RACE 8 : Oulton Park: 6 August 2011

The Pirelli Ferrari classic series has been going great guns this season with good entry levels and quality in depth. Possibly exhausted by two successive overseas rounds the Oulton entry was a little lighter than expected but was still quite good with 17 Ferraris assembling in the paddock.

All the leading lights were there with the exception of Gary Culver who was busy elsewhere, and Chris Butler who was at MIRA chasing hillclimb points, but we had the welcome return of Nicky Paul-Barron who had taken a few sabbaticals. The Cartwrights were out in force, all three of them, and we also had young Danny Winstanley to look forward to after his spectacular performance at his first Ferrari race in Spa.

There were also three newcomers to welcome, Richard Stafford (308 GT4) and the two 328 GTBs of Burgo Wharton and Tim Walker. No less than six of the entries were 308 GT4s but quite what that shows is unclear!

The 10am qualifying session soon blew the cobwebs out and it was no surprise to see the 328s of Winstanley and Jim Cartwright at the head of the field, with Paul-Barron and Ben Cartwright close behind. Then there was quite a sizeable gap, nearly four seconds, to the yellow 328 of Nigel Jenkins who was just ahead of Dad Cartwright and the first non-328, the Mondial, of Martin Hart. In the GT4 ‘class’ Tris Simpson was quickest with an excellent eight overall but had the others breathing closely down his neck. This sub-race would be good!

Then came the long wait to the 4.30pm start – and the ever-increasing sight of black heavy clouds rolling in. Just before the race was called the rain started and the paddock soon turned very wet. As far as tyres were concerned this need not have mattered because the regulation stipulated List 1B grooved Pirellis, but some are of course more grooved than others... Those with a nearly-new set hastily put them on, but the rest were stuck with in some cases very worn tyres which are great in the dry but less so when there’s standing water about.

Although the rain had eased away the track was still streaming wet as the field went round for two formation laps. As the lights went out the two bravest, Winstanley and Jim Cartwright, dived into the first corner together and quickly pulled away from the others. Those behind were more circumspect, with Ben Cartwright slotting into third and NP-B into fourth. Then came a tight group with Cartwright Senior heading Jenkins and Martin Hart, the latter on ‘wet’ Pirellis. Tris Simpson was leading the GT4s but only just ahead of William Moorwood.

At the front Winstanley managed to just hang on in front of Jim C but the latter was looking for a way past. Behind there was huge gap to third-place Ben C but he was being slowly reeled in by NP-B who was getting the hang of his somewhat bald Pirellis in the still wet conditions. Jenkins, Hart, Cartwright (Dad) and Simpson were battling it out in the next places, ahead of newcomer Walker on an excellent debut. Moorwood, Richard Fenny and Nick Whittaker, all in GT4s, were closely racing in the next group.

But on lap 7 things suddenly changed at the front. Cartwright went into the Shell hairpin too fast, locked up and went straight on into the barriers on the outside to retire on the spot. This left Winstanley at the front to reel off the remaining two laps and win his first Ferrari race by 50 seconds ahead of Ben C and Paul-Barron, who had closed to within six seconds. Jenkins was a lonely fourth with Hart in the Mondial in fifth spot.

All had acquitted themselves well in the slithery conditions with Jim Cartwright being the only retirement. Sometimes, when racing at the front, you just have to put things on the line and take it on the chin (or in this case on the wing) when it goes a bit wrong. They’ll all be back for the next classic race at Castle Combe on August Bank Holiday Monday!