 |
| FERRARI
HILL CLIMB CHAMPIONSHIP |
2006
SEASON STATISTICAL REVIEW
by Graham Easter |
The 2006 Championship was expanded to 15 rounds at 12 venues, North Weald
and Bouley Bay were back in, the previous year's innovations of horrid
Hethel, lovely Cadwell Park, a Loton Park double-header and the Curborough
two-lapper were retained for a second year. There were the "blue
riband" events of Shelsley and Prescott, two meetings at Harewood
and the season finale at Longleat. All attracted good entries, there were
even nine at Hethel! Indeed, such is the popularity of the Series that
a number of rounds were oversubscribed, including the once unpopular Curborough.
Harewood (R4) was yet again the most popular meeting, attracting 21 competitors
(plus one guest), with the aforementioned Round 12 (Hethel) the least.
The average number of entrants per meeting was up again to 14.1, which
is just fantastic! No less than forty drivers (up six from last year)
took part in the Series' (plus Gary Culver and Mike Haigh as guests) making
it easily the most popular of the Club's competition series'. This make
one wonder whether the hillclimbers ought not to have a larger share of
the Pirelli competitions sponsorship cake?
The average number of meetings per driver was down slightly to 5.3 this
year. No-one competed in all of the meetings - not even Richard Prior!
The world wobbled a bit on its axis, but kept going. Champion Nick Taylor
and runner-up Geoff Dark tied on 14 apiece but Geoff would probably have
had a full-house had it not been for his accident in the last-but-one
round at Harewood. This season 11 stalwarts (down from 12 last year),
the two already mentioned plus Jon Goodwin, Christian Mineeff, Richard
Prior, Chris Butler, Dave Tomlin, Lily Allen's Grandad Richard, Pauline
Goodwin, Andrew Holman and David Hathaway competed in eight rounds or
more. Not surprisingly, they filled the first 11 places in the Championship.
Our Tony Cotton's Excel spread sheets allow one to play interesting
tunes on the PEPs, starting with perhaps the most contentious issue of
the year, the change in Lucy the Lusso's PEP from -5.5% to -8%. It made
no difference to the first two places in the championship, just proved
that the PEPs system works in most cases - except for the old cars. If
Lucy had stayed on -5.5%, Gooders would have been sixth rather than third.
Mind you, if he had got the -12% he asked for, rather than -8% he got,
he'd have won the title by five points, he was robbed! (I trust the case
of Albanian Sparkling Riesling and 200 Benski & Hodgas are on the
way, Jon).
Geoff Dark needed -1.50% to have taken the title. If Richard Prior had
not been carrying the reigning Champ's +1% he would have been up two places
in third; but again the change would have made no difference to the first
two places. If the 328 had a PEP of -1.25%, Christian Mineeff would have
been Champ, five points ahead of Nick Taylor. So what about the 355? Even
if it had a PEP of 0.75%, it's leading exponent Chris Butler would still
have only been second to Taylor; so minor fiddling with the '07 PEP for
the 355 will make no difference whatsoever.
All interesting stuff, but ALL the stats and shenanigans simply confirm
that the Championship undoubtedly went to the right man again - congratulations
to Nick Taylor.
To give you a taster for next year, if this year's results are re-calculated
with Nick Taylor carrying the Champ's +1% and Prior on 0%, then Geoff
Dark comes out on top with Prior second and Mineeff third. Taylor comes
out fifth.
Anyway here's the stats....
Points
Mean Prizes |
|
Pilota |
Points
|
Av.
Pts. per mtg.
