We've been producing an annual statistical review of the Club's Pirelli Ferrari Hillclimb Championship (PFHC) for a few years and, constantly striving for customer delight, are always looking for new "metrics" to inform, educate and amuse.

We'd noticed throughout the year that a large number of the hill racers were also having a go at formula classic, some with a considerable degree of success - Mike Spicer won one race and newcomer Dave Tomlin and veteran RA both showed very well, so we decided to try and quantify just how well they'd done.

Unlike the hillclimbing, neither of the Club's circuit racing formulae is a championship, nor even a series. This is for a number of sound reasons to do with the way the sport is administered, however it does make things a bit tricky for the would-be statistician and paddock pundit as no points are awarded.

Then it occurred to us that we had the means to solve the problem on hand. If the race results were entered in our hillclimb points calculating engine then bingo - instant championship (totally unofficial of course) and thence stats! We need to explain here that, subject to a few variations, the PFHC system awards 20 points for a win, second place scores three less than first, third, two less than second, fourth two less than third, all subsequent places dropping back one point at a time to a minimum score of one point, even for those who only stagger across the startline once during the whole meeting; we adapted this to give a point to those who DNF, but not to those who DNS. Unlike the hillclimb series we counted all of the races - no dropped scores.

We all had the impression that far fewer people compete in classic than the PFHC, but with 30 and 35 respectively, this is not borne out by the figures. Maybe this impression was due to the fact that the average grid size was a fraction under 16. Things were very slow to get underway with only 11 and 10 starters in the first two races, though these were at Snetterton which is a long way for most people to travel and can be pretty bleak, though it obviously wasn't last April and where you do have the consolation of Janet n' Jim's Paddock Diner.

The Club's 40th birthday meeting at Silverstone saw the "call to arms" answered with the biggest grid of the year at 22 starters. Numbers then fell away again to the mid-teens until the final round at Donington where 21 made it. The average number of starts per competitor was 6.37, or just under over half of those on the schedule. All this rather begs the question - would fewer, better supported races be preferrable? Incidentally, only two drivers started all of the races - Swifty and David Hathaway and both competed in the PFHC too.

The stats confirm Gary Culver's dominance and that of the 328 and, oh yes, to end where we started, 40% of the runners were current hillclimbers (also competing in at least one round of the PFHC), so maybe it's time for them to negotiate collectively for start money!

Click here to go to the full "results" table

And that's it - make of it what you will. Both on the track and in various of the points permutations it's the same people who floated to the top. As always in racing, class shows.

Click here to go to the 2007 Pirelli Ferrari formula classic index page.

Thin grid for R1 at sunny Snett

Decent grid for the last race at Donington

William Jenkins won his only victory in R1....

....Mike Spicer took his in Race 2

Evers won a wet Mallory Park

NP-B (right) beat Culver (left) in the last race at Donington

Dave Tomlin and Rosie were Class 2 "Champs".

...and Steve Tandy and his 275 in the thinly supported Class 1

Richard Atkinson-Willes was the best of the Bertones

Overall it was Culver's year again

pics by Simon Cooke & Dave Clark