Review - 2008 Pirelli Ferrari Hillclimb Championship - Club Racing Series'

I was very pleased to be asked to write a review of the 2008 Hillclimb season. But how to do justice to such a royal task? Be fair to everyone, cover everything, mention all and from every angle. I wrote and wrote. Many thousand words later I was only ¾ of the way through the season and it was seriously affecting my Christmas card writing time (apologies to all who now don’t get one by the way), I realised I needed a new approach. Something that flowed from the top of my head, something that gave a simple, uncomplicated and totally biased view of the season – Mad Dog's Review – welcome to my world!

The 2008 season saw 30 registered competitors and some events when nearly all of them turned up! At a number of events entries were limited by the organisers. Of course I should have won North Weald but bald tyres put paid to that, the bad weather there setting a precedent for much of the year. New boy Sean Doyle thought he should have won too. He admits he came into the Championship thinking "How hard can this be?" And " They can’t be that much better than me". After a series of spins that started to make me jealous, he is now the first to admit there is a little more to this hillclimbing lark than he first thought. He has attacked every event he has been to in a car that is always immaculately turned out and is already a great asset to the Championship. He was rightly named "Newcomer of the Year" and if he learns to keep on the track he will inevitably climb the score sheets.

Winning the Championship means a cross to bear the following year in the form of an additional +1% PEP; you wouldn't want anyone to be too cocky by winning twice in a row now would you? Richard Prior carried the burden this year, and also his car didn’t seem to want to play. It was only by the end of season Cadwell, when new tyres were fitted to both ends, that driver and car came together for a late season win.

Golf interfered with the Haynes' double act at times; golf pro Charles sometimes having to go to work to pay for his sport. Tracey drove well, but her car was treacherous when pressed hard. It just needs a bit of sorting which it's getting over the winter, then she may well achieve her ambition of beating deadly rival, Italian pensioner Sergio Ransford. Reports inevitably focus on those up the front, but there are friendly battles being fought throughout the field.

It was nice to see a couple of 430s trying to come to terms with the tight and twisties and on occasion both did – and then didn’t, but no serious damage was done. Speaking of damage, there wasn’t anything major this season. David Tomlin had a number of dings across his front end, Mike Spicer managed to scrape a side, but no garden buildings were harmed this time, and I clattered off the Armco at Doune. There were one or two minor breakdowns, but it always helps to put enough petrol in the car (my hot tip for next year for both Gooders and Tomlin).

There were an awful lot of 355s out this season. This has clearly become the weapon of choice and worked well in the hands of Butler, Whitehead and Tomlin, with the odd result from our illustrious Chair Richard Allen; after the promise shown at North Weald, it never really came together for Spicer and Dark. New tyres can only do so much it seems.

Former Champion Nick Taylor won at the first Prescott, but then took his eye off the Championship for a few rounds and was unable to get back on winning form and slipped down the table. It didn’t help, of course, his missing MIRA. When a call to find him was answered by EasyJet's finest in Nice, hardly anyone in the paddock laughed at all, honest Nick.

We had a good number of different winners, seven in all. Apart from those already mentioned, Tomlin came good on a couple of tracks that need large amounts of bottle (substitute your own appropriate "b" noun here). At Shelsley this local boy not only smashed the track record but also got the triple, with a win on scratch and PEP as well! He then managed to break another record, at Gurston, in a tremendous tit-for-tat match that saw RA beat him then Tomlin get it back. Unfortunately for him, when tracks became more technical things didn’t go quite so well, but he is a bit of a circuit racer at heart.

Round 3 at Harewood was to see the first entry from Jon Goodwin. Everyone had eagerly awaited the arrival of his newly-acquired manual 430, however gear selection problems meant the venerable Lucy the Lusso was once again pressed into service and her PEP meant he took max. points. The 430 did appear at the next round at Prescott and took the scratch win and the points! This saw the start of something new, with Gooders alternating the two cars to suit the tracks and clocking up a series of back-to-back wins.

