It's the 6th of August and the Pirelli Ferrari crew were heading for Hethel Sprint run by Borough 19 Motor Clubs. Thanks to a few late entries the line up was a reasonable nine - this would mean a full 20 points to the winner.

The cars entered were two 308s, two 328s, three 348s, one a GTC (the most powerful car attending), a Mondial QV and Jon Goodwin's beautiful Lusso "Lucy" , with her gearbox repaired following problems at Gurston Down. Hethel is a fast track generally favouring the most powerful cars so the lack of 355s and 360s was welcomed by those with smaller-engined tipos.

The weather was dry and bright with a few clouds to keep the heat off and a light breeze helped to keep us cool.

We were last on the running programme so we had plenty of time to get organised/scrutineered, numbered and stickered up. Most of the Ferrari crew finished setting up and watched the other competitors from the earth banks around the circuit while waiting for the scutineers. After a while we realised none were coming our way and Jon Goodwin was despatched to find one. He returned with two to find that John Marshall, unknowing of this, had also gone and fetched two scrutineers making a total of four - the whole scrutineering force just for us . Needless to say scrutineering was conducted in double quick time and we were all ready for first practice.

In P1 first away was John Marshall (328) who set the benchmark with a time of 85.41. Pauline Goodwin (328) followed him with an 89.92, Jon Goodwin on a 92.10 and Nick Taylor (348GTC) the fastest at 80.15. The writer (308) followed Taylor, cleared his tyre smoke and recorded a 91.18 second run.

The second left hand bend tightens after a gentle arc and can catch the unwary including the next driver Andrew Holman who ended up with his Mondial QV parked in the gravel trap. This caused a red flag situation and play stopped while Andrew was recovered. David Hathaway in his 348 ts was not delayed long and polished off a 91.49 second run . He was followed by Peter Wilson (348) at his first ever sprint event who cautiously drove a 108 second lap. Geoff Dark (308m) was last away and pushed the pace back up with a second place [so far] time of 85.20.

Nick Taylor mysteriously disappeared between P1 and P2, reappearing just before the off for P2 - he had gone to fetch Fiona who must have been enjoying a lie in at their hotel. Hastily he replaced his numbers and got ready to go into P2. [Schuey has to do the same for Corinna all the time - Ed.].

P2 started and John Marshall knocked two seconds off his P1 time to bring him down to 83.34, while Pauline spun at the roundabout. Jon Goodwin and Nick Taylor were red flagged and had to wait till the end of our batch to have another go, recording an 89.67 for Jon and a strangely slower Nick with an 80.28. All was revealed with the next interval - he had forgotten to take Fiona's luggage out of the boot!

Wood showed uncharacteristic form and managed an 85.46, easily his best time here to date. Holman did a good time at 87.46 after removing the gravel from the underside of his Mondial from his earlier incident. Peter Wilson knocked a huge 12 seconds off his time now that he knew his way around, followed by Dark who also improved his efforts to an 83.65. He needed of course to get as close as possible to Taylor for championship points.

After lunch in the first timed run everyone went faster except the writer who spun at the roundabout - quickly getting going again so no-one got red flagged. Taylor was now down to 79 seconds and-a-bit and pretty much impossible to beat unless Jon Goodwin's Lusso with its minus 8% PEP could get close enough to steal the points.

It was noticed that Taylor had taped up his door mirrors with copious quantities of black tank tape - was it so he couldn't see the Lusso looming large behind him? - no, just to stop the sun reflecting into his eyes apparently!

After T1, we noticed that Pauline's tyres really were quite worn down. Did hubby Jon's gearbox re-build on the Lusso cost more than expected we wondered? Anyway the tyres were working well as Pauline did her best time with T2 at 87.34 with all to play for in the final runs. Taylor pressed on to knock a huge one second off to record a 78.45. Gooders got his
Lusso down to an excellent 87.89 but even after the PEP was added he was still a second off Taylor.

So Nick got the 20 points with Gooders second. Geoff Dark squeezed even more out of his very hard working 308 to record an 82.53. A very good time for this tipo and he took the 15 points. Due to his PEP advantage he just beat John Marshall with the same time of 82.53 - the two drivers had enjoyed very close rivalry all day. Holman, trying hard, just stayed out of the 85's with an 86.02 after improving with every run. Wood was unable to emulate his practice time and recorded an 87.90 for 10 points.

David Hathaway took the 348 just a bit quicker than T1 with 86.55 followed by Pauline's 87.34, the best she could wring out of the 328 Peter Wilson ended on a 93.23, he had improved all day with each run, getting to grips with driving his superb 348 in anger.

Unbelievably, we are now down to the last three events, The next is the two-lapper at Curborough with a good field of Ferraris entered. Such is the popularity of the Series that some have even been turned away from this once unpopular venue!

NB

'Unofficial' photographers are not allowed at Hethel, and we haven't yet received the 'official' pics but will add them as soon as we get them.

Click here for the results and points.

Click here for the Championship positions.

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

 

Cameras are not allowed at Hethel, but someone snuck this pic with a camera phone