 |
| FERRARI
HILL CLIMB CHAMPIONSHIP |
2004
SEASON STATISTICAL REVIEW
by Graham Easter |
The Championship embraced 14 rounds at 11 venues, again ranging from
the Badlands of Essex to the beauty of Jersey, and ventured North of the
Border to the incomparable Doune. Interestingly, none of these feature
in the provisional 2005 calendar, though two new windswept former airfield
venues have been added along with the innovation of a Loton Park double-header
and a two-lapper at Curborough.
Once again the May Harewood (R3) attracted the biggest entry with 20
drivers and Round 6, Doune, the least with three. The average number of
entrants per meeting was 11.6, which though slightly down on last year
is still very respectable. 32 drivers took part, with 30 eligible for
the Championship. Neither Mike Haigh's nor Christian Mineeff's classic
racers qualify because of their P-Zero tyres, although informed thinking
considers them to be inferior on the hills than the best List 1A tyres
in a meaningful comparison.
Series’ runner-up and hero Richard Prior was the only driver to
compete in all of the meetings (for the fourth year running!). Jon Goodwin
and Geoff Dark tied for second place on 12 meetings each in the “most
regular racer” stakes behind Prior, with Mike Spicer fourth on 11.
Nick Taylor competed in 10 events to secure the Championship. Eight stalwarts,
the five already mentioned plus Chris Butler, Richard Allen and Series'
debutant Marco Pullen, competed in more than seven rounds. Credit is due
to them, as they formed the core around which the success of a Championship
is built and five of them competed in formula classic too! The
average number of meetings per driver was slightly up at 5.4.
In addition to Marco, the FHCC also welcomed Lorraine Hitchman and Gerald
McAleer, but lost Tony Willis, Peter Hayman, Keith Maddox, Gregor Steel,
Terry Esom, Mark Hargreaves, Steve Target and Kevin Lovelock - not all
of them for ever we hope.
The introduction of spread sheet technology to the FHCC (with thanks
to Tony Cotton) also allows the easy calculation of meaningless statistics
such as the fact that the sum of the best runs of all the competitors
at all the meetings was 9242.86 seconds and that it took Nick Taylor just
5.76 minutes to win the Championship (or about 5 pages, Fiona).
The new technology also allows you to play tunes on the PEPs, such as
Richard Prior would have needed a 348ts PEP of -0.75% (instead of 0%)
to beat Taylor, or Gooders would have needed the 355's to have been +1.75%
(instead of +2.75%). A PEP of -1.5% (instead of 0%) would have given the
trusty old 328 two wins (in RA's hands) and a PEP of -3.25% would have
resulted in two wins for the standard 308 (for Chris England) and the
Championship going to Geoff Dark in his modified version.
Whatever - the Championship usually goes to the right man - a quick and
determined competitor consistently getting the best out of a well-sorted
car, and this year is no exception - congratulations again Nick!
Anyway, here's the stats - make of them what you will.....
This
year's championship was more open than previous years with a number
of drivers in with a chance until near the end. However, the stats
confirm Nick Taylor's superiority. Although he did not need to achieve
the maximum 20 points per meeting, his 19.57 points per meeting
was a significantly higher scoring rate than second place man Richard
Prior's. |
Pilota |
Points
|
Pts. per mtg.
|
Taylor
Prior
Goodwin
Dark
Butler
Spicer
Allen
Pullen
|
137
126
118
111
99
87
86
57 |
19.57
18.00
16.86
15.86
14.14
12.43
12.29
8.14
Best 7 counted |
|
Pilota |
Wins |
Three
drivers took outright wins, with Jon Goodwin way in the lead with
9. Even he only managed to beat the 355's handicap once, and take
a PEPs win too - a feat also achieved by Chris Butler. Nick Frost
was the only other outright winner, but no PEP wins (he had the
reigning Champion's additional +1%). Amazingly, Nick Taylor only
scored his first ever FHCC win in R2 but took 5 more, finally stamping
his authority on the series by winning the last 3 rounds. Prior
took 4 wins and Geoff Dark returned to the winners' circle with
2, but RA and Geoffrey Rollason both dropped out. |
Outright |
PEP |
Goodwin
Butler
Frost
Taylor
Prior
Dark
|
9
3
2
-
-
- |
1
1
-
6
4
2
|
|
Eleven different tipos were raced with the 328 the most popular
with eight examples qualifying and the 355 and 308 tying in second
place with six examples of each taking part. Four Mondial ts and
four 348s appeared. The two 360 F1s proved that man is mightier
than machine when it comes to starting and gear-changing in speed
events. One 246 apppeared, one 512M and one 550M. John Dobson's
GT4 was the only example to appear and he retired it half-way through
the season: could this be the end of an era? One F40 made one appearance,
giving the FHCC a unique distinction. Can you think of another Ferrari
championship where a Mondial came first and an F40 last? Once again,
RA was the driver to use the widest variety of tipos, though he
only managed three and must try harder next year.
|
Tipo |
No. |
328
355
308
348
Mondial
360
GT4
246
550M
512M
F40 |
8
6
6
4
4
2
1
1
1
1
1 |
| Tipo |
No.
Wins |
Only two tipos took outright wins. The 355 was
easily the most succesful with twelve and was only beaten by Nick
Frost's well-sorted 348GTC, but the 355 only managed two PEPS wins.
All the Mondial PEPs wins were scored by Nick Taylor. Richard Prior
took all the 348's four PEPs wins and could have won more. The poor
ole 328 didn't score any wins of any kind this year.
|
| Outright |
PEP |
355
348
Mondial
308m |
12
2
-
-
|
2
4
6
2 |
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