Report - Round 7 - 2006 Pirelli Ferrari Hillclimb Championship - Club Racing Series'

Report - Round 7 - 2006 Pirelli Ferrari Hillclimb Championship - Club Racing Series' - Ferrari Owners' Club

PIRELLI FERRARI HILLCLIMB CHAMPIONSHIP

ROUND 7 : CADWELL PARK : 17 JUNE 2006
report and pics by Dave Clark

The hillclimbers’ previous and only visit to Cadwell Park was the very exciting and dramatic climax to the 2005 season in October of last year. On that misty, cold and damp day, Geoff Dark was leading the championship by just one point from Richard Prior. Nick Taylor had produced the fastest time of 103.22s on his first run, which set the course record, followed by Chris Butler with 104.31s. Richard romped home in 3rd with an excellent 105.10s on his second run in the 348ts and the PEP correction gave him the 20 points and the championship title. Despite his efforts, Geoff’s car just couldn’t match the faster cars on this long circuit.

We’re almost half way through this year’s Championship. Geoff and Richard Prior are the only two to have completed all of the rounds so far and Geoff leads with 104 points. Nick is in second place, 20 points behind, but having competed in one less round than Geoff. Jon Goodwin has 2 PEP wins from three events in his beautiful Lusso, which is likely to be a strong contender on the shorter hill climbs, so, with the points from the top 8 rounds counting, there’s still a lot to play for. Richard is suffering with the extra 1% PEP handicap for being champion but is still a close third behind Nick.

[roll mouse over pic for caption, click to enlarge]

A lot of the drivers had to travel long distances to Cadwell, located in the rolling countryside of Lincolnshire. Many journeyed on the Friday spending up to 4 hours getting there. Several of the drivers enjoyed a comfortable stay in "The Priory" at Louth with a nice meal and a traditional, pre-event, whisky nightcap, discussing Barn Corner - ‘The Widow-Maker’. At an early breakfast, Nick Taylor claimed, “I didn’t know 7 o’clock existed until I started hillclimbing”. Andy Grier was an exceptional early bird. He was up at 3:00am and arrived at the track to pitch his tent and hoist the Ferrari flag before most people had opened their eyes. It was a lovely warm, bright morning with high clouds and patches of blue sky. There were a total of fifteen Ferraris for the event, including Brian Jackson’s F355 Challenge, which is not eligible for the PHCC and runs in a different class.

Cadwell Park is a great circuit with a lot of interesting features. It is also quite a narrow track, so not much margin for mistakes. For those with little experience it can be quite daunting as there is a lot to remember over approximately 2 miles. The full circuit is 2.17 miles but this includes the infamous ‘Mountain’ which is omitted in the single lap sprint events. After the slow procession through scrutineering and the familiarisation lap, the first practice runs began with Andrew Holman in his Mondial QV, having newly fitted race seats, lowered suspension and 348 wheels. Andrew had been spotted at Oulton Park on Wednesday 14th, secretly testing out his new modifications to the max with great gusto and a positive frame of mind. Andrew set a practice run time of 120.52s, claiming that the circuit was too complicated with too much to remember. As with many drivers on the first practice, they lost their way and slowed too early at many of the bends. Many were tentative, determined not to do anything silly, especially after the many ‘moments’ made at the hairpin at the end of Hall Bends in the damp of last October.

This is definitely a circuit to favour the more experienced. Andy produced a good time despite coming almost to a standstill in the chicane and probably losing about a second. By now the sun was out, the temperatures were beginning to rise and the track was dry and warm. David Hathaway went steady with the top off his 348. One driver who wasn’t holding back much was Nick, howling around the course in 106.56s, setting a high standard for the other top competitors to beat. Nick claimed, ironically, that the track felt slippy, but that could just have been his special oval front wheel, which he modified at Shelsley Walsh, or his 35mm tyres (saving weight on the volume of air in the tyre). Next up was Chris Butler, who loves the fast circuits (and women – sorry Ali). Discussion the previous night had been about the power Chris would gain by turning off his air-con (and how he’d manage to get the family to events if a Baby Butler came along). Chris was trying hard, but lost a second to Nick despite taking a short-cut across the chicane, which probably slowed him down in reality.

...whereas Buckland wonders where he can rob a Mondial alternator from

Mark Buckland and I travelled down from the wilds of Northumberland on Friday afternoon in his 308GT4 (‘The Deeno’). The alternator on his Mondial had expired on the way to Oulton Park during the week, so regrettably that car was out of action. To add to the misfortune, the clutch was slipping on the GT4 and it was mis-firing too. Despite the problems, Mark put in a canny time of 123.66s and was delighted with the grip and handling of the car. Not bad for a wounded old Fezza, and a similar time to Peter Rogerson in his shiny 355, who, “didn’t know where to go”. Richard ‘The Champ’ Prior belted around in 108s, three seconds slower than last year’s time, so there was plenty of room for improvement. Pauline was going well. Following on from her first appearance in the Formula Classic at Donington, a recent trip to Gurston Down and the track day at Oulton Park, her confidence was high and she produced a respectable 119.6s, although she said it had been an untidy run. Her Hubby was next up, and it would be interesting to see how well the Lusso would go around the long circuit. With a bit of a screecher in the chicane, Jon recorded 121.4s, so he would have a lot of work to do to gain good points, despite the minus 8% PEP. As in October, Jon again had lots of bother with his numbers peeling off!

