We are now past the half way mark in our Championship with Round 10 way out in Wiltshire, west of Salisbury. A reasonable entry of fourteen Ferraris fell to thirteen with the non-appearance of Barrie Wood (F355) for reasons unknown. The weather as usual was forecast wet and it rained over Saturday night before the meeting.

Rather inconsiderately the BARC (SW), who run these Gurston Down meetings, put the Ferraris on first nowadays, and expect our drivers to be signing on at 7.30am. Bearing in mind many come from a couple of hundred miles away, this means staying locally if you fancy any kind of breakfast. Someone's got to be first, but maybe they could share it out a bit.

Fortunately it was dry and not too unpleasant on Sunday morning with most of the PFHC runners ready when called to the startline, except of course Charlie White who is always late anyway. He arrived soon after and practiced with another batch. The organisation here is usually pretty slick, but this time around it was bordering on the bossy. The startline queue marshal was very busy telling drivers to do their suits up, tighten helmet straps and so on.

Our entry looked interesting with most of the fastest runners out except Chris Butler. On previous form Nick Taylor (348GTC) looked to be the likely class winner, with hindrance maybe from David Tomlin (F355) and Richard Prior (348ts). I had dug my 575M out for this one and maybe would get amongst these if I could get a grip of this vast and powerful weapon [Oo-er Missus! - Ed.] which incidentally scored a resounding 82db at 5000 rpm on the noise check. Elsewhere amongst the others it seemed probable that Geoff Dark would be close to the bigger tipi – he has often taken a 20 point score here with his 308GTB/m in the past.

On the first practice it was dampish and times were a little down, with only the 575 and Prior's 348ts under forty seconds. On the second the track condition had improved to nearly normal, and it was Nick Taylor with 38.90 just leading from Richard Prior on 38.93. Cheerful Charlie White was not far off with his F355 at 39.01, then Geoff Dark on 39.20, and Tomlin next at 39.24. Andrew Holman (348tb) on his first visit here made a very quick 0-64ft time, and then put in a hugely impressive 39.82, whilst your reporter dropped back, having fumbled the 575’s so-called traction control switches, ensuring the brakes had stayed on leaving the corners. Philip Whitehead was also new to Gurston and he took his F355 up in a very respectable 40.38. The 328s of Pauline Goodwin and John Day were close in the forty second bracket and then it was David Hathaway (348ts) heading Mark Hargreaves 308GTB and Tracey Haynes' 328GTB. Initially Pauline had been having trouble getting a time – her first was not recorded, they gave her another one and that was blank too! Little did we know it, but this was obviously a portent.

After an early lunch break a shower had dampened the track somewhat as the Ferraris lined up for the first and, as it transpired, the only competitive run. Mark Hargreaves, away first with his 308GTB, managed a useful 43.38 a time that was to get him off the bottom of the chart comfortably. A cautious Tracey Haynes with her 328GTB was on 49.38, well below her practice time. For once Pauline Goodwin was not pace-setting with 43.57 and was behind David Hathaway at 42.59. Andrew Holman was not quite up to his practice form with 41.60 and was not able to catch John Day – he zoomed off the line to make the fastest start in the class and finished on 41.30, a time that nicely won him the club handicap. Just a few hundredths ahead was the F355 Spider of Charlie White with 41.25, and then it was the 355 of Philip Whitehead on 41.09.

There was just half a second between the top five finishers, and it looks like it was mostly down to the 0-64ft times. Both Taylor and Allen with 40.64 and 40.38 respectively lost huge amounts of time here, whilst the first three all jumped out of the trap better. Geoff Dark in third overall with the 308 on 40.28, went away delighted with the maximum twenty point score. Richard Prior was on second with 40.10 and seventeen points - which left David Tomlin, he rolled out a handy 40.08 to take the class win and like Geoff, seemed rather pleased.

What happened to the second official run you may ask? Well as we lined up for this it was raining steadily and both Tomlin and Dark looked even happier. There was a very long delay and word got around that the timing gear was not working. Even though the rain was relatively light it seems that the apparatus had become overly moist. After a further delay they announced that the remainder of the meeting was cancelled, as the problem was irreparable. No refund was offered so that was it - thank you and goodnight!

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Tracey was put off by the damp track

PG had a rare off day...

...and Mark Hargreaves pipped her

David Hathaway was on his own in the 42s

Andrew Holman peaked too early - again!

John Day had the best start and won the handicap

Charlie really should have a chiffon scarf

Good result for Phil Whitehead on his first visit to the venue...

...though not so good for Nick Taylor

pics by Pinkette, ASBO Associates & CMdigicams.