.

SECOND RACE

The grid was the same as for Race 1 and again we wondered whether Culver would make one of his special slow starts ....... Race 1 winner Jenkins made a dramatic late entry on to the grid, having had his water pump replaced in record time, but unfortunate non-starters were Everingham and Pullen with oil cooler and gearbox problems respectively.

Sure enough at the start the front row bogged down again but this time second row man Nick Taylor got trapped behind them, and so Atkinson-Willes seized a great opportunity and shot through into the lead. Jenkins recovered swiftly to move back into second but Pogson also took advantage of all this start line confusion to move quickly into third.

At the end of lap two both Jenkins and Pogson had moved ahead of Atkinson-Willes to take the first two places and then came the recovering Culver leading Spicer, Swift, Goodwin, Anderson and Taylor, who had dropped a long way down the field. Culver moved into second spot behind Jenkins on the fourth lap, shadowed him for a few more and then slipped by into a narrow lead on lap 8. Behind, Pogson began to drop back into the clutches of Spicer, who had eked out a small lead from Atkinson-Willes and the recovering Taylor. Swift, Goodwin and Whitman were inseparable in seventh, eighth and ninth places ahead of another fabulous scrap between Chris Hitchman, Stuart Anderson, Tristan Simpson and David Barker.

On the eleventh lap the unfortunate Jenkins, still right behind the leading Culver, suddenly slowed and pulled into the pits with a misfiring engine - in the hurry to repair his water pump insufficient fuel had been added! He retired from the fray.

Culver was therefore left with a safe lead which he held to the end but behind him Spicer had closed right up on Pogson and on a few occasions began to look for a way through. Pogson, however, is no novice at this and, with some defensive driving, held on to his second place when the flag came out. Atkinson-Willes secured yet another great fourth place, a long way ahead of Taylor who had Goodwin and Whitman breathing right down his neck. Swift finished in eighth a lap down, ahead of Tristan Simpson and Stuart Anderson, who again won his class in the 250. Barker and Hitchman, who had a hairy spin coming on to the pit straight on lap 12, rounded off the finishers.

Click here to return to the Ferrari formula classic page.

FIRST RACE

The hillclimbers got the drop on the racers at the start of R1...

...but by lap 4 Culver was scything his way through them

Atkinson-Willes (GT4) and Whitman (308) had a great dice

Peter Hitchman (328) fared better than Pullen (Mondial t) who retired...

...as did Everingham after being in the thick of the action

Traffic was a major factor on this tight circuit

Anderson won his class

SECOND RACE

Atkinson-Willes was the surprise early leader in R2 and came home fourth

Jenkins led before Culver passed him to take the win. The unfortunate Jenkins later ran out of gas

Pogson fended off Spicer to take second

Goodwin (wife's red 328) took second in class

Swifty came home eighth...

...ahead of Simpson

Chris Hitchman made it home despite this hairy spin (in his wife's 328)

pics by Simon Cooke