Peter getting in the mood with some Tai Chi

Jedi Master Geoff - "Learn with time you will"

Geoff Dark’s car was sounding like a firecracker going through the Hall Bends and into the hairpin. He was trying very hard but could only manage 110.06s against the larger-engined machines. Geoff had turned too early into Coppice, so he knew there was some room for improvement. Richard Allen was steady, but lost momentum into numerous corners, resulting in a 114.5s. There were high expectations for David Tomlin, who performed very well in October (105.79s) with his karting knowledge of the circuit, despite the mist of smoke his exhaust was producing behind him. David has been experiencing electrical problems with his 355 and again, on his way to the circuit, had dropped to 4 cylinders on a couple of occasions. With the air-con off and the windows up, he set off. This time the mist was inside the car, as his glasses steamed up and he had to open the window. He says he ‘got one corner right’, but I reckon he probably got a few more right to achieve 106.99s. Last up was Philip Whitehead in his 355 who had a ‘terrible’ lap, running off at the Gooseneck and by-passing the chicane (119.6s).

Philip Whitehead contemplating the nature of the problem

Following a long gap between the practice runs, a bit of sunbathing and Andrew Holman trying to poison David Tomlin with his exhaust fumes, the drivers attacked the tarmac once again. With no major incidents to report, nearly all drivers took two or three seconds off their times. Fastest was Nick Taylor with 104.6s, followed by Tomlin, Butler and Prior, all within 0.3 seconds of each other. Geoff Dark was lying 5th and managed to chop 0.5 seconds off his time. Notably, David Hathaway and Peter Rogerson took off about 5 seconds and Philip Whitehead, Richard Allen and Andrew Holman were all about 3 seconds faster. Meanwhile, in Class 12 (modified production cars over 2000cc), Brian Jackson had improved by 6.5 seconds in his Challenge, having filed the metal on his brake pad to prevent it grinding a groove in the disc! (112.19s).

David H (has he been run over by one of his trucks?)

Prior tries a drop of red diesel to save money

During a relatively brief lunchbreak, Gooders took a brief, relaxing snooze in the sun and Prior slipped a few more pints of fuel into his 348. After lunch, the competition began in earnest. The majority of drivers recorded slightly slower times than their practices (possibly due to beans, chips, burgers etc. adding to the weights of their cars). Andy Grier improved slightly. Mark Buckland, David Hathaway, Philip Whitehead and Pauline Goodwin all made excellent improvements of several seconds. Up at the top, Richard Prior’s got a 1.5 second improvement with 104.56s, putting him in third position. Chris Butler improved by 2 seconds to record the fastest time in Run 1 of 103.62s, despite some spluttering due to a mis-fire along Park Straight and a claim of going side-ways in the chicane (later proved to be an exaggeration by watching the pics on John Swift’s camera!).

Nick Taylor continued to make a steady improvement to give 103.77s, just behind Chris, but David Tomlin was slightly slower, losing some time by hitting the rev limiter. Geoff Dark also improved, putting him firmly in the fifth spot with 108.4 seconds. During the second timed runs the new, improved timing equipment failed and there was great suspense waiting for the official times to be posted up. Nick Taylor was sure he’d clocked a 102.57s, which was later confirmed and became the new class record. Chris Butler didn’t quite beat his first run time, but came pretty close. Richard Prior spun off and Andrew Holman also had a big sideways moment at Park Corner. Most noticeable improvements in the second run came from David Tomlin, recording just under 105s, Geoff Dark (107.57s), Richard Allen (109.78s) and Peter Rogerson (119.61s).

RA bought everyone a lolly - Cheers mate!

The organisers were adamant that there would be a third run, despite several delays in the day’s proceedings, but as time was ticking on and many competitors had a long ride home, some chose to opt out of the final run. This left the top four; Taylor, Butler, Prior and Tomlin to battle it out. Andrew Holman was first up again and recorded his best time of the day (117.44s) giving him 7 points. Andy Grier took a good chunk off his fastest giving him 111.41s and 10 points.

Butler is the (just) the tallest for once

The Viking hero heads home northwards after a successful day's pillaging

Nick Taylor was the first of the ‘Big Boys’ and produced another superb lap of 102.86s, which was to give him the 20 points. Chris Butler followed Nick and was ecstatic to break Nick’s course record with a stunning time of 102.46s, giving him the scratch win. Well done Chris! Richard Prior, Richard Allen, David Tomlin and Philip Whitehead all recorded their fastest times on the third run with David Tomlin (104.43s) just jumping in front of Richard Prior (104.51s) to get the third podium place. A great result for DT. Philip Whitehead improved by almost 2 seconds on his third run, recording 108.71s, but the day belonged to Chris Butler with a scratch win, a new record and 17 points, which moved him up two positions in the Championship table.