FERRARI formula classic

Castle Combe has always featured in the Club racing calendar. The facility has generally improved in recent years, although the addition of two chicanes to the Wiltshire circuit have added nothing. For the driver it is fast and demanding but far too bumpy to ever become a universal favourite.

Our classic racers turned up on Bank Holiday Monday and were greeted by a large crowd, though unfortunately hardly any Club members had popped in to say hello. This was such a shame as there were three Ferrari races on the day (2x PMFC, 1x classic) and Swifty had taken over the excellent Strawford Centre for hospitality. This was available to all club members at the very reasonable £15 per head which included coffee and a Danish pastry in the morning, a very decent lunch and tea in the afternoon. Oh, and a superb open viewing gallery above. Right on the Wessex Area Group doorstep too, so where were they all? A non-event like AutoItalia (Fiat 500s and Alfa Suds in a field basically) draws nearly two hundred Ferraris! You go figure, cos I can’t.

Oh, the racing – yes, pretty good actually. Culver’s well-prepped 328 was on pole from John Pogson’s similar car, then a very young John Swift in his 308 and William Jenkins, also in a 308. Next up the Mondial of Goodwin from Spicer's 328, Atkinson-Wills's GT4 (a non-starter) and John Shirley's Mondial .

At the off Culver got caught out by the little downward slope on the pole position at Combe, which required him to hold the car on the brakes until the lights went out. Pogson, with no such problems, shot into the lead. William Jenkins made a poor start – which for him is a distinct improvement (usually awful). The remainder got away OK. I would have backed Poggy to hold on to the lead for a while, but it was the familiar No. 34 of Culver that ended lap 1 in P1 from JP, Mike Spicer, Swifty, Goodwin, Jenkins, Shirley, Hanson (TR), Anderson (other type of TR) Marco Pullen (Mondial), Odhran McConnell (308) and finally the sedate Colin Campbell (246).

Last years race was a classic (sorry) with the first four being covered by the proverbial hanky from start to finish. This year may not have been quite as intense but there were good battles through the field which is a feature of these races. William Jenkins was making progress as expected and by lap five the group of Pogson, Swift and Jenkins were having a decent ding-dong. However close contests were not limited to the front positions - Anderson, Pullen and Hanson were at it too.

The race was shortened to 15 minutes by the organisers who I am sure will be refunding the competitors pro-rata (not). It didn’t matter too much as the places were fixed by then. They make 328s pretty wide in Yorkshire and a possibly frustrated Jenkins finally made a somewhat robust pass on Pogson to get into P2. It looked exciting from the banking so what it must have been like in the car ….

So it ended Culver, Jenkins, Pogson followed by a very much on form Swifty, Mike Spicer and John Goodwin.

The timings for the last classic race of the year at Brands Hatch on Saturday Sept. 24th are a bit anti social, but if you are an early starter do come along and say hello.

Marco came out top after his dicing	Swifty was on great form and came home fourth	Jenkins drove hard into second...	...but not as hard as Gary who kept it nailed on throughout the race

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Poggy took an early lead

The field stream through on lap 1

Pogson Swift and Jenkins had a good early race dice...

...as did Hanson, Anderson and Pullen

Poggy defended robustly against Jenkins...

...ultimately to no avail

Goodwin and Shirley's battling Mondials

Swifty hunts Spicer down

pics by Simon Cooke