FERRARI HILL CLIMB CHAMPIONSHIP
REPORT : ROUND 8 : HAREWOOD : 5 AUGUST 2001

This was the season's second encounter at Harewood and, as always, it brought a good entry. A lot of the drivers had also been lured by the Hillclimb School the previous day and simply stayed on, presumably with somewhat worn out cars! Sixteen entries were received but Mike Spicer's 308 picked up a misfire during the driving school and became a non-starter and Robin Ashley's 246GTS simply did not appear.

Practice on Sunday morning was a good indicator of things to come: Brian Jackson was straight into the 66-sec mark to be quickest, with Peter Hayman and Nick Frost on 67secs. These three were to sort out the weekend between them.

The first of the three competitive runs took place immediately after lunch under, by now, warm and sunny conditions. As the field came up the hill one by one times got progressively quicker. Chris England (308GTS) was the first to dip under the 70-second mark, with a 69.88 but was then upstaged by Geoff Dark (308GT4) on a 69.82 and Richard Allen (328GTB) on 69.02. Peter Hayman's 512TR was running next but he well and truly beached it in the gravel trap at Orchard corner. Nick Frost (348GTC) was consequently red flagged and had to go back down to the start. In the meantime Brian Jackson (355/Ch) had gone easily quickest on 67.46 but when Frost took his re-run he shot into the lead on 67.10.

On the second runs Jackson improved further to 66.79, whereas Frost failed to improve upon his first run time. Hayman, however, made no mistakes as he posted a 67.97 to slot into third spot. Len Watson (328GTS) joined the sub-70-second class with a 69.85 to move him into sixth place but amongst the other front runners Geoff Dark had his time disallowed due to crossing that dratted yellow line at the finish and Richard Allen inexplicably went three seconds slower than previously.

By this time the meeting was running late due to a number of minor incidents in the other classes and it was touch and go whether third runs would be available. In the event they were and now everything was to play for.

Watson, Dark and Allen failed to improve on their times and thus remained in sixth, fifth and fourth places respectively. Hayman threw caution to the wind and took almost one second off his time to momentarily take over second place from Nick Frost by just one hundredths of a second! Frost, however, was able to shave a little more off and re-asserted himself in second place but he was not able to reach Jackson's time. Just as well for Jackson as he was a little slower on his third run and had to rely on his previous run to give him the overall win.

Amongst the rest of the field Chris England's first run time gave him seventh place, ahead of Peter Hitchman (355GTS) who elected not to take his third run as the meeting was running late. Richard Prior (348ts) made excellent progress during his first two runs and was looking for that elusive sub-70-second climb when he received a time that was inexplicably six seconds slower than before. It was thought that he may have inadvertently crept across the start line and tripped the beam.

Indeed, one or two of the times were questionable but everyone accepted that once the time-keepers have spoken their word is final.

With the PEP factors applied, Nick Frost took the maximum Championship points but Geoff Dark still remains handily at the top of the table. From now on, however, some of the runners are beginning to drop points and therefore the positions could get closer.

RESULTS :

POINTS STANDING AFTER ROUND 8 :

Pos.	Driver	Tipo	Points
1.	Geoff Dark	308GT4	100
2.	Nick Frost	348GTC	79
3.	Peter Hayman	512TR	70
4.	Brian Jackson	F355/Ch / 308GTB	61
5.	Michael Spicer	308GTB	59
6.	Richard Allen	360M / 328GTB	43
7.	Stuart Bailey	246GT	35
8.=	Christopher England	308GTS	29
8.=	Richard Prior	348ts	29
10.	Geoffrey Rollason	F355GTS	28
11.=	John Dobson	328GTB / 308GT4	25
11.=	Len Watson	328GTS	25
13.	Terry Esom	328GTB	22
14.	Philip Whitehead	328GTB	21
15.	Simon Clark	328GTS	20
16.	Jos van de Perre	308GTS	19
17.	Chris Hitchman	308GTS	18
18.	Peter Hitchman	F355GTS	15
19.=	Keith Maddox	328GTB	14
19.=	Jeff Simpson	246GT	14
21.	Robin Ashley	246GTS	13
22.	Peter Rogerson	F355GTS	3
23.	Sally Maynard-Smith	328GTS	1

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