And so to the final race of what’s been quite a good season for the Pirelli Ferrari formula classic series. It’s not actually a championship but just a collection of 12 individual races and in this way it avoids all the administrative hassle of MSA championship registration.

This means there’s no Champion as such but the two leading protagonists at Donington could probably each lay claim to the title, given their speed advantage over the others this season. Gary Culver (328), whilst not unbeatable, has been the class of the field and his David Preston-prepared car is undoubtedly the most cleverly engineered. Nicky Paul-Barron (328) was having his usual dither between race cars and has had a short season in his newly-acquired QV-fettled 328, but was immediately on the pace when it first appeared at Spa Francorchamps and has since been giving Culver a very hard time.

Those two were easily at the top of the qualifying timesheets, with NP-B just a smidgeon ahead of Culver and then some more familiar faces just behind led by Marco Pullen (328), Graham Reeder (328) and Nigel Jenkins (328). Making a rare appearance was the white 328 of Simon Bartholomew who slotted it in just ahead of ex-karter (many moons ago….) Dave Tomlin’s 328. This second group were all close together on times, so promised much for a close race.

Geordie Mark Buckland (328) was beaming with his great eighth on the grid, good stuff for a relative novice, just ahead of the similar tipo of old lag Richard Allen, and then came the rest of the 21-car grid, a pretty good turnout.

In the mid-afternoon autumnal sun the grid came out on their formation lap and when the lights went out poleman NP-B held on to the inside line going into Redgate, but Culver went the long way round, had the momentum and took the lead. Pullen and Reeder slotted in behind with Bartholomew up next, having gained two places off the grid.

At the end of lap one the two leaders had already pulled out a gap over the rest, with NP-B closely shadowing Culver. Pullen looked comfortable in third, but behind it was nose-to-tail for Tomlin, Reeder, Jenkins, Bartholomew and Allen.

At the front it stayed the same for lap after lap, with Culver suffering from increasing understeer and simply not able to get away from Paul-Barron, and Pullen similarly looking safe in third although only a few seconds ahead of the pursuing pack led by Tomlin who was having to do some hard work to fend off Jenkins and Reeder. The latter was beginning to suffer from gear selection problems and started dropping down the field. Another bunch had formed behind this lot, with Allen just leading Bartholomew and John Swift (308) who had the similar 308 of Richard Moseley looking for a way past to snatch that coveted Group3 class win.

In 11th and 12th were the scrapping Geordies, Buckland and Chris Rea (GT4), followed by another battle between David Hathaway (328), Chris Hitchman (328) and Peter Moseley (328). Then came another tight trio with Pauline Goodman (328) holding off Fred Honnor (GT4) and Peter Fisk’s ever more luridly-driven Mondial whose engine weight finally overcame tyre adhesion on lap 7 with a mighty spin at Redgate.

Nicky Paul-Barron takes the lead from Gary Culver

But back to the front! Having followed Culver throughout NP-B finally went for it down the inside at Redgate on the start of the last lap. Culver, ever the gentleman, gave him plenty of room and he was through, but nearly lost the lead again at McLeans when Culver came back at him. At the finish they were just three-quarters of a second apart. Pullen was nearly 18 seconds behind in third, such was the pace of the two leaders, and he had both Tomlin and Jenkins getting ever closer by the finish, less than a couple of seconds behind.

Allen, Bartholomew, Richard Moseley and Swift flashed across the line as a tight group in the next places, with Swifty having a very competitive race, and then came the happy Buckland, a great result for him, ahead of Rea and the unfortunate Reeder who had slumped all the way down to 12th with his gearchange problems. It’s not been the greatest of seasons for him, although he was quite capable of running with Culver at the beginning of the year.

There were mostly happy faces in the paddock afterwards, none more so than that of Nicky P-B who had finished his season on a real high. For anyone to beat Gary Culver is pretty good going, and he had got close to it at the previous Oulton race but made sure of it at Donington. And let’s also mention the two hillclimbers who were new to circuit racing, John Day and Len Watson, who had raced round happily towards the back of the field, together with another hillclimber Peter Hitchman to keep them company, and who wore probably the biggest grins of all…

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