Report - Round 3 - 2007 Pirelli Ferrari Hillclimb Championship - Club Racing Series'

May Prescott is undoubtedly one of the jewels in the shining crown of motorsports that is Speed Hillclimbing. It was lovely to see the large field of Ferraris and most of the leading contenders were present with the notable exception of Chris Butler - fancy going off to Italy to get married when you are in the lead of a Championship! Several other absentees were away generously supporting the formula classic series by racing at Brands. RA was one and David Tomlin another, the latter making his series' debut in the ex-everyone but most recently Christian Mineeff 328 "Rosie". Amazingly there were no 355s there at all - as someone said, when was the last time this happened?

It was nice to see Sergio Ransford (308) back again and Len Watson (328) all the way from Australia for the summer, though I thought transportation to the colonies was for life. Lucy the Lusso was back too following her electrical malfunctions on the way to Bouley Bay. Apparently these were caused by Gooders adapting a Dansette to make a contemporary "E-diff". Yet again it was left to the lads at R&D to sort out the mess. They fixed the electrics and fitted a mechanical slippy diff, and very effective it was too. The diff was why Lucy was on 'only' a minus 7% PEP, there being a plus 1% penalty for the limited modifications allowed in the Series. We mark such in these reports by adding the suffix "m" (for modificato) to the numero di tipo.

Talking of Goodwin messes, the day before a well-meaning marshal had persuaded long-suffering wife Pauline to remove the safety pin from the (circuit racing) fire extinguisher system in her 328. Later, she was giving Jon a lift to the evening meal. No sooner were the words "Be careful of the fire..." out of her mouth than Gooders set it off, liberally dousing PG and the engine with extinguishant! Worried by the possible effect of those chemicals on his most prized possession, Gooders borrowed the pub's hosepipe and sluiced PG down in the car park!

After all this the first runs were almost an anti-climax. I haven't got much to report because I was trying to get at least one pic of everyone. In this I failed. I was expecting the Bugattis, but instead a modern-day classic caught me unawares - the Dino GT4 of Ricardo Preece. Similarly I missed Nick Taylor's Mondial as he ran after all the others, the reason being that he had been stopped on the line having forgotten to fit his timing strut. Preece leaped into action, found and fitted the device which allowed Nick to take his run. As I said, I didn't see much, but I think Andrew Holman (348) may have had a bit of a moment...

The runs ended with Taylor in the lead, helped, he reckoned by the adrenaline surge caused by the timing strut episode. Richard Prior (348ts) was second and a back-on-form Geoff Dark (308m) third and on max. points once PEPs had been applied. Geoff explained that this was the first time he had felt truly confident in the car after his Harewood shunt last year.

Spring sunshine and convivial company made for a the usual enjoyable lunch break with much good natured mickey-taking of Andrew Holman, especially when a marshal came up to him and said he'd caused his mate to need a change of underwear. However, the steely-nerved Anglia Area Group Organiser seemed unaffected, or so he thought...

The skies clouded over for run two and there were even a few spots of rain but fortunately these stopped before any damage was done. There was a huge entry and the wait for the Ferraris, running last, seemed interminable. There were some cars which shouldn't really have been in a meeting of this calibre, including some "classics" where a misfire seemed obligatory.

When at last the Ferraris appeared it was with Preece leading the way but he failed to match his first run time. David Hathaway (348ts) was wild and woolly, scattering the kitty-litter on the outside of Ettore's. Andrew Holman failed to match his practice time, later admitting that his huge spin had de-tuned him more than he at first thought. Local girl Tracey Haynes improved her time, her lines look good and more speed will come with time. Hubby Charles (348GTC) lost a second somewhere. Len Watson (328) made a useful improvement to 57.42, but Barrie Wood was slower. His faithful 308 GTS is for sale. He plans to appear in the ex-Thornton Mustard 355/Ch he found in a Garage in Cornwall once he's finished converting it into a standard road car.

Colin Campbell squeezed his Dino under 70 seconds, Brian Jackson (308) was just a gnat's quicker than before on 53.60, Sergio Ransford was quicker too, but Geoff Dark was slower, he would have to rely on his first run time. John Marshall looked as purposeful as always, but his first run proved to be his quickest. Geoffrey Cooper's 360F1 looked good and sounded better. He took nearly two seconds off on his second run to leave him a very creditable 12th overall.

Richard Prior (348ts) always goes well at Prescott and must have fancied himself for the overall win with no 355s and Taylor in his Mondial rather than his rapid 348GTC. He drove hard and well, running over the kerb on the exit of Ettores to take the lead with a 51.52. Like all Champions, Taylor responds well to pressure and this run was no exception, the lowered and stiffened, multi-purpose Mondial blasting its way raucously up the hill to stop the clocks on 50.96 and victory!

Finally we had the Goodwins and no hint of an anti-climax here. Now in her third season, Pauline is developing into a really useful hillclimber. She climbed in 53.59 to take a highly commendable fifth place overall and was absolutely delighted to be quicker on every run over the whole weekend, never easy. Last up was Gooders in the lovely Lusso. One spectator standing near me had obviously never seen the combo before as he said "I bet he won't try very hard in that". How wrong can you be? Gooders improved to 55.85, 13 points and tenth overall in the oldest and by far the most valuable car in the Series.

At the end of another closely-fought contest Taylor comfortably took the win by over half a second from Prior, who was half a second in front of Dark. When the PEPs were factored in Taylor took the max. points, despite the disadvantage of the reigning Champ's +1%, though it was by just four-hundredths of a second from Dark, who was just one-hundredth in front of Prior! Prior kept his Championship lead.

The winner generously stood the traditional round of drinks. When they had visited the hole in the wall the day before, wife Fiona asked him if he thought he was going to win. Nick modestly said he thought he was in with a chance, so she drew out an extra 50 quid just in case! Just as well as it turned out.