Report - Round 13 - 2006 Pirelli Ferrari Hillclimb Championship - Club Racing Series'

Having won at Hethel and taken 20 points Nick Taylor (348GTC) needed just one more win out of the remaining three rounds to take the championship. Geoff Dark (308m) was chomping at his heels, only seven points behind, but he needed to drive his socks off to have any chance of the title. Jon Goodwin and Richard Prior are battling it out for third and fourth places with Richard ten points ahead, but with Jon driving very well and still in with a chance of a podium end to the season.

The day began with torrential rain in the early hours of the morning leading to a misty, murky start for most competitors. Such is the current popularity of the Series that more than 24 had applied to get into the event but because of venue limitations and the number of Reliants present (it was their meeting after all), the entry was limited to just 12 Ferraris. Richard Preece (308GT4) turned up in the hope that a Reliant driver may have dropped out and indeed he was very lucky to become the 13th Ferrari driver!

The cars were scrutineered very thoroughly. Many drivers were puzzled by difficult questions such as the whereabouts of their brake fluid reservoirs or whether they had a fly-by-wire throttle [eh? - Ed.] and some had to explain the origins of scratches on their helmets!

Many of the drivers walked the track, discussing the best lines and fishing for information from those who had been teaching at the Curborough "Introduction to Speed Events" in May. Some were unsure whether the track should be walked twice, as this was a two lap event.

Jon Goodwin had entered the event in Lucy the Lusso but some bolts to repair her gearbox hadn’t arrived in time, so he was forced to use the F430 instead..........it’s a tough life! Everyone was interested to see how it would perform on this track. His start times were poor but the acceleration of the car down the straightaway was awesome. It’s with a shock that you realize this super-sophisticated tipo has the same power as the brutal ‘ol F40! We also thought we'd lost Nick Taylor as a mate when two other GTCs turned up and there was hours of hands-on-hip debate about the joy of Alcantara trim.....some of the lads edged away.

The weather brightened up and stayed dry for the practice runs. Gooders had obviously got used to the settings on his manettino, breaking the 64 second barrier with 63.85s and a speed of 99mph over the finish line to go fastest by nearly a second from Taylor with Chris Butler (355) ending up third.

After lunch, Geoff Dark put his boot down in his 308m for the start of the competitive runs with a 2.36sec, 64ft time, a 37.88s split time and an excellent final time of 67.06s with 86mph through the trap. Butler observed that ‘the older he gets, the faster he goes’. Butler was slower to start than Dark, out of control at Molehill and 0.4s slower at the split, but a fast second lap gave him 66.33s to take the lead.

Taylor was speedy all around in the GTC, 1.2s quicker at the split than Dark and with an overall time of 65.20s, consistent with his two runs last year and his two practice runs, Mr. Consistency was going to be difficult to beat. However, the F430 spider of Jon Goodwin produced the fastest split time, and despite a ridiculously high split speed of 56mph, the car just managed to hang on at the turn using every bit of electronic hocus pocus. The second lap was slower than Taylor’s, but Jon’s overall time was fastest at 65.03s, but still more than a second beyond his superb practice run.

Richard Allen (F355) was going well, with the third fastest split, but couldn’t hold the car around the turn onto the second lap and spun. Richard Prior (348ts) drove steadily, but was around a second slower than his previous year’s times.

Christian Mineeff (328) set off well and with a better split time than Dark in his 308m, but he found himself steering sideways around the hairpin and lost a lot of time. Brian Jackson (308) drove exceptionally well in his first run to take almost a second of his practice times and record 68.69s, which would be his fastest of the day.

Competition was tight in the second half of the field with Barry Wood (308) improving by over a second with 70.52s and a close battle developing between Holman (Mondial QV), Pauline Goodwin (328), Peter Rogerson (F355) and Richard Preece. Preece lost control at the Molehill with a disco twirl and the others finished with just over a second separating them. With the PEPs taken into account, Nick Taylor was ahead at this stage by 0.21s from Geoff Dark and over a second from the others.

Grey clouds were gathering and the light had dimmed, but Geoff Dark led off the final runs, still with a dry surface. He managed to beat his first run time, but only by 7/100ths, so Taylor would be ahead of him despite everything. Of course, being the competitor he is, Taylor wanted to finish with 20 points and wasn’t content to just be ahead of Dark.

Peter Rogerson improved by over a second but couldn’t break 70 seconds (70.20s). Barry Wood almost managed to break 70 seconds in his 308, recording 70.14s which included a slide at the Molehill. Richard Preece, Pauline Goodwin and Richard Prior were all disappointed, but the light was poor and there were spots of rain in the air towards the end of the second runs. Andrew Holman managed to break 71 seconds in the Mondial (70.81s).

Chris Butler produced his best of the day; at 65 seconds dead his fastest Curborough run by 0.01s, which would bring him 3rd place on scratch. Christian Mineeff also executed a good, clean, best of the day run with 66.85s, 0.3s faster than his best last year and giving him third place on PEPs.

Richard Allen couldn’t get near his practice run time and finished with 65.87s. Gooders in the F430 reached 98mph on the straight but couldn’t get near that record practice run. He still broke the 65 second barrier though with 64.65s which would give him the scratch win but only fifth place on PEPs. So, what of Nick Taylor? Well, in true champion’s style, he remained consistent and also broke the 65 second barrier with 64.90s, beating his 64.95s of last year, taking the 20 points and the title, so many congratulations Nick!

The excitement of the 2006 season isn’t over yet though. Jon Goodwin could (theoretically) overhaul Geoff Dark for second place, though it's unlikely. There are just 11 points between Gooders and Richard Prior in third and fourth places, and Mineeff could overhaul Prior as well, and only three points seperating Mineeff and Butler. With two events still to complete, anything could happen…..watch this space !

Editor's Note: On behalf of the webteam, thanks Dave for not only writing the report and taking 1000 pics (!), but sorting them and making recommendations too.