It's getting to that time of the season when the Championship really starts to get interesting. With only seven scores to count out of a possible 14 some of the busier drivers are now beginning to drop scores. From now on it is essential to get a big points tally from each meeting because the lower scores won't count any more.

Going into Curborough, Nick Taylor is looking good with three maximums, while Geoff Dark and Richard Prior have two 20 point maximums each. The Championship surely will be between those three.

The Curborough entry was high on quality and brought all the Club's top hillclimbers together for what would be an interesting shootout, both as far as the overall win and the points win were concerned. Even last year's champion, Nick Frost, made one of his rare appearances with his raucous 348 GTC to try to upset the equilibrium of the 2004 contenders.

Curborough is not the most exciting venue but at least the weather was dry and warm. The two morning practice runs already gave a clue as to form. Jon Goodwin (355) was handily the quickest on 35.42 secs, with Chris Butler (355) second on 36.57 and both Nick Frost and Richard Prior (348) tied on 36.93. Nick Taylor was looking good on his first practice run but got himself into a tank-slapper on his second run which ruined his time. Richard Allen (328), father and son Peter and Chris Hitchman (360 and 355 respectively), Mike Spicer (328) and Geoff Dark were all very close together in the 37s. Marco Pullen (Mondial) spoilt his second run with a spin and Lorraine Hitchman (328) was putting to good use stuff she had learned during the Curborough tuition day. Barry Wood (308) was already under the 40 sec mark and was clearly heading for a personal best at Curborough.

After the lunch break and in increasing temperatures the Ferraris came out for their first competitive runs. On an overall basis it was going to be a contest between at least four or five drivers but for the PEP points few thought that the in-built disadvantage of the 355s (+2.75%) would overcome the 328, Mondial and the 348 who would all be starting from a zero handicap.

Giving it everything, Goodwin hurtled his 355 around on that first run and, with a record-breaking time, put himself into a strong lead. Frost, always quick at Curborough, was just over a second behind in second spot with Butler's 355 in third. Taylor slid the Mondial around fearlessly to take fourth ahead of Prior's 348. It was interesting to note that the quickest 355 (Goodwin) crossed the finish line at 94 mph, with Butler on 93, Frost on 90 but Taylor, paying the penalty of a much heavier car, was on just 86.

Allen took his 328 round very smoothly to claim 6th spot behind the hard-driving elite ahead of him. Dark's 308 snapped and snarled to take up seventh place, just two tenths of a second ahead of Spicer's 328. Chris Hitchman used all of the road in his 355 but was held back to ninth place although it looked much quicker than that. Young Marco Pullen (Mondial) got his driving back to being much smoother than at the previous Loton round and was rewarded with a good time in tenth place, ahead of Peter Hitchman's 360 M. The F1 paddle shift made this a difficult car to get off the line but its power made it consistently the quickest car across the finish line timing beam - always in the mid-nineties.

vroom, VROOM, phut - 360 launch control	Frost & howling go well together	Marco demonstrates the "Lakeside Lambada"...	...and Gooders the "Stoke Stomp"

Barry Wood went a little slower than he had achieved in practice and Lorraine Hitchman, the third Hitchman to run that day, tried just a little too hard, got caught with terminal under-steer at the critical top corner and lost a lot of time there. For a newcomer these are all just matters of learning.

At this rate Goodwin would not only win the event overall but would also achieve the rare feat these days of winning the maximum points in a 355, which is, after all, handicapped by +2.75% over the base line 328 tipo.

Time was marching on in what was a very slow running meeting and it was not until after four o'clock that the Ferraris came out for their second runs of the day. Things were far from settled and quite a number of drivers had improvements to make.

Nick Frost was certainly not going to leave Gooders to an unchallenged win and he knocked another quarter of a second off his previous time to leave it at 35.76 - but not good enough to elevate him from second place. Goodwin, however, had a slower second run and was one of only three drivers who failed to improve on their second runs. Butler took a deep breath but his 36.18 kept him in third place. Prior went quicker than his first run and was able to wrest fourth place away from Taylor. Allen also went quicker than Taylor and put himself into fifth spot, ahead of the Mondial driver who, again, over-steered his way around but was just not able to keep up with the more nimble cars ahead of him.

Chris Hitchman went much quicker on his second run, using the full width of the road, and ended up in an excellent seventh place, beating Spicer by the narrowest of margins - just 0.01 of a second. Dark went slower on his second run and dropped from seventh to ninth place. Peter Hitchman's 360 again proved difficult to get off the line, being the only Ferrari to need more than three seconds to get to the 64 ft. mark and although he improved to a 37.86 this left him in tenth place. Pullen concentrating on smooth driving rather than aggression, went a little slower on his second run and was 11th, ahead of a delighted Barry Wood who set a 38.89 for his quickest ever Curborough time. Lorraine Hitchman looked a lot smoother and set a much quicker time than earlier and in particular she was very pleased with her finish line speed, which at 87 miles an hour was ahead of some of the more fancied runners.

It had clearly been Jon Goodwin's day and there was not a lot more that he could have done: he was nearly three quarters of a second quicker than everyone else, he took the maximum PEPs points as well and even set a new Ferrari class record. It doesn't get much better than that. Prior continued his championship chase by coming second in the PEPs table. The other title aspirants, Taylor and Dark, had reason to feel a little disappointed with their points tally, taking just 13 and 11 points home respectively out of the maximum of 20 on offer.

The next round of the Ferrari Hill Climb Championship takes place at Prescott over the weekend of 4/5 September.

Click here to return to the Ferrari Hill Climb Championship page.

A good entry - but non-PHR approved parking - again!!

Is Gooders (r) still grumpy because Taylor (l) got him at Oulton?

Lorraine Hitchman enjoys her practical-based training

Barry Wood was delighted to set his best-ever Curborough time

Peter Hitchman's 360 is very quick on the straight

Not a bright day for Geoff Dark's Championship aspirations

Mike Spicer knocked a useful four tenths off on his second run...

...but Chris Hitchman pipped him by one hundredth of a second!

Nick Taylor's Mondial lost out against the nimbler tipos on this tight circuit

RA wonders if he's in the 328 or if he's already spun the 550

Er, not too sure what's going on here...

Chris Butler took an honourable third

Nick Frost gave it everything to try and beat Goodwin....

....who could only manage to win outright, on PEPs and break the record...

...which put him back on top of the Championship table, so he's entitled to smile

Wood dreams of even greater glories - that elusive front row at Monaco....

pics by PG & CMdigicams