Some said this was using the rules to the limit but that, of course, is what motor racing is all about. The truth is we saw a season of exceptional, indeed brilliant, driving from Gooders in two cars that could not be more different. It wasn’t until Round 10, at Loton, that Butler managed to dent this man’s dominance; this showed me and Tomlin that it could be done, and we did! But of course, too little too late and a very worthy Champion had things all tied up rather early on. Not bad for someone who wasn’t going to try seriously for it at the beginning of the year...

It was widely predicted that the year was going to be Chris Butler’s and indeed he was fast, smooth and incredibly consistent. However his roundy-roundy commitments meant he wasn’t out as often as perhaps he should have been to get the wins. In the end he only managed two 20 points, although he won a few more on scratch and these, with the string of 17 pointers, were enough to get him a comfortable second place.

It was a tussle for third between MD and Tomlin. I led the Championship early on, but only because others were not turning out so often. Indeed, it was only me and Mike Spicer who did them all this year. Tomlin’s two 20 pointers gave him an advantage but, despite my mid-season mishap at Doune, that unknowingly damaged my geometry for the next few events, I was clocking up more seconds and thirds. Prior's 'double' at Cadwell and my points win at Curborough, where I missed out on a scratch win by just 6/100s of a second from RA, showed that there is life in the old 348 yet!

As ever, there were some great excuses as to why people had not done quite so well as they had hoped. Colin Campbell’s time was exceptionally slow at Longleat and afterwards he confessed to losing sight of the track, partly due to the bad weather and partly due to the demister fan not working. He was sure he'd been off the track somewhere, but couldn't tell on which corner as "they all looked the same". Of course, I would have won easily at Longleat, had it not been abandoned.....

There is something rather macho about being able to get off the line quickly as many a boy racer will testify, however, it is Mrs Goodwin who is renowned for her fast starts. After the ritual triple burnout to warm her rear end, she regularly gets times in the 2.2 seconds; but who has actually been this year's traffic lights supremo? Significantly, it has been a newer tipo in the shape of the 355, with Mike Spicer getting six of the fastest starts compared to RA's 3, I slipped in a couple with Pauline still in the running with one. Amusingly, John Marshall's gizmo-laden 430F1 had about the same 64ft time as the 45-year old Lusso. Gooders' manual 430 was almost as bad; indeed it's a wonder he won anything as on one occasion, his 430 was actually slower over the distance than the oldest tipo there – the Campbell Dino!

This is generally a happy and un-contentious series and again the year saw little work for Series' scrute Gerry Walton. He did ask for paddock rumbles but apart from people not bothering to read the rules and complaining about my 'Challenge' rims there was nothing of note. Gooders' gibe, at lunchtime at the final Curborough, that he was off home to get Lucy did cause a bit of outraged clucking, but he was only being naughty!

The social scene was as lively as ever, with some wonderful dinners throughout the year and of course an end of season dinner second to none. Doune had to be the highlight of the year with a long weekend away and it's great to see the 'Mother of all Hills' on the calendar again next year. Indeed we get two holidays, with Bouley Bay in lovely Jersey back on as well! You do spoil us Mr Prior.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who works so hard to make the Club's only championship work so well, especially Richard Prior and Anne Swift, sponsors Pirelli through to the organising clubs and marshals at each and every event. Also I would not be without the (unofficial) results and match reports coming up so quickly on this website with a handy nostalgic reminder in CompRes a while later. Thank you all.

Many apologies to all I haven’t now mentioned in this shortened version. Il Presidente di Fotoricettore said I wasn’t allowed a book. I wanted to include tales of paddock fun and frivolity, measurements of everything in Butlers - including terminal velocities, the tussles at every level and the joshing, psychological posturing, camaraderie, support, practical help and great friendship between this disparate group of fools who actually enjoy throwing their Ferraris, their pride and joys up some incredibly demanding pieces of tarmac, sometimes in horrid conditions, with no more than a Portaloo for shelter, on a diet of bacon butties and tasteless whipped ice cream, every other summer weekend. My only problem is what to do 'til we start again!