Unquestionably, the most important thing about the 12th round of the Club’s hillclimb championship was that it saw the return to the sport after three years lay-off of FOC Director and Website Editor Christian Mineeff, driving Gary Culver’s formula classic winning 328. Men quivered in fear, women wept with joy, children sang songs of welcome and strewed rose petals in his path. (Sorry about this nonsense folks – it’s contract time).

News came that RA would be late arriving and not competing; on the way up the night before, he’d stopped for his customary banana and his 328 wouldn’t start. The RAC were summoned and after a nervous 6 hour wait surrounded by gay truckers, a return to a home far away in the small hours and very little sleep, RA didn’t feel it would be sensible for him to compete in another of his fleet.

Andy Grier was another non-starter, but there was still a good entry of 16 cars. All the championship contenders, Jon Goodwin (355), Nick Taylor (Mondial), Richard Prior (348ts) and Geoff Dark (308GTB), were there together with Nick Frost (348GTC) at his home hill. There were some Hitchmans – but unfortunately not the picturesque one. Jolyon Harrison (328 GTS) was out for the second time this year and John Dobson was debuting his newly-acquired 328, let us hope that his long-suffering GT4 is enjoying a well-deserved retirement in a Dino sanctuary.

Pauline Goodwin suggested that Dobbo be asked to fit husband’s Jon’s new bi-focal contacts. When asked if he was an optician, the answer came “No, he’s a dentist”. They're a funny lot in the Five Towns. Then followed speculation amongst the racers that “Gooders is fast enough already – what’ll he be like if he can actually see properly?" "Well, with any luck he might scare himself and go slower” others thought.

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The track was damp for practice, but Mike Spicer helpfully reported there was plenty of grip on the straight bits. There was another shower in the lunch break, but then the sun came out and the competitors were faced with a dry-ish track for their first competition runs. Christopher England only does a handful of events each year and the fact that he drives an immodificato 308 keeps him down the outright order, yet he's generally around sixth after PEPs have been applied, which suggests that he’s no mean pilota. This was confirmed at Harewood, where he drove hard and well to record a great time of 69.92 (5th on PEPs); Championship regulars Spicer (328) and Dark only just beating him by a few hundredths.

Spicer was trying hard, carrying lots of speed into Farmhouse and catching the car nicely as it flicked into oversteer on his way to record 69.87. Geoff Dark’s modificato 308 seemed quieter than at previous meetings, his time of 69.84 proving to be his best of the weekend and as this only meant 11 points it was effectively the end of his 2004 Championship aspirations.

Christian Mineeff was caught out by the lack of grip from his tired and wooden Pirelli P Zeros (the tyres also making him ineligible for FHCC points) and went off going into the Esses. He wasn’t flagged and continued at a brisk pace, sensibly using it as another practice run. Nick Taylor went off at the same place, was not flagged either and also continued at race pace.

The 355 was the most numerous (6) tipo at Harewood, with a very close group in the middle of the bunch with less than ¼ second covering both Hitchmans (sharing the same car) and Phil Whitehead, Hitchman C coming out on top with his 69.07 despite big understeer round Willow. Chris Butler delivered his normal smooth, flowing run, keeping the car’s momentum up well to record 68.09, a second clear of the previous trio. Richard Prior (348ts) adopted a similar, but more vigorous style, taking more kerb and looked to be going quicker, which was confirmed by his time – 67.49. In contrast, the 348GTC of Nick Frost was much more ‘pointy’, but the time almost identical to Prior's at 67.46! However, it was the final 355, that of Jon Goodwin, which blasted up the hill to take the lead by almost a second.

Marco Pullen (Mondial) led the second runs away and improved by a useful ½ second to 70.57. Peter Rogerson (355) was a tenth slower, but Jolyon Harrison, driving very aggressively, was quicker and his 70.65 was much better than he recorded in May. John Dobson’s time was slightly slower than that he achieved with his GT4 in May, but this was his first appearance with the car and it’s bog-standard. Mike Spicer was charging harder than before, but fell off going over the finish line - so it would have been the record for sure Murray.

Christian Mineeff was too cautious approaching the Esses this time and lifted early on the straight, having to put his foot down again before the corner, but he still recorded 67.53, quickest of the older tipos and good enough for 5th ‘on the road’. One sour paddock grape, having thus seen his best time knocked for a Burton, tried to put it about that the Pirelli tyres made a second and a half difference, but found few takers. After his first run off, Nick Taylor had it all to do and produced a determined, disciplined and quick run. The heavy Mondial looked slow on the straight but the clocks stopped at 66.89, which put him 2nd overall and looked like a certain PEPs winner. Phil Whitehead made a useful improvement to 68.70, which was quicker than Chris Hitchman’s first run, but typically, the latter produced one of his big second run improvements, knocking 1¼ seconds off and closing to within a couple of tenths of Butler.

Chris Butler improved too, but was leapfrogged by Mineeff. Prior knew that he would really have to go to beat Taylor on PEPs to keep his championship season on track and gave his all; he was right on the ragged edge, only just getting through Orchard and perhaps not surprisingly he was slower with a 68.01. Nick Frost was clearly determined to beat Goodwin in a straight fight and take the outright win. He was trying very hard and only just avoided going straight on at Orchard the car squirmed under heavy braking and then seemed to swivel on the spot and point immediately into Farmyard straight – this is clearly a well-sorted car. His time was 66.20, a 1¼ second improvement and a personal best and four-tenths faster than Goodwin, who improved to 66.36 – not good enough!

The afternoon dragged on as, in the other classes, car after car went off the track, occasionally demolishing the timing gear and it looked increasingly unlikely that the third runs would take place, yet there was a strong sense of anti-climax when the announcement finally came. However, Taylor was delighted as he’d moved into the lead of the Championship. Goodwin was disappointed at not having another chance to go for the win, and Mineeff felt that his car had another second and a half in it, but the day belonged firmly to Nick Frost who did the business when it mattered.

The championship is not yet decided - but those 20 points make it look awfully good for Nick Taylor........

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There was a good entry

"Whaddya mean I'm driving?" Mineeff thought he'd hired Culver too

A magnificent body of men...

...which is why the FHCC has the best Groupies

Rogerson rounds Chippy's

Dobson made his 328 competition debut

Harrison smashed his May times

Marco stars in the perfect advert for the FHCC

England made his 308 fly - as usual

Spicer would have relished a third run

Dark on tippy-toes going into Quarry

P Hitchman was so quick we missed him (actually this is Chris, NONE of us got a pic - sorry Peter)

Whitehead's 355 enters Quarry

Chris Hitchman only just lost the 355 midfield battle...

...to Butler who had a bit of a quiet day by his standards

Mineeff quickly got his eye in after many years absence from Ferrari competition

Prior was 4th on the road and 2nd after PEPs, but lost the Championship lead...

...to Taylor who took maximum points with a great drive

Gooders led after the first runs, but had to give best to...

...Frost, who recorded a personal best to take a splendid win

Fiona Taylor wonders what all the noise is

pics by Alan Jackson, PG, Swiftypics, Graham Easter & CMdigicams