FERRARI HILL CLIMB CHAMPIONSHIP
REPORT : ROUND 5 : PRESCOTT : 23/24 JUNE 2001
by Mike Spicer

Situated in one of the Cotswolds' most beautiful valleys, there could hardly have been a better place to have been than Prescott's paddock last weekend, even if it was a little too hot - believe it or not.

A somewhat low entry was further depleted by the absence of Peter Hayman, who fell victim to the damp top 'S' at Shelsley the previous weekend. The foot-and-mount epidemic culled the first event here in April, so nearly ten months had passed since we were last at this difficult venue;

This seems a reasonable excuse for my fairly leisurely time of 54.73secs on leading off our first practice runs. Next up was Stuart Bailey, whose beautiful 246GT had been misbehaving in the heat on the trip from Essex but who still managed 56.86. Brian Jackson (F355), a potential winner, shot up in an excellent 51.64. Chris England (308GTS) was saying that only a few years ago it was felt that the best possible time that could be wrung out of a road-going 308 was 54.00 seconds - it just shows how tyre development and driver attitude have progressed as he produced 53.33 on his very first run.

Geoff Dark (308GT4) knew he would have to use all of his considerable experience and bottle as Geoff Rollason (F355GTS) would be out for revenge but, as expected, his 52.23 was trounced by Rollason's time of 51.40. Slightly embarrassed by my first time I managed to knock off one sec or so, whilst everyone else was slower, both 355's having gear selection problems - Jackson with driver trouble and Rollason having electrical glitches yet again with the paddle change.

Sunday dawned and the sun was beating down as though it was the Sahara rather than Gotherington. As this was another round of the British Hillclimb Championship a large crowd of spectators gathered, in particular around our cars at lunch time with Geoffrey Rollason having to cope with an orderly queue of interested enthusiasts drooling over the 355 F1.

Most of the Ferrari drivers improved on their first competitive runs - the order being Rollason, Jackson and Dark.

And then it went to the final runs. I managed to produce my second slowest run of the weekend, over a second slower than the previous. Stuart Bailey went on to record an identical time to that he set here exactly a year ago (coincidence or what)? Chris England recorded an excellent 52.89, and set his fastest ever non-'P zero' time here.

These very hot conditions suited the tyres if not the drivers as the three quickest were the best that Dark, Jackson and Rollason had managed in these cars, being 51.56, 50.77 and Rollason's winning 50.22 respectively.

Dark again took maximum points and is now comfortably leading our championship. The next round, at Gurston Down, takes place on 15 July.

Paddock Gossip

• New driver Richard Prior mentioned at Shelsley that there did not seem to be many 348's such as his in our series. Partially true, I said, as we do have Nigel Stubbs who rarely takes his to events other than Harewood, and Nick Frost's GTC which is a bit different. But it has struck me that there are some unexploited vehicles in our PEP system. One model being the 512M which could be a slight improvement on Peter Hayman's rapid 512 TR and still with only a 1.5% deduction. A late model 348 (not GTC) with 320 bhp engine and 0% handicap could well be the way to go, indeed Richard had an excellent Shelsley debut with his 38.14 first time out.
  
  
• Noticed in the Prescott paddock was a Caterham with "Sponsored by the wife" stuck on it. Wish I had thought of it first - not thinking in monetary terms but just how a lot of us would be struggling without their endless support.

RESULTS :

POINTS STANDING AFTER ROUND 5 :

Pos.	Driver	Tipo	Points
1.	Geoff Dark	308GT4	59
2.	Mike Spicer	308GTB	50
3	Peter Hayman	512TR	44
4.	Nick Frost	348GTC	37
5.	Brian Jackson	F355/Ch/308GTB	33
6.	Stuart Bailey	246GT	29
7.	Geoffrey Rollason	F355GTS	28
8.	Richard Allen	360M	24
9.	Terry Esom	328GTB	22
10.	Simon Clark	328GTS	20
11.	Christopher England	308GTS	18
12.	Len Watson	328GTB	15
13.=	Jeff Simpson	246GT	14
13.=	Keith Maddox	328GTB	14
13.=	John Dobson	328GTB/308GT4	14
13.=	Jos van de Perre	308GTS	14
17.	Robin Ashley	246GTS	13
18.	Richard Prior	348ts	12
19.	Chris Hitchman	308GTS	10
20.	Philip Whitehead	328GTB	9
21.	Peter Hitchman	F355GTS	8
22.	Sally Maynard-Smith	328GTS	1

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