The farce/tragedy that was Donington Park 2009 meant that the classic season started late at the end of May, but in grand style at the majestic and incomparable (if eccentrically organised) Spa-Francorchamps. Classic and ‘Open’ raced together here and regular classic winners Gary Culver and David Tomlin preferred to race their ‘Open’ cars. Guest driver Nick Adcock (328/3) won classic in R1 from Nicky Paul-Barron (328/3) after a controversial Safety Car/yellow flag procedure. With no “guests” present for R2, NP-B disappeared into the sunset, but behind him there was a great battle involving Chris Butler (328/3) and Ben Cartwright (328/3), resolved on the last lap in favour of the former.

A fortnight later the field assembled in Kent for the tight and tricky Brands Hatch Indy circuit. This time NP-B was absent, but Culver and Tomlin (328/3) were back and qualified 1 & 2. Next up was Chris Compton-Goddard who had made the most of the Group 2 regs with his light and powerful 308, whose potential pace but actual fragility were to be a feature of the season. Culver made the first of a number of bad starts this year, dropping down as low as fourth or fifth before inexorably working his way through the field to take the win from Tomlin, Butler was third. Fred Honnor (308/2) and Goddard both featured, but both retired; Honnor with a misfire and Goddard when it would not start following a spin. Race 2 saw Tomlin again out-drag Culver off the start. There then following an enthralling duel which was resolved in Culver’s favour after a hard but fair fight. Butler, Goddard, Chris Rea (328/3), Ben Cartwright and Fred Honnor all had fun, finishing in that order. 

Races 5&6 were at Snetterton in mid July. Jim Cartwright put his Group 4 328 on pole from Goddard. For R1 the track was greasy with dropped oil and the weather was threatening. Dave Tomlin spun on the opening lap, mayhem ensued and the race had to be stopped; then for the re-start the heavens opened. Goddard boiled his tyres at the start and hillclimber Tomlin took a lead he was never to lose. Things were difficult for a couple of laps with a few offs and other hairy moments, but settled down as drivers got used to the conditions. Chris Butler ran second for most of the race, but spun when trying for the lead on the last lap. He ended up fourth, passed by the battling Cartwright brothers, Ben taking fourth from Jim.  In R2 it was Tomlin’s turn to make a bad start and Ben Cartwright jumped into the lead only to lose it almost immediately to Jim. Tomlin was soon forcing his way through the field and made his way up to second, but even he was passed on lap 12 by Goddard, who had started way down in ninth place but screamed past many on the straight. His charge was stopped when the 3 litre V8 began to cough. Tomlin got him back and they finished Cartwright J, Tomlin and Goddard.  Peter Everingham had bought Chris Rea’s 328 ex Simon Bartholomew 328, the musician buying back his Alan Mann liveried 308GT4 for sentimental reasons. Evers had shown promise before in a bog-standard 328, so how would he fare in a “proper” Ferrari racer? The answer was "well"; he battled mightily throughout with Fred Honnor, Fred just nipping past him in the last corner on the last lap to pinch sixth.

There was a six week break to repair the ravages of Snetterton before the traditional August Bank Holiday thrash at Castle Combe. Here, Culver was back, but NP-B and Butler were saving their cars for Zandvoort the next weekend. Nick Taylor appeared for the first time in his Group 4 Mondi t after the serious business of tying up the Club’s hillclimb championship. At the start Taylor got the drop on Culver and led for a three laps, but then Gary squeezed through and even though Taylor got past briefly, looked in control to take the win. Jim Cartwright was quick once again, but spun and Evers took a great third. Probably the most entertaining dice was down in mid-field, for 12th place, where an incredibly tight bunch was led by John Swift (308/2), with Richard Squire (328/3),  Richard Allen (328/3), Paul Unsworth (308/2), Geoff Neal (328/3), John Day (328/3) and David Ward (308GT4/2) all fighting to get to the front. Swifty had a half-spin on the tenth lap and dropped to the back of this group who were eventually led home by Day. Away from the glamour of the front, this dice typifies classic.

