Report - Round 10 - 2008 Pirelli Ferrari Hillclimb Championship - Club Racing Series'

<% theSection = "club_racing_series" %> Report - Round 10 - 2008 Pirelli Ferrari Hillclimb Championship - Club Racing Series' - Ferrari Owners' Club

PIRELLI FERRARI HILLCLIMB CHAMPIONSHIP

ROUND 10 : LOTON PARK : 13 JULY 2008
Report by Christian Mineeff, pics (mostly) by Scuderia Fotografia

This double-header format certainly works, because in addition to having 22 Ferraris competing on the Saturday another couple turned up for the Sunday to make it one of the biggest Ferrari hillclimb classes ever. Andy Grier brought the 328SMS along and Barrie Wood his 355, and of course Jon Goodwin selected another weapon from his motor house and decided that, as the weather was guaranteed to be dry, his manual 430 would be perfect for the job. Lucy the Lusso got the day off, much to her relief, but was not allowed to go home and had to stay in the paddock.

The Hagley Club are always pleased to see the Fazzas and this time gave them pride of paddock place against the wall where the single-seaters normally reside.

But the Clerk of the Course was not too pleased with their drivers……. First thing in the morning he summoned them all together and gave them a right rollocking, all to do with alleged offences out on the public road ranging from having racing numbers uncovered to overtaking a row of cars one of which contained an off-duty copper who promptly reported them. Not a good start. It was made worse by a member of the public who, in a non-competing 360, decide to try to impress the paddock at lunchtime with a silly display of reving and noise and shooting off down the road. If you want to be a racer then don’t be chicken, get a licence and be measured against the others…..

And you thought "Sid the Sexist" was fictional!

Morning practice soon got started with the two Sunday newcomers, Grier and Wood, exploring the hill that the others by now knew well. Dave Tomlin (355), just as the day before, had a moment at the top but still set a time, and Andrew Holman continued the gradual reduction of his 348 to matchwood with an off at Fallow. At the front of the field it was all very close and quick, with Saturday winner Chris Butler (355) just ahead on 61.61sec with Gooders (430) on 61.64 and Nick Taylor (348GTC) on 61.97. John Marshall (430) continued his previous day’s good form with 62.57 and Richard Allen was also well up with 62.87, despite his 355 looking so floppy at the front end that we assumed his Speedwell Camber Compensator must be well past its best (click here for those too young....).

The second practice runs kept the same three drivers as front-runners but the middle bunch were all closing up and it was clearly going to be a tight race in the afternoon. John Marshall prodded the 500 horses a bit too much on this run and fired the 430 off the road and into the weeds just past Triangle – not a normal place for an excursion but his impassive face showed that this is all part of a 430-drivers hectic day. Damage was light, but the bracken was everywhere!

By now it was really sunny and warm, and the fabulous Subbiani motorhome was ready for our BBQ lunch. Chef Paul and his helpers excelled themselves again as the entire Ferrari clan gathered around for what many think is the best part of hillclimbing – the socialising in lovely surroundings. No concrete wastelands here! Elsewhere, Sean Doyle attempted to clean Colin Campbell’s Dino, a task probably last accomplished in the ‘70s, but it didn’t seem to make much difference. We worried that if you removed what holds the sills on then the sills might, err, fall off.

I piloti ritorno alle loro cavalli rampante

New scoreboard represents yet more lavish investment in the PFHC infrastructure

And then it was time to go and race. Grier was the first off the line and he set a good midfield time of 65.75, with the next-up Barry Wood just behind on 65.94. Wendy Ann Marshall, one of three girls in the class and back in her 328 for this meeting, went nicely quicker than in the morning, but Adrian Wilson (355) is still learning this hill and went slower than in the morning. Sean Doyle (GT4) tried a bit too hard but got it back together again to record 79.03 and then came Pauline Goodwin (328) who temporarily took over the lead on 65.65 although this was quarter of a second slower than her practice run. Marshall’s 430 was carefully driven this time, well off his normal pace with a 66 sec run.

