Report - Round 15 - 2007 Pirelli Ferrari Hillclimb Championship - Club Racing Series'

PIRELLI FERRARI HILLCLIMB CHAMPIONSHIP

ROUND 14: LONGLEAT : 23 SEPTEMBER 2007
Report by Barrie Wood & Graham Easter

On Sunday 23 September the PFHC were at Longleat in Wiltshire, home of the famous lions, also home of Lord Bath whose driveway we had taken over for the day, care of Woolbridge Motor Club. Despite there being a PFHC Round the day before at Prescott there was still a large field of nineteen Ferraris, many doing both meetings.

The day dawned overcast with a heavy dew, with the sun trying to break through the cloud as the morning went on. First practice began and the quick men soon made their mark with Chris Butler (355) instantly on the pace with a 43.55 and Gooders (430) close behind with 43.96. David Tomlin (355) trailed these two with a 44.71. Everyone else from the Ferrari group was taking things fairly steadily with times around the 48 - 54 second mark.

After enjoying the view from the top paddock the cars dropped back down to the start area to find Geoff Dark had arrived - late with the driver’s door of his LHD 355 jammed shut! This meant he would not have passed scrutineering. Some time was spent with various tools including one fashioned from a wire coat hanger supplied by Barbara Spicer but all to no avail and he very nearly missed first practice. Luckily he was able to borrow someone else’s car and while he was tackling the hill feverish activity continued to un-jam the aforementioned door. Finally the lock was "picked" and when Geoff returned to the paddock a small amount of tinkering was all that was required to gain him the scrutineer’s ticket.

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As our tame Geordies were absent it fell to Barrie Wood to do the breaking in, it took him longer, but at least Geoff hung onto his SatNav! Barrie then revealed that he had recently advised Chris Butler on his 355's dash lights disappearing, as the same thing had happened to him. The number plate and dash lights share a feed, the former were working, so Barrie whipped his 355's dash out - then RA told him there is a dimmer switch! Barrie wouldn't have felt so daft were he not an electrician by profession.

After the second practice runs everyone disappeared for lunch, and several people were interviewed and photographed by some media types. Pauline Goodwin was spotted posing for the camera in front of her car but not in the style in which she appeared in the Baldwin's Gate Women's Institute calendar. "Mad Dog" Holman was proudly showing off his Pirelli hat, on which he'd had his nick-name embroidered. When it was suggested that all drivers should follow suit. "El Chihuahua loco" didn't look too keen and "Slightly Unstable Hamster" was totally agin it.

The sun managed some perfunctory glinting

During lunch fine rain started to fall and one unfortunate feature of this track is that it spends most of its life being polished by the wheels of the carts of the peasantry in the course of their helping Lord Bath keep his seat intact. This plus the odd drop of spilled diesel means that it's slippery enough in the dry and just plain lethal in the wet.

The first competition run was decidedly damp, however some grip was found by the bravest and Butler knocked a couple of tenths off his practice time to record 42.22, the winning time. Jon Goodwin lost a couple of seconds to take second on scratch with 43.25. David Tomlin went well to finish with 43.34 and Andrew Holman lost only a hundredth to find 45.32. Charlie White in the 355 Spider was only two tenths behind him. Richard Prior (348ts) was another two tenths back on 45.74, just ahead of Mike Spicer (355) on 46 seconds dead.

Jefff & Geoff were next on similar times having a bit of a battle during the day. John Day knocked a quarter second off to dig his heels in in mid-table position in his 328 just beating Pauline, also 328 mounted. David Hathaway (348) tried hard and only lost a half second to his second practice time comfortably staying ahead of Wood who was on 48.21.

Sergio Ransford (308) managed to take another one and a half seconds off his time and earned the title of Arch Sandbagger with 49.32. In the fifty second bracket were Charles (348GTC) and Tracey Haynes (328) and Peter Rogerson (355) all swapping times with Charles getting the upper hand eventually. Colin brought up the rear with a 64.12. Unfortunately Mark Hargreaves (GT4) spun off and hit the bank rather heavily, dragging both near side tyres off their rims and deflating them. After a long delay and much head-scratching by the officials, Mark was taken back to the paddock and returned with a couple of space-savers, these were promptly fitted and the GT4 limped back down the hill to retirement.

The rain increased and although not heavy it was steady and continued up to the second official. David Hathaway and Colin Campbell (246GT) decided that discretion was the better part of valour and retired. The rest of us were buoyed up by a sweepstake with £1 each in the kitty to see who could get closest to their first run time. Of course everyone went slower with times dropping back to fifty or sixty seconds. Sadly, Chris Butler became the second Ferraristi of the day to go off, spinning on the left hander and clattering it off several straw bales, but at least that was better than plunging down the bank they were guarding! Furthermore, this may have saved him from becoming a lion's lunch but there's so little meat on him they probably wouldn't have bothered. Good job it wasn't Charlie....

Watching Gooders' 430 accelerate in the dry was amazing, the thing's got so much poke; but in the wet it was hilarious as its electronic gizmos struggled to cope with the combination of 490bhp and patchy grip, some of it zero. It sounded like Rick Wakeman gone mad! In the end Gooders decided that he knew better than all that newfangled electronic rubbish, switched it off and promptly fired the car straight off the road and onto the grass! Fortunately he collected it all without any damage.

The only person to get into the 40s was David Tomlin with a 48.32; he obviously knows the value of money and claimed the massive £17 prize. Finishing positions were of course decided by the first run times, with Chris Butler collecting the scratch win and the twenty points. Richard Prior said in his Prescott report that Chris had clinched second in the Championship the day before, but we reckon that he didn't do it until Longleat. Whatever, he's got it now. Chris has driven better than ever this year and this is reflected in this position, his best ever. This makes his crash even more unfair, but motor racing seldom is.

Jon Goodwin was second on scratch and third after PEP and Tomlin was the other way around with third on scratch and then second after PEP. Andrew Holman finished a very creditable fourth.

So now all that's left is the final round of this year's Championship, the traditional season-ender, the M.A.C. Curborough on October 21st.

Click here for the (unofficial) results.

Click here for the (official) results (meeting).

Click here for the (unofficial) Championship positions.

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