|
Taylor
Dark
Goodwin J
Mineeff
Prior
Butler
Tomlin
RA
Goodwin P
Holman
Hathaway |
151
143
129
125
121
113
85
84
64
64
60
|
18.88
17.88
16.13
15.63
15.13
14.13
10.63
10.50
8.00
8.00
7.50
Best 8 counted |
|
It's interesting that there was a wider gap in average scores last
season than before, which shows that the championship was not as
close as previously , especially as this measure is based on the
best eight scores only. Taylor emerged a comfortable winner from
Dark, who in turn was comfortably ahead of Gooders. Things hot up
a bit for third place between Gooders, Mineeff and Prior, then there's
a decent gap to Butler in sixth. The top six were miles clear of
the other five who completed eight events or more, but then it's
very close for seventh and eighth, and ninth and tenth places. |
Statistical
Jiggery Pokery |
|
Pilota |
Mean Score
|
Std. Deviation
|
Holman
Goodwin P
Taylor
RA
Hathaway
Prior
Mineeff
Butler
Tomlin
Goodwin J
Dark |
7.60
6.54
17.14
9.89
6.08
13.38
15.63
13.30
9.89
14.64
15.07
|
1.85
2.34
2.47
2.77
2.81
2.98
3.08
3.32
3.57
3.77
4.65 |
|
Last year we introduced a new measure in an attempt to look at driver
consistency. This table shows the mean score for all of
the rounds in which a driver competed and the standard deviation
from that score, which Tony C tells me is a measure of how widely
values are dispersed from the average value (the mean) and which
provides a measure of consistency The magnificent 11 again are shown
with Andrew Holman the most consistent, which is a bit surprising
if you've seen him drive! I guess it means he's consistently wild.
PG is second and she's another where, ahem, bravery is bigger than
technique. I'm not too sure how valuable this metric is, but look
at the consistency levels between second-place Dark and winner Taylor. |
| Winners |
Pilota |
Wins |
| Outright |
PEPS |
Taylor
Butler
Frost
Goodwin
Prior
Dark
Mineeff |
7
4
2
1
1
-
- |
|
|
No surprises here with Taylor comfortably ahead in outright and PEPs
wins. Butler again showed his speed but only managed to beat the
PEPs once. Frost showed that he has only lost a little of his speed,
despite competing very rarely. Gooders' outright win was in his
430. If Lucy'd stayed on -5.5% he'd have had no PEPs wins, but if
it'd been changed to -12% the breakdancing oldies would have had
six! Prior stunned everyone (including himself) by taking the double
at the first round, despite the Champions +1%, though without it
he'd only have had one more PEPs win, R8 (Loton). Dark was down
one PEPs win from last year with three, but Mineeff stayed the same
with two, though at different venues, giving the lie to him being
a one venue specialist. |
| Tipo |
No. |
Wins |
| OA |
PEP |
355
328
308*
Mondial t
GT4
348GTC
348
F512M
246
430
250 GT Lusso
Mondial QV
*all wins by modified car |
13
10
6
4
3
2
3
1
1
1
1
1
|
4
-
-
-
-
9
1
-
-
1
-
-
|
1
2
3
-
-
5
1
-
-
-
3
-
|
|
The 355 was once again the most popular tipo, which undoubtedly reflects
their cost and availability. Their speed is shown by four outright
wins, all courtesy of Chris Butler but even he only beat the PEP
once last year. The trusty ol' 328 is hanging on in second and took
two PEPs wins, both by Mineeff. All of the 308 were Geoff Dark's
modificato example. The GT4 made a comeback this year.
With 14 wins the 348 GTC seems to be the tipo to have. It's a quick
car, nearly on a par with a 355 and has a better PEP; mind you it
can't hurt that both examples are driven by highly accomplished
drivers - champions both. Jon Goodwin and Mark Buckland both drove
three tipos, but Gooders stole the tipo show, winning in both the
newest and the oldest in the series. It's a shock when contemplating
the 430's pace that you realise it's got the same horsepower as
the F40! Lucy the Lusso was definitely the crowds' favourite. |
|
Pilota |
Tipo |
Posn. (Actual)
|
Taylor
Butler
Prior
Dark
Mineeff
Tomlin
RA
Goodwin J
Goodwin P
Hathaway
|
348
GTC
355
348
308m
328
355
328/355
250 GT Lusso/328/430
328m/328
348 |
1
(1)
2 (6)
3 (5)
4 (2)
5 (4)
6 (7)
7 (8)
8 (3)
9 (9)
10 (11)
Best 8 counted |
|
This is the top ten based on outright speed - no PEPs. Shows again
that the right bloke won.
|
Click here to go
to the 2006 Pirelli Ferrari Hillclimb Championship page.
Click
here to go to the 2007 Pirelli Ferrari Hillclimb Championship
page.
|
