Report - Round 8 - 2006 Pirelli Ferrari Hillclimb Championship - Club Racing Series'

With the top five championship drivers in attendance and lots of points up for grabs this double-header had the promise of some very exciting, competitive action and it certainly didn’t disappoint. Saturday saw 17 Ferrari drivers in the paddock, the highest turnout ever for Loton.

Fresh from his 20 points at Cadwell Park, Nick Taylor (348GTC) needed to produce good performances on both days if he was to close the 13 point gap to Geoff Dark (308m), who is going all out in pursuit of the championship this year. This track tends to favour the more powerful cars and their ability to gain time up Cedar Straight, which would be to Taylor's benefit. He had sorted out his elliptical wheel problem and was once again running on four circles with higher profile tyres on the front to reduce the possibility of further graunches.

Richard Prior (348ts) took 35 points over the two days here last year so was hoping for a good result, but was also using psychological warfare to improve his chances with wife Ann telling his competitors about the filmy dress she was going to wear that evening, which prospect set dashboards vibrating and may well have accounted for the unusual number of "offs".

Chris Butler, a previous winner here, was obviously a threat, though he wasn’t feeling too well, with a croaky voice, and was also concerned about his 355 which had been into the garage following some spluttering at Cadwell. The car appeared to have contracted the same disease as Chris and was still coughing slightly on the journey over to Loton on Friday afternoon; the moral of this story is don’t kiss your Fazza goodnight when you’ve got a cold!

Saturday morning began with bright sunshine at dawn, then scattered cloud blew over and by the time signing-on came, there was rain in the air and drizzle as the cars were being prepared. After a little disarray with parking spaces (where were the PHR?), the drivers settled down to their preparations, including the manufacturing of numbers for the bonnets, which was like a bunch of five year-olds doing cutting out.

This was yet another meeting this year affected by timing gremlins, but these were quickly banished and the first practice run was underway. Christian Mineeff (328) had a very good start and set the fastest split time at Triangle (24.41s). He went on to set the fastest P1 time of 62.46s, half a second faster than anyone else. He feared that it would be his fastest time of the day and indeed it was! Chris Butler went off onto the grass at Fallow and over-corrected to end up on the grass on the other side.

After finishing the first practice runs the drivers were all called to a meeting where the scrutineers declared that they were going to carry out an external inspection of the vehicles, looking particularly at ground clearance and the extent of camber adjustments.

On P2 Geoff Dark was going well with an improvement at his split time, but he left his braking too late going into Fallow over the hump at the top of the hill and ended up spinning on the grass at ‘Bachelier’s Bank’. Nick Taylor produced the best time with a 62.42s.

The serious competition began after a fairly uneventful, but breezy, lunch break . Mark Buckland (Mondial t) was still complaining of electrical problems with his alternator, but they weren't as severe as those of the absent fellow Mondial t owner Peter Hitchman, who back in Lichfield, was puzzled why his car wouldn't start at all - where do you think Buckland got the alternator from?

Dark clouds had blown over from the West and it was very gusty and quite cool at the top of the hill. There were spots of rain but the wind was strong enough to prevent the track from getting wet.

Sergio Ransford (308) began the proceedings proper and was a second quicker than his best practice. 71.07s ended up being his best of the day. David Hathaway, after his mishap in P2, had a damage-free trip and recorded just over 70s. David Tomlin set 63.95s in practice, but had a slower start, slower first split and put a wheel on the grass at Museum ending up on 64.45s.

John Swift (355) also had a poor run for no particular reason. Pauline Goodwin (328) took a detour at Triangle. She reverted to ‘canoeing mode’ when she slalomed round the cones. This made her chuckle but did nothing for her time, which was slower than practice. Leon Bachelier (F512M) locked up heavily at Triangle but still shaved 0.3s off his time, dipping under 70s, just behind John Swift.

Buckland’s bovva mowa set off well but he over-cooked it and spun off at Fletcher’s Dellow, at the top of the hill before the run down to Triangle. Everything was fine, apart from a ‘no time’ and the car collecting a few tufts of grass on its belly, plus the fresh divots created at the side of the track. Mark wasn’t the only one to mess up though; Andy Grier (328SMS) had a skid at Museum, Mineeff’s car made a loud bang as he tried to cut the corner at Triangle and whacked the concrete with his undercarriage, which probably spells the end for the Mineeff dynasty.

Dark shifted the back end out at Keepers but managed to keep it under control and record a reasonable time which would give him second place on PEP. Taylor was well out of line at Fallow. Richard Prior put in a fairly faultless run to record the fastest time of Run 1 with 61.92s with Taylor, Butler and Richard Allen in the upper 62s bracket.

Philip Whitehead took over 2 seconds off his previous run with a 63.72s. Brian Jackson tried hard in his yellow 308 and was third after the PEP calculation. Jon Goodwin tried hard again and got 68.73, almost identical to his P2 time, but only enough for 4th place on PEP time.

A sunny start for the second run saw improved times from about half of the drivers. David Hathaway improved by over a second to break the 70s barrier and give him his best run of the day at 69.26s. PG also tidied up her lines to break 70s again with 69.81s, not quite as fast as her P2 time of 69.17s though.

Buckland also broke 70s with a 69.34s and the alternator problem at last having been fully sorted. Grier clocked his best of the day with an excellent 64.19s, trouncing his handicap time by over half a second. Richard Allen and Geoff Dark were fairly consistent, but slower than R1 times. Mineeff and Taylor took about ¾s off their times. Richard Prior couldn’t match his R1 61.92s.

Chris Butler was next and whopped a massive 1.3s off his Run 1 time, giving him the scratch win. Jon Goodwin, the last driver up the hill, drove magnificently to carve a second off his time. 67.75s was his best of the day and after some tense minutes of PEP calculation was discovered to be enough to give him the 20 points, by 0.21s from Richard Prior in second and 0.42s from Nick Taylor in third.

Most of the drivers took the short journey across the road to Loton Hall to attend a lovely, relaxing dinner and social evening at the home of Sir Michael Leighton, though they had to go a bit steady as the second half of the double-header awaited on the morrow..