Race One

Just a year ago I was at a race meeting at Silverstone, complaining that the weather was too hot and I didn't have a hat. There were complaints about the weather at Donington too but at 9°C and windchill, “too hot” wasn't one of them! It was freezing…….and the wind went straight through you

The only cure for this sort of motorsport weather is an exciting, close but clean race and the Ferrari classic entrants certainly gave us that for the Saturday race, the second one being on the Sunday. Sadly, only a few spectators were hardy enough to make the journey to Leicestershire to see a superb display.

One of the joys of classic is the variety of meetings it visits. If Castle Combe with dented hatchbacks is one end of the scale, this is the other. Tony Smith's V12 Dino, two V12 Matra-engined cars, a “Shelsley” (the accepted collective noun) of ERAs –this was a quality meeting. As was the classic entry with 27 cars qualifying and no less than 11 current or recent hillclimbers entered, as well as quite a few newcomers who all distinguished themselves very well.

Qualifying brought a few surprises. Whilst Gary Culver (328) isn't unexpected on the front row, he was joined – and beaten to pole – by the youngest entrant, Marco Pullen (328). Winter coaching and testing seems to have been effective. The gap of 1.6 seconds from Culver to Nicky Paul-Barron (328) in third also raised eyebrows. In some ways the most commendable performance was by Swiss domiciled William Jenkins (308GTB) who achieved only one flying lap due to a minor petrol leakage onto a tyre yet still managed 16th. Final mention must go to Grahame Bryant, known to many for his many Morgan exploits, in the charismatic yellow 365GTB/4 Comp. He was an unexpected 25th, which many spectators took as a good sign of a charge in the making. Grahame was sharing with son Oliver, a BRDC “young star” with extensive GT experience in Viper, Ascari, Morgan and Porsche. Good to see him trying the real thing! Oliver would take over for the second race, for which he took pole position.

The race started as it went on. Culver snatched the lead from the lights but Pullen had re-asserted himself by Redgate. Culver was back by lap 3 and started to pull away, but at Macleans on lap 4 Pullen took a tighter line and so led across the start-finish. So it stayed for a further lap with Culver weaving behind Pullen, looking for a way through. On laps 5,6,7 and 8 the lead was different each time – really breathtaking racing. On one lap – and apologies that I lost count but I would guess around 10 or 11 - Marco had an outbraking attempt into Redgate and went dramatically sideways. He continued at unabated pace across the run off area and the grass, with barely a lift. Respec', as our GP correspondent says, because anybody who has tried that sort of motoring knows it usually ends in a spin. Not here, though, as he demoted Culver for the last time on lap 14 - quite dramatically as the latter fell to third behind Nicky Paul-Barron. The commentators were expecting the flag at the end of this lap, and NP-B must have had the odd wish in that direction too, but the second hand hadn't reached its allotted span of 20 minutes so there was time for Culver to snatch back second on the last lap.

From that, it sounds as though Paul-Barron had an uneventful tour to third, but this wasn't the case. He looked for much of the race to be playing a stalking horse, waiting for the two fighting stallions to take each other out [enough laboured equine analogies – Ed], and that last but one lap surge seemed to prove the point. However, the end result for NP-B was a convincing Class 2 victory from David Tomlin (328). Third in Class 2 was another hillclimber, Chris Butler making his circuit racing debut in fine style in the ex-Mark Buckland 328.

After all the excitement for the podium places, Tomlin had a what seems from the lap chart to be an uneventful run from fourth on the grid to fourth at the flag. Not so from my seat, where there were some great fights, including a side-by-side with eventual fifth-place man Nick Taylor (Mondial t). The greatest drama for Taylor , though, must have been at the end of lap 1 when he crossed the line in sixth behind Nigel Jenkins (328) and ahead of Fred Honnor (328) who had risen from 10th on the grid. Only a 1/10th separated them as they charged side by side to Redgate, Taylor coming out ahead and the other two fighting it on speed and line.

I mentioned earlier the grid position of Grahame Bryant's Daytona. Let me say first of all that I'm aware from one brief non-competitive drive in a hillclimb 328 that in these cars, with a helmet on, you can't hear much apart from the engine – and glorious it is too. So racers, count yourself lucky you couldn't hear because the thunder of the Daytona in anger was awesome, even from the fence. The power of the 365 was mighty, and it gobbled up cars on speed, if not cornering, to come through to a deserved sixth. The other rise was William Jenkins to eighth from 16th in the Gulf-coloured 308. I was surprised that a Ferrari ran in Gulf colours, but apparently it is historically accurate.