Three days later our racers and their entourages headed off for Zandvoort at the Dutch seaside and on arrival were blasted by gale force winds and torrential rain! Happily it all calmed down for race day which started very early on Sunday morning. Race 1 saw NP-B lead all the way to win from pole followed by Butler and Ben Cartwright who were separated by just 0.3 secs at the flag. R2 was classic classic, with NP-B, Ben Cartwright, Evers and Butler basically on the same pace. For a few laps it was all very close and hard but fair, just what club racing should be.  Sadly, Evers dropped out with an oil leak and Cartwright with clutch problems and at the flag it was an ecstatic Butler who took his first-ever race win from the veteran Paul-Barron, Nick Taylor taking his second podium of the week!

There was a month to recover from all this overseas excitement before the racers re-assembled at leafy Oulton Park in Cheshire. Practice was dry, but the weather had followed them from Zandvoort and circuit was blasted with strong winds and horizontal rain when the cars were in the assembly area for the race. This proved to be crucial because although treaded tyres are obligatory, the more serious racers run a set with more tread in the wet. Also, the 17” P Zero Corsas are better in the dry, but the 16” PZeroCs are better in the wet and even more serious racers swap between the two according to conditions. This isn’t a five minute job and at Oulton there just wasn’t time; this badly affected pole man Culver and Butler.

It was teeming wet for the race and second place qualifier Goddard spun his fierce 308 on the exploratory laps. At the start, he could not get off the line and Culver emerged from the resultant confusion in the lead and held it for most of the race, despite his tyre handicap. However series returnee Nigel Jenkins (328/4) slipped through on the penultimate lap and in an instant Taylor and Jim Cartwright were through too. Jenkins was a delighted first-time race winner in his only classic race this year and Taylor held on to second after a superb drive in the Mondi – a heavy car not well suited to this tight circuit.

The season finale took place a fortnight later on the Silverstone International circuit. Sadly, we were not to see a final showdown between our Top Guns. NP-B was back and Marco Pullen was out for the first time, but Culver and Butler were missing. In the event it got worse because Goddard’s 308 played up and he had to start from the back and on the opening lap of the race, pole man NP-B spun and collected Pullen, eliminating both. When the dust had settled, this left Jim Cartwright with a healthy lead from Chris Rea. As the race went on, Dave Tomlin gradually hauled them in and passed Jim for the lead, but did not pull away by much. Jim C caught and passed him when Tomlin locked his brakes and took a well-judged win for staunch series supporter Scuderia Cartwright. Evers came home a lonely third ahead of Ben Cartwright who took fourth after Chris Rea, in his own words, had his ‘usual spin’. Despite these, surely Chris must be the most-improved driver of the year. 

So ended a good, though somewhat unusual season, in that none of the regular winners did a full year and it was much more open than usual. Entries were strong and there was good racing throughout the field.  Let’s hope for more of the same in 2010.

A Few Stats, Some Unofficial

Unlike our hillclimbing, neither of the Club's circuit racing formulae is a championship, nor even a series. This does does make things tricky to analyse, so just for fun a couple of years ago we cut and pasted the classic race results into our hillclimb points calculating engine. Here, back by popular demand, is the same for 2009. The system gives 20 points for a win, 17 for second, 15 for third, 13 for fourth with all subsequent places dropping back one point at a time to a minimum score of one point, including one for just making a start. Disqualifications have not been counted. Unlike the hillclimb championship we counted all 11 races.

This system measures only outright speed and so favours the more modified cars. There is no attempt to equate performance across classes as it does not pretend to be a championship or name a champion.

Starters were down very slightly from 38 last year to 37 this with an average grid size of 18.2 o/a, but perhaps more representatively 21.1 for the classic only races. Race 10 at Oulton Park in September had the most starters (23) and Race 9, Zandvoort 2 the least (11).

The average number of starts per competitor was 5.4, almost exactly half of the races. Three heroes started all of them - Ben Cartwright (again), Swifty (again) and Richard Fenny, so well done them.

Next meeting: 10/11th April - Snetterton.

Click here to return to the 2009 Pirelli Ferrari formula classic index page.