When, at the recent Curborough Tuition Day, I was told by two Directors of the FOC that they thought I was the best man to cover the forthcoming FHCC round at the MIRA Proving Ground, I felt a warm glow that they had the confidence to entrust me with this important job.

Having arisen at sparrow's cough and motored to the venue, to be greeted by rain sweeping across this former airfield, I realised the full extent of the honour they had bestowed upon me. They, the Great and Good of the Club, clearly did not believe themselves capable of this task, but felt that I, a humble PHR member, was!

My heart bursting with pride, I met a damp and bedraggled bunch of Ferrari hillclimbers who mumbled “we wondered who they’d leg-up with this one”. I have no idea what they were on about…

There was a good entry of 13 cars, Barry Wood (308GTS) was making his first appearance of the season and Lorraine Hitchman, fresh from the Curborough Tuition Day, was making her competition debut. Her husband Chris and father-in-law Peter are both FHCC regulars. I can’t remember ever seeing three members of the same family in the same class at a meeting, can anyone else?

The first practice run was wet, with John Marshall (328GTB) emerging a surprised leader. It stopped raining and the track was 90% dry for the second runs and Chris Butler (355) came out on top from Geoff Dark (308GTB) and Mike Spicer (328). Series’ leader Richard Prior was down in fourth and unhappily for him, the day went steadily downhill from then on.

It was dry and warm by the time the competition runs came along and the field could really enjoy this fast and open course. The start is at the beginning of a fast, constant radius corner which opens up onto a straight (at the end of which is a speed trap) there follows a 90° right and a quick blast up to a 90° left leading onto another straight and a final, quick corner.

The downside of the course is that it’s marked out with cones, which is always difficult and which wasn’t helped by the organiser’s somewhat inconsistent deployment of them. One colour for the inside of a bend and another for the outside helps a lot – a mixture does not. The upside is that the run-off areas are very generous.

I went to stand near the speed trap to watch them playing “chicken”. Marco Pullen blasted his 2 valve through at 98mph, selected second gear instead of fourth, completed a neat 360° spin, with clouds of tyre smoke and continued, to the applause of the small crowd; his time only 4 secs slower than before!

Barry Wood was quick through the Esses and Jos Van De Perre improved substantially over his practice time. He thought he would do so and had the honesty to protest his own handicap time as overly generous! John Marshall spun on the exit of the Esses, perhaps pressurised by his practice lead.

Mike Spicer (328) was going well, as were Chris Hitchman (355) and Phil Whitehead (355), which was more than could be said of Richard Prior who spun in the last corner. He later said that he’d gone in too fast, oversteered, corrected, kept the throttle on – gone!

Geoff Dark wound his 308GTB up to an astonishing 110mph to take second place with 56.84 and only Chris Butler in front of him with a 55.71. Chris said that the run felt fast and he knew it was quick before he saw the time – the first time he has experienced this feeling in his short career. Peter Hitchman improved dramatically in his gizmo-laden 360M to take third place. He wasn’t too sure what ‘OSR’ was or did, so he switched it off and said that the car felt better. He is still playing with start-line techniques and believes there is more to come.

The second runs were much of the same, but with the weather positively pleasant and confidence higher, many of the trap speeds crept up (click here for an overall list). Colin Campbell improved by 0.03 secs, Marco Pullen kept it all together; this time it was Lorraine Hitchman who pushed a bit too hard and went straight on in the Esses. Not a bad thing to experiment in a safe environment and all-in-all a very competent debut.

Phil Whitehead (355), with the tail wagging on the exit of the Esses, was clearly trying hard - his reward was an excellent third place overall, his first ever “podium”, demoting Peter Hitchman to fourth. Mike Spicer was delighted to finish fifth (third on PEPs) and beat his old mate Richard Prior, who could only manage seventh overall, ruefully admitting that this is his bogey track. At least it gives him a bad score to discard. Dark went a fraction slower, but still took second and the win on PEPs. Chris Butler went even quicker, flat out from the start, on the limiter in first, second, third and fourth gears – 112 mph through the trap, through the Esses, late onto the brakes into the last corner, over the drain cover [eh? that's Shelsley, shurely - Ed] and safely over the line in 55.14 secs, 1.7 secs clear and his first win of the season.

The lunch-time discussion had centred once again on the fact that the +2.75% PEP applied to the 355 seems a bit severe. Chris Butler nearly became the second-ever PEPs winner in the tipo, but maybe 0.25% off would encourage the others (it wouldn’t make any difference to Jon Goodwin) – though the drivers of other tipos would certainly not be keen.

Note:

MIRA is the Motor Industry Research Association where there are lots of high-tech facilities like a wind tunnel and the Proving Ground where engineers have fun doing unpleasant (and possibly illegal) things to cars and motor cycles. You are not allowed to take a camera in, in case you sneak a pic of the new Chelsea Tractor (or similar) on test and sell it to Autocar. There was nothing interesting there on Saturday, though I did think I caught a glance of a Mondial t with formula classic stickers going into the wind tunnel - surely not?

SCOOP!!

Pics now available.

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A good entry...

...with a wide range of tipos

A magnificent display of the finest Italian engineering

John Marshall led after P1

Peter Hitchman is still coming to terms with all the 360's gizmos

Spicer cranked it up to 103 mph

Geoff Dark took second overall and the PEPs win

Series' leader Richard Prior had a bad day

Chris Butler was uncatchable

FHCC's new hospitality unit - courtesy Essex Enterprises

pics by Lupo Grigio, Holly & Libby Prior