Report - Round 14 - 2006 Pirelli Ferrari Hillclimb Championship - Club Racing Series'

Sixteen Ferraris gathered in the mist at the top of Harewood Hill for this year’s penultimate round of the Pirelli Ferrari Hillclimb Championship. Nick Taylor has driven consistently well in his 348GTC this year with a magnificent five wins, four seconds and three third places (after PEP factors had been applied), giving him an unassailable lead and victory in the championship. Congratulations once again Nick !

In a virtually secure second place was Geoff Dark who has tried really hard this year, with three wins and four seconds. It would take a colossal two-win effort from Richard Prior and poor performances from Geoff to oust him from second spot.

Unfortunately two of the entrants, Andy Grier (328SMS – now fully repaired) and David Hathaway (348ts) couldn’t make it to the event, but unusually there were an extra four drivers who were car-sharing. The hillclimbers welcomed newcomers Charles and Tracey Haynes in their beautifully presented F355GTS, a husband and wife team and both 'Introduction to Speed Events' graduates, . Also there was massive interest in how the circuit racing maestro, Gary Culver, would perform in his first ever hillclimb, sharing Christian Mineeff’s well-sorted 328GTB.

The fourth driver sharing was Chris Hitchman, making his first appearance of the year. Chris normally drives an F355 but for a change was out in Dad (Peter’s) Mondial t. Talking of Hitchmans, Lorraine was a welcome returnee too in her 328. The Ferrari camp was a sea of rosso with only Richard Allen in his argento 355 breaking the continuum, although the banana (giallo) 360 spider of the Newtons wasn’t too difficult to spot in the car park! It is not a well-known fact but RA was the inspiration for Hawkwind’s classic '70's hit, although the silver machine at the time was a Mk.1 Ford Capri.

The early morning dew had burned away well before Chris Butler arrived at 8:45. Chris (F355GTB) was unusually relaxed, having had a fantastic time driving around the Nürburgring during the previous weekend. His uncharacteristic karma was thought to be related to midweek shenanigans with Sabine Schmitz after a few ice cold Jægermeister and cokes.

Despite the mist the air was warm and the track was dry (although the grass was damp and gave your reporter soggy tootsies). Gary Culver showed his class and produced a good opener of 72.22s which turned out to be seventh fastest. Many were in the low 70s including local hero Nick Frost (348GTC) in only his second event of the year; no Lesley though, who was back to rent collecting. The three fastest all broke 70 seconds: Richard Prior (348ts), also still beaming from that lads' trip to the Nürburgring with Taylor and Mike Spicer, just dipped under 70s with 69.91s. Chris Butler, having only juust found a scrutineer to check out his car before the practice run, zoomed up in 69.84s. The best practice run of 69.50s, however, was achieved by Christian Mineeff in the 328.

The air temperature continued to rise with outbreaks of sun shining through the mist. For the second practice run the track was very grippy but the grass was still damp. As expected, almost all drivers improved upon their times. Nick Taylor (348GTC) woke up and improved by three seconds with a 67.6s, which turned out to be the fastest of P2. Charles Haynes made a big seven second improvement, but Tracey’s time failed to be recorded by the automated timing system. Perhaps the timekeepers should have used Jon Goodwin’s interesting old Scuderia Ferrari stopwatch. This watch actually has “Enzo Ferarri” engraved on the back. It is pure coincidence that Gooders’ latest hobby is metal engraving and that he can’t spell.

Over lunch the sun was shining and everyone was anticipating a good afternoon’s competition after the close times of the practice runs. Gary Culver made the fastest start in R1 of 2.32s and recorded his first proper hillclimb time of 68.95s; curiously Gary is often out-dragged at the start of circuit races. Richard Allen also had a quick getaway to break 70s. Pauline Goodwin (328) and Jolyon Harrison (355) both drove their socks off to record their fastest ever times at Harewood, Pauline with 72.66s and Jolyon with 70.53s

Geoff Dark was pushing hard for another good time, but drifted wide towards the end of Farmhouse with both driver’s side wheels edging onto the damp grass. Upon returning to the tarmac, the car gained a huge amount of grip. In an instant, it jumped across to the grass on the other side of the narrow track and the front corner bounced off a tyre wall. The damaged car slid along the Armco where it came to rest. It seemed at the time that Geoff had not sustained any injuries, but it later turned out that he was a bit knocked about with a broken rib. A sad way for a terrific season to end and we hope Geoff and the 308m are back in action soon.