Campbell’s Dino then sedately cruised up the hill, recording STD (which is not anything to do with street corners but stands for Slowest Time of the Day) and just about being caught at the finish by the flying Richard Preece (348GTC). With Campbell’s run taking 91 secs and Preece’s 64, and the cars able to start at 20 second intervals then you can work out the maths for yourselves. A request to the starter’s hut to allow a bigger gap for the next runs fell on deaf ears and Richard was advised to delay his start!

In the midst of all this excitement Geoff Dark (355) slipped in a quick 65-sec run to take second behind Preece, and the next five runners were not able to better this until Holman came along later. Ed Briscoe was on 74 to take the lead in the ‘GT4 class’, the two Haynes’ were barely separable on 69.02 and 69.11, Peter Rogerson (355) went slower than in practice on 70.45 but Sergio Ransford pedaled his lovely 308GTB up the hill with great verve to record 68.10, quite good for a standard 308.

And now we came to the likely frontrunners, ten of them in all. Holman led these away in his shrill 348, bits of sticking plaster covering the Doune injuries, but too much aggression and sideways driving spoiled the time – 64.11. Mike Spicer (355) was next but appeared too cautious on 63 secs although this was quickest Ferrari time so far. Then the times came tumbling down, with both Phil Whitehead and Richard Allen down in the 62s in their 355s. Dave Tomlin (355) was frustrated not to join them and stayed in the 64s as did Richard Prior (348) who spent much time up and over the kerbs, trying really hard.

Nick Taylor then did a fabulous 61.90 run in his GTC but the following Butler, smooth and economical as always, was just unstoppable as he set a time of 60.80. Jon Goodwin, the final runner, fearlessly hurled his 430 off the startline but at Keepers corner he banged a front wheel over the kerbs and slashed a tyre, and although he kept going he could not match Butler – 61.05 and second place.

But of course they had to do it all again, nothing was settled until after the second runs. Goodwin’s ultra-low profile 35-section tyre was definitely a non-runner and, with no spare, what was he to do? Lucy was trying to hide behind the trees but with the C-of-C’s permission he arranged to run the 430 in the batch behind the rest of the Ferraris – and would borrow one of John Marshall’s 430 front wheels in a lightening tyre change.

And so we moved to the second runs, and the warm track brought generally better times throughout the class. John Marshall tried really hard in his 430 and set a time of 62.18, leapfrogging all the way to 4th place before then rushing back to the paddock to let Gooders have his front wheel. Preece went the other way, hurling his GTC into Keepers with not a hope of making it stay on the road; Holman quietened down a bit and improved his time to 63.95, and RA went better still to record 62.39 and nab 5th place. Prior drove his 348 hard but ended up 9th, but it was the race amongst the top three that would be the most exciting.

Nick Taylor went first but, at 62.09, was slower than on his first run. Butler was next but was also slower – 61.32. And now it was all down to Gooders and the final Ferrari run. The 430 wheel was changed (in 3min 24secs according to Dave Clark) and as he went up to the line he knew the target was the first run time of Butler – 60.80. In a deceptively fast but controlled run he gave it all but failed by just fifteen hundredths of a second, stopping the clock at 60.95.

Nice pic of them returning down the hill

...but it was the Young Pretender who got it

With his second win in two days and a maximum of 20 points after the PEPs, Chris Butler was jubilant. This ended Gooders' run of five consecutive maximums which were aided to some extent by Lucy's "soft" PEP of minus 7%, but mostly achieved through some great driving which had given him the lead in the Championship with Butler second. But the latter is back on top form, no doubt benefiting from the break in circuit racing and concentrating on proper motorsport....

The next meeting was just a week away at Gurston Down.

Click here for the (unofficial) results and points.

Click here for the (unofficial) cumulative Championship scores.

Click here to return to the Ferrari Hill Climb Championship page.

This double-header thing may work for the racers, but it's tough on the Captions Dept.so....

Here they all are: