It’s always nice to get to Combe on the August Bank Holiday Monday, and it’s now become a traditional fixture for Ferrari racing. Although an ex-airfield, it’s a pleasant circuit with good spectator banks from which you can see just about the whole way round. It’s also challenging for the drivers with some fast and hairy bits, notably Camp corner just before the pit straight and the run into Quarry.

The classics were racing on their own again without the much quicker cars from the ailing Ferrari ‘Open’ series stealing their glory and a good entry of 22 was received, although this was whittled down to 19 by a few non-starters; probably it's time to expand the pool of available vehicles and let the tipo 348 in. There were other Ferraris and Ferrari drivers in the Combe paddock – Charlie White had his 355 Challenge out in one of the other races, Nick Taylor won the Cobra-replica race, and Peter Fisk was pedalling a Renault Sport after his Mondial blew its engine.

Mid-morning qualifying took place on a dry track but under some dark clouds, although the weather was promised to get better as the day wore on. No surprise was the pole position of Gary Culver (328), well under the lap record, but what had everyone sit up was the second place of Chris Goddard in the blue 308. This ex-Robin Ward car has always had a reputation for being especially quick but there was no doubt it was being driven expansively as well, and had apparently benefited from a QV suspension rebuild.

Third was Nicky Paul-Barron (328), also under the record, followed by the similar tipos of Nigel Jenkins and Dave Tomlin. Fred Honnor has now got a quicker tipo than his GT4 and was sixth on the grid ahead of Pop & Son Moseley in their GTBs. The times were all reasonably close together and it promised to be a close race. But we never thought it was going to get THAT close…..

The lunchtime break brought out the warm sunshine and a convivial lunch in the packed Strawford centre in the paddock, from the roof of which it is possible to follow the racing all the way round the circuit. Since the demise of the hospitality facility for Club members at virtually all the races the Combe arrangement reminds us of how nice and sociable it is to mingle with fellow Ferrari enthusiasts during the lunch break.

Before the late afternoon start for the 15-lapper there were worried faces in the Culver team – there was a knocking noise coming from the transmission but nothing wrong could be found. Gary would have to wait and see if anything was going to break, and those behind him on the grid were planning avoidance routes. Chris Goddard had taken part in one of the previous races as a warm-up, and had set some good lap times in the 1:20s so was clearly going to be a threat, whilst the other more ‘traditional’ front-runners were all making their own plans to thwart that prospect.

As the lights went out the tightly-packed field shot away from the grid, with Culver in the lead followed by Tomlin and Nicky P-B. But as the mid-field streamed into Quarry corner Fred Honnor spun off the road but came back again right in front of David Hathaway (328) who hit him quite hard and came to a stop right in the middle of the track. With the track blocked the race had to be stopped and the red flags came out.

But by this time the leaders were hurtling at racing speed into the approach to Camp corner. Culver saw the red lights and flags first and lifted off; Tomlin, who had not seen them, pulled out to pass the slowing Culver and had Nicky P-B right in his slipstream. but then realised his mistake, slammed on his brakes and was heavily rear-ended by the closely following and unsuspecting NP-B. It was lucky that only these two made contact.

The field made its way back to the grid to reform. Tomlin got out to inspect the damage to his 328 and decided that he could continue, but NP-B pulled straight into the paddock with a crumpled front wing and retired. From the original incident Hathaway’s 328 was too damaged to continue but Honnor was back in the fray.

At the second start Culver fluffed his getaway and Tomlin led from Jenkins, Goddard, then Culver, Peter Moseley, Honnor, and Richard Moseley. The first four pulled strongly away with Culver moving into third on the approach to Camp on the second lap and then having a look at getting by Jenkins. Behind this bunch was a tight group with the two Moseleys and Honnor, then Ben Cartwright (328) on his own, followed by another group headed by John Day (328), John Swift (308) and Richard Allen (328).

On the third lap Jon Goodwin’s Mondial came clattering by, the engine making a fearful noise and pouring out blue oil smoke. He went the entire pit straight like that before realising something was wrong and he pulled up by a marshals post at Quarry to have the by now sizeable fire in the engine bay put out. This brought out the Safety Car from the pit lane but it suddenly stopped on the track to try to pick up the leaders just as they were thundering down on it! The leading pair of Tomlin and Jenkins saw it and managed to pull up, but third place Culver was unsighted and almost went into it at full speed, just missing it by going off onto the grass. It was a very close shave.

It was a couple of laps before Goodwin’s car was made safe and in the meantime the Safety Car led the field round. It was apparent that not all the drivers had been near their SC Manual for a long while – some looked like stopping on the track, some hung back to maintain gaps, some thought about pulling on to the grid, and it took a while to get a resemblance of an orderly queue.

On lap six the SC pulled off and we were back to racing. Tomlin was still in he lead but only just from Jenkins and Culver. The latter two swapped positions a lap later and Culver went after Tomlin, who managed to make his the widest 328 in Wiltshire. Goddard was still hanging on to this leading group, with some lurid slides, until he retired the blue 308 with an electrical malady on lap 9. There was an ever-widening gap back to Richard Moseley, Honnor, and Peter Moseley who were all squabbling for 5th place. Cartwright by now had Swift, Day and Allen right with him, and behind them Peter Everingham was having the loneliest of races, way ahead of Geoff Neal (328), Pauline Goodwin (328), and newcomer Richard Squire (328). William Moorwood brought up the rear in his GT4 having no other similar tipo to race with this time.

Back at the front, Culver tried time and again to get by Tomlin but it wasn’t until the penultimate lap that he got by, having feigned a wide line into Camp and then slipping by on the inside past the pits. Jenkins did the same a lap later and then closed right up on Culver but it was too late and they took the flag just half a second apart. Tomlin finished third a couple of seconds behind, with Honnor in fourth winning his battle against the Moseleys who finished with son Richard in front of dad Peter.

There had been some great racing but too many incidents and a few cars will need fixing before the next race in the series at Oulton Park on 13 September.

Swifty demonstrates howling across the Wiltshire plains	Goddard was fast and furious before he retired	Evers lobs the secretarial 328 in	Pauline Goodwin leads newcomer Richard Squire and Moorwood

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Watery sun glinting off gleaming Fazzas
Lap 1 and Honnor (20) spins
Ooof! Hathaway is unable to avoid him
At the re-start Tomlin led
Honnor show evidence of the earlier contact
Gooders wondered why his gluteus maximus was getting hot.
The conflagration caused the Safety (?) Car to be deployed
Tomlin led again at this re-start
Peter Moseley was in the thick of the action
Ben Cartwright leads this mid-field group
Culver's up to second now...
...and took the lead to win with Nigel Jenkins second
Phew! Glad that's over
pics by Simon Cooke, go to his website to buy hi-res prints