After a half hour delay whilst the 308m was stretchered off, the remainder of the first runs were completed. Nick Frost (348GTC) set some stunning split times, giving him the lead in R1 with 67.6s. Richard Prior just dipped under 68s to put him in third place behind the two 348GTCs, which had snaked and slithered their way up the course, and just ahead of Christian Mineeff. After PEP correction, this put Christian in the 20 point slot ahead of Frost and Taylor (and closely followed by Gary Culver, except Gary was only driving as a guest and was not eligible for Championship points). In the very close battle between the GTCs, Taylor had lost a bit of time to Frost at Country Corner.

Round 2 began with a five second improvement from debutante Tracey Haynes. Almost all drivers managed to lower their R1 times with the exception of Pauline Goodwin (328), who, despite a great start (2.32s) and some good split times, came off at Quarry and lost five seconds. She obviously doesn’t like this corner, which I’m told is because Gooders used to make her work in his quarry. Peter Rogerson produced his best of the day on R2 with 73.72s and Richard Preece (GT4) had his best too with 75.94s. Jon Goodwin put everything into his run and came through the line with Lucy for his best 250GT Harewood time of 74.86s. Lorraine Hitchman matched Jon’s time exactly in her 328 and that would turn out to be her fastest of the day and her fastest ever at Harewood by nearly ¾ of a second. Phil Whitehead managed to pull it all together after mistakes in his previous runs and took a massive five second chunk off his time, giving him a great time of 69.37s, just a fraction behind RA. Chris Hitchman chopped a further second off his best in the Mondial, recording 70.26s and beating Dad by two seconds, so no pocket money for him this week!

The most significant R2 run came from Christian Mineeff with a tremendous start and first split time. He roared up the hill with a personal best time of 67.51s, beating his previous record by two-hundredths of a second. Appropriately, he was grinning like a Cheshire cat. Also of great significance was the superb run of Nick Frost, especially in the latter half of the course, a 66.81s. Nick Taylor messed up at Clark’s and Country, but still produced a marvellous 67.03s. Chris Butler took a second off his best with 67.64s, but Richard Prior just couldn’t gain those few extra tenths to have an impact on the top five despite his prodigious efforts.

It was uncertain whether the third run would go ahead because of delays on the track throughout the day, but eventually the Clerk of the Course announced that there would indeed be another run. The uncertainty had obviously had a psychological effect as only four drivers were able to improve on their times. Charles Haynes was happy to have broken the 80 second barrier on his first hillclimb with a 79.7s run. Tracey came through with 82.61s having made a 13 second improvement throughout the day. We hope we see them both back next season. Gary Culver chipped away at his times, driving with speed and precision and ending up with a superb time of 68.64s. For the sake of the regular hillclimbers, let’s hope he doesn’t start competing on a regular basis -that would certainly put the cat amongst the pigeons! [He’s obviously a hillclimber really; just fell in with a bad crowd – Ed.]

The other improvement in R3 came from Chris Butler, who pulled a 67.45s run out of the bag (just over half a second slower than his Harewood best ever time) to steal third place on scratch from Mineeff. Nick Frost proved that he is indeed the master of Harewood Hillclimb, having only competed in the two Harewood events this season and winning both of them. He even managed a bit of showboating by drifting around Quarry on his final run with the windscreen wipers on, which makes a change from beeping horns and flashing headlights. Nick Taylor, despite losing it going into Orchard, maintained his wonderful consistency and took second place. Christian Mineeff, with his fantastic series of runs, took fourth place and easily the 20 points after PEP correction.

This PEP win has moved Christian up to fourth place overall for 2006, but a win for Richard Prior at Longleat would change this. Geoff Dark is now secure in second place. Lower down in the table, a duel has been taking place between Pauline Goodwin and Andrew Holman (Mondial QV). They are currently lying equal on points but Pauline is not competing at Longleat, so tenth place or better from Andrew will give him ninth place overall in the championship. David Tomlin (355) and Richard Allen (355) are tussling over sixth and seventh places. At the moment, Richard is six points ahead, but Tomlin could overtake him with a good Longleat placing. Watch this space!