The 8th round of the 2005 FHCC was due to have taken place at Gurston Down but that meeting was postponed because the new track melted in the summer sun, so it was ironic that it started to rain heavily almost as soon as the “new” Round 8 at Prescott commenced.....

It rained so hard that a good many competitors fired themselves off the track on their first practice runs and the organisers had to resort to the second runs taking place in convoy behind a pace car to ensure that the meeting could be completed before the 6pm curfew.

Prescott is notoriously harassed by anti-noise protesters – despite the fact that very few if any of the local residents could have lived there before the track was opened. Consequently, the competitors complied with good cheer, some even said it was useful to try things that they wouldn’t have on a normal timed run. Fortunately, there were no embarrassing incidents à la Schuey and Montoya in the tunnel at Monaco in 2004!

There was a good entry of 13 cars but David Hathaway was a non-starter, sadly having suffered a bicycling accident – all send their best wishes for a speedy recovery. John Day (328) was out for his first event, the third graduate of the 2005 Curborough Tuition Day to try things for real, having carefully chosen Prescott because he thought his wife would enjoy a sunny day out – we hope it hasn’t put them off!

Most of the main contenders were there except Chris Butler, whom we understand was having to help with the Stotty harvest or something. RA was also absent, moving house again, which is always interesting – last time he found a fibreglass 308 he’d forgotten about. Consequently “Young Richard” (Prior) was in charge. He was unanimously voted “Man of the Meeting” as everyone huddled under the Gazebo he’d thoughtfully brought with him.

After the lunchbreak Colin Campbell (246) led away the first competitive runs in the teeming rain. He went off at the exit of Ettores, stopped and was flagged – he thought it was for his own incident but it later transpired that it was for the car in front. Colin got a re-run.

Pauline Goodwin (328) got into a tank-slapper coming out of the Esses, but there were no serious incidents and it was all very close with Jon Goodwin (355) in the lead on 55.22 secs, just five-hundredths from Richard Prior (348ts). Christian Mineeff (328) was next up on 55.51, which gave him the PEPs lead by four-hundredths from Prior! Nick Taylor (348GTC) was also in the 55s, with Geoff Dark (308M) in the 56s.

Prescott has good facilities, so most people adjourned to the restaurant to get out of the rain. The rain slowed to a drizzle and then stopped, so it looked like it would all be down to the second runs in the hillclimbers’ worst scenario – a drying track with wet bits under the trees. Before the Ferraris went up it stopped raining, started again, stopped, then the sun came out! The final conditions were a wet track, but it wasn’t actually raining.

Colin Campbell was slower than on his re-run, Barry Wood (308) knocked over 3 seconds off, PG achieved her objective of cracking 60 seconds and got down to 58.86, which gave her 6th in class outright and on PEPs. Andrew Duncan (328) was another to improve substantially to 60.88. John Day was quicker again, having improved on each of his runs – always a good sign for a debutant.

Swifty (355) was quicker too, dipping into the 59s, which Peter Rogerson, also 355 mounted, failed to do, but he still secured 9th in class. The next runner, Christian Mineeff, was clearly trying hard. Quickest of all the Ferraris to the intermediate split he slid off backwards at the very last corner and went down the long bank. Fortunately, “Rosie’s” progress was arrested by waist-high weeds, but he had to rely on his first run time which was only good enough for 5th in the final reckoning.

Geoff Dark improved by 1½ seconds to 54.70. Nick Taylor is rapidly coming to grips with his 348GTC and went quickest on 54.38. Richard Prior is always good at Prescott and charged hard to 54.22, which left only Goodwin. He delivered as usual with a 54.11, which gave him his fifth win on the season. The on-track action having finished, there was then the rush for calculators, which revealed that Geoff Dark had taken his third PEPs win of the season, just seven hundredths in front of Prior.

With the Series now past the half-way point, dropped scores have come into play for the first time. Prior held onto his championship lead over Dark but it’s now back down to 10 points. Goodwin looks fairly secure in third, but the outcome of the Championship could well be decided by others like Chris Butler and Nick Taylor, who’s looking increasingly menacing in his 348GTC but has the handicap of the reigning Champion’s +1% .

The average points per meeting are as follows:

• Richard Prior: 17.25
• Geoff Dark: 16.14
• Nick Taylor: 14.80
• Chris Butler: 14.00
• Jon Goodwin: 13.71
• Christian Mineeff: 12.75

The next round is at Hethel on August 7th, which is new for everyone, so there’s still a long way to go and everything to go for.

Click here for more data than in your wildest dreams!

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

The sun not even thinking about glinting off the Ferraris in the paddock

P2 was in convoy

Colin Campbell won the handicap

John Day debuted well in very difficult conditions

Andrew Duncan lost out by just one-hundredth...

...to Peter Rogerson, who was a tenth behind...

...Barry Wood

Swifty wonders when La Source is coming up

PG led the 2nd half of the field

Mineeff was quick, but fell off

Geoff Dark took max points..

Nick Taylor looked good in his GTC

Richard Prior was 2nd on the road and after PEPs

The irrepressible Gooders did the biz again

Prescott was a '2D meeting'

pics by Graham Easter & SJT photographic (click to go to his website)