Report - Round 14 - 2005 Ferrari Hillclimb Championship - Club Racing Series'

The FHCC started the Club's 2005 competition calendar way back in March at Loton Park and were the last to finish, nearly seven months and 14 meetings later. Traditionally, the Series has finished at the MAC Curborough but this year the final round was at Cadwell Park in Lincolnshire. This circuit is the most picturesque in the country, winding through woodlands and swooping up hill and down dale; the full circuit was to be used with the exception of the famous "mountain".

This was a fitting venue for a dramatic finale to the Series. Twice runner-up Richard Prior (348ts) had led for most of the year, but veteran former Champion Geoff Dark had inexorably hauled him in and taken the lead by just one point at the previous round. Prior was once again the only driver to compete in all the rounds and had by far the most points, but only the best seven scores count, which meant that he had to take the maximum points at Cadwell to win the Series. Anything less and Dark would take the title.

The millions following the Series via this website already know that a Performance Equaliser Percentage or PEP is applied to even out the performances of the various tipos taking part but longer, faster venues inevitably favour the more powerful tipos. Prior was really going to struggle against the the likes of Jon Goodwin, Chris Butler and David Tomlin (355s), the later having raced a superkart at the venue and Nick Taylor, whose 348GTC doesn't give much away to the 355s. Nick is also an experience circuit racer with knowledge of the venue, which would help in deciding third place between himself and Butler.

For once, the happy-go-lucky Prior had undertaken some pre-event preparation, attending a track day on his Ducati so at least he knew which way the corners went. Now he just had to remember that the Fazza won't go round corners if you just lean into them, and that there was about 5ft of it to his left!

There was a big entry of 18 cars for this last round, but there were two non-starters and two drivers having been turned down - moral here, get your entry in early! Most of the field stayed in a posh hotel nearby and had a 16 course nouvelle-cuisine type dinner which went on interminably; one luminary of the Club proclaimed that he wanted "proper food". A less well-heeled breakaway faction stayed in a simple English pub and enjoyed simple English pleasures like steak and chips and Elvis songs - helpfully joining in once the racers had been safely tucked-up in bed.

Next morning the track was very greasy after overnight rain, which can't have helped the Championship contenders' nerves. At the hairpin, some interesting lines were taken by Andy Holman (Mondial QV), John Day (328) and Mike (I've beaten Poggie twice you know) Spicer (328). Richard Prior was all over the place, but Chris Butler looked smooth and under control, though Ali said he could try harder. However he emerged the quickest, a little ahead of Nick Taylor. Under torture, Chris later admitted that he'd learned the circuit with an in-car Caterham video he found on the web!

Jon Goodwin provided a new entry for the "Racing Drivers Book of Excuses" by having to wind his window down and haul in his flapping racing number plate which was about to take off into the Lincolnshire countryside. Conditions improved considerably for the second runs and, as expected, Nick Taylor was on top, but Prior had the PEPs lead by 0.1 seconds!

In the lunch break the competitors collected their thoughts and philosophised on racing and life in general, as is their wont. Andy Grier said it was a sure sign winter was coming on as squirrels had started to store acorns in the footwell of the family 328 again. It was suggested that perhaps David Tomlin found Fazzaing a bit tame after karting and maybe if he wrestled an alligator on the way round it would give a beneficial adrenaline charge. A spectating Christian Mineeff said that when he took his points win at Harewood an eagle had flown in through an air vent. I thought eagles were huge with feathers, not small with yellow and black stripes, but he's an FOC director, so he must be right.

The track was dry for the first competition runs and the tension built as the field ran through, calculators whipped out to try to work out times after PEPs. Geoff Dark logged a 109.60sec run, which was 108.50, after his 1% had been taken off and this was within striking distance of Nick Taylor's corrected practice time of a mid 107. Jon Goodwin set the early marker for the class win by knocking 3 seconds off his practice time to record 105.91. Chris Butler needed to beat Nick Taylor to take third in the Championship and rose to the challenge, whopping almost 3 seconds off his practice time to record 104.31 which gave him the lead and which was quicker than Taylor's practice time.

David Tomlin was off the new pace with a 106.14, but his 355 had been breathing heavily for some time and was now beginning to consume oil at an alarming rate. Soon, we were holding our breaths for Richard Prior's run - the sound of squealing tyres indicated that he'd overcooked it somewhere, but he still crossed the line pointing the right way. He'd been lucky to get away with a huge tank-slapper in the chicane. The last runner was Nick Taylor who looked quick and sure enough went fastest, his time was quickest at 103.22. With trembling digits we worked out that this would give him maximum points points by a quarter of a second from Prior and that the Championship would go to Dark!

The meeting was running quite slowly and it was getting colder all the time as the Ferraris came out for the final runs. Andy Holman still improved a bit, but Geoff Dark by only two-hundredths. Richard Allen (328) knocked 2 seconds off and Mike Spicer a second and a half to win the battle of the 328s by just four-hundredths. Jon Goodwin was slower and took to the grass after the finish - he'd been busy looking at his time on the circuit-side display. Pauline Goodwin, out in her 360 Spider shopping trolley, was slower but still ended the season as she'd begun it, by winning the "Fastest Lady" Award - this was no consolation to PG as she wants to beat the blokes. Maybe it's time they gave up such an anachronistic trophy anyway.

Lorraine Hitchman (328) was slower as was husband Chris (355), but patriarch Peter was quicker, just losing out in the Mondial t battle to Mark Buckland. Chris Butler was just sixth hundredths slower, David Tomlin improved, ending up fourth overall. Andy Grier made a good improvement, and then it was Prior's turn to go for the Championship. With everything to do, he turned in a faultless run to record 105.10 which would give him the win by seven tenths from Taylor and with it the title - if Taylor did not improve on his second run - the very last of the year.

His 348GTC was already howling round, and everyone held their breaths as it crossed the line - much slower at 108.09! Prior had won the 2005 title! It later emerged that Taylor, locked in his own battle with Butler, had overcooked it and clipped some kerbs, but his first run time gave him the outright win, 17 points and third place in the Series; Butler and him ended up with the same number of points but Taylor took the place after a count-back that went all the way down to their 8th best result. It doesn't get much closer than that.

Richard Prior was ecstatic, having finally clinched the Championship after being runner-up for the last two years and all were delighted for him. At the same time, everyone felt sad for Geoff Dark who had run him so close.

So, another season of this highly popular and successful Series came to its dramatic conclusion, with just the FHCC Presentation Dinner to look forward to before the long winter of rebuilds, careful setting up, data analysis, physical training and testing at Paul Ricard - well maybe not.....