One of the impressive features of this race was the clean racing – there was no “leaning” that I saw, and people seemed to be well behaved when being lapped. However, there were a couple of incidents. At the end of the second lap, Pauline Goodwin (328) had a touch with and lost around 20 seconds sorting out the resultant spin. Happily, the hillclimb 328 looked unmarked. Another to leave the track was John Day on lap 13 at the bottom of the Craner Curves, bringing out the yellows. Doubtless these yellows had a major influence on the race as so much passing would have been done, Senna-like, through the Craners in the last few laps.

In the paddock afterwards it nearly went wrong for the three front-runners because, when weighed, their cars were all found to be underweight, by up to 15 kgs. This seemed unlikely as they were all professionally prepared, on and off corner gauges all the time, and had always passed previous weigh-ins. There was therefore plenty of doubt about the accuracy of the Donington scales and in the end it was decided to allow the result to stand provided that the cars were successfully reweighed the next day prior to the second race. Needless to say, they all passed.

Finally, apologies to those who haven't been mentioned. There was quality driving and racing throughout the field, but with so much happening at the very sharp end that's where your reporters attention was drawn. However, congratulations to the entire grid for a race which was entertaining from beginning to end and can only have brought credit to the FOC and, dare I say it, British club racing in general in front of the elite of the historic racing world.

Race Two

Sunday was another freezing and windy day, but there was on and off drizzle as well which was always going to be bad news at Donington. The planes at the nearby airport drop all their kerosene mist onto the track and that, with the dampness, makes for an ice rink.

The second Ferrari classic encounter was late afternoon on Sunday, so there was a lot of hanging around for the drivers and their hardy supporters. The weighbridge dramas of the previous day had kept emotions high for a few people and provided a bit of a talking point, but the fabulous historic cars in the paddock were far more interesting and there was plenty of time to go and admire them. But it was only the very keen and well-wrapped up who braved the spectator banks…..

Come race time the track looked to be drying, but then a light shower put all the greasiness back as the cars went out for their two warm-up laps, and there was more than one car which had a quick excursion as grip levels were explored. The grid was the same as for the first race except that young Oliver Bryant was now on pole in his Dad’s Daytona, so everyone else had to move back one slot.

Somehow, Bryant managed to skillfully put the Daytona’s power down on the slippery track to lead away from the start, with Culver, Paul-Barron, Nigel Jenkins and Tomlin following in their 328s. Pullen had fluffed his start and had dropped way back to 10th. By the end of lap one the two at the front had already pulled out a sizeable lead, with the Daytona pulling out several lengths on the straights only to be caught by the nimbler 328 in the corners. Culver was soon looking for a way past and at the beginning of lap 4 he got the better line out of Redgate and slipped inside the Daytona as they headed into the Craners. Bryant kept up the pressure, closing up to Culver at an amazing rate on the pit straight, but then the Daytona lost power and on lap 6 he retired with a dead engine.

This left Culver with a huge lead over Paul-Barron, who was driving wisely within the limited grip levels of his 328 and doing just enough to hold off the Mondial of Taylor who had passed Tomlin on lap 4. Nigel Jenkins was chasing hard, though, and began to give Tomlin a hard time.

Making up ground fast was Pullen’s 328 who had to make his way through a tight group led by Chris Butler (Red 5 328) who was doing amazing stuff on his debut weekend. He had Fred Honnor (308GTB), Peter Everingham (328), Richard Allen (328) and Richard Moseley (308GTB) right behind him. Pullen got through this lot by the fourth lap and then set off after Tomlin and Jenkins who were fighting over fourth and fifth places.

Out at the front Culver was having a very lonely time, pulling away at the rate of two or three seconds per lap. NPB was a couple of seconds ahead of Taylor, and then there was another long gap to the trio consisting of Tomlin, Jenkins and the recovering Pullen – barely a car’s length between them. Whilst there were a number of tussles up and down the field the race didn’t have the same excitement as the previous day’s. Lap times were well down – some 10–15 seconds slower and, although the track looked dry, there was serious lack of grip out there and, for the spectators, a biting wind howling through the anoraks.

After 20 minutes the chequered flag came out, probably to no one’s disappointment, and by this time Culver had pulled out a 25 second lead over the others. As one of the other racers said, he was the true hero that day given the conditions. Compared with the 15 laps completed during the previous day’s race they only managed 11 this time. Paul-Barron was a relieved second, a few seconds ahead of Taylor, who in turn was quite a way ahead of the Tomlin-Jenkins-Pullen group with Butler next in 7th place.

Incidentally it was great to see two 308GT4s racing nose-to-tail and finish just a second apart! Newcomers Richard Fenny and William Moorwood must have really enjoyed themselves.

A strange mix of a weekend, with Saturday’s race being one of the best and Sunday’s a bit of an anti-climax. But the entry levels bode well for the rest of the season and the next races take place over the May Bank Holiday weekend at Snetterton. Ominously, Marco Pullen has done lots of testing there well below the lap record, so it looks as though Culver, NPB et al will again have their work cut out….