Report - Round 11 - 2008 Pirelli Ferrari Hillclimb Championship - Club Racing Series'

The Pirelli Ferrari Hill Climb Championship crew were now drawn to Gurston Down near Broadchalke in Wiltshire. Only 105 miles for me and nearer than Longleat. Other than myself living way out west everyone else was coming further and from the opposite direction. It was way too far south west for the webteam gobwhotsits, so I volunteered to write the report. [Unlike the circuit racers, a number of the hillclimbers will cheerfully undertake scribbling duties - Ed.].

A field of 15 Ferraris filled our side of the paddock which now had a tarmac surface rather than the grass. Nick Taylor was a non-starter at this event, but probably turned up the next day. New to Gurston were Wendy Ann Marshall (328), Sean Doyle (GT4), Adrian Wilson (355) and Jeff Cooper with the super 360 Modena in luce blu metallico, other variants from rosso corsa were Andy Holman's battle-scarred 348 in serbatoio nastro grigio plus Richard Allen's 355 in argento. Sadly there wasn't a car in giallo which always looks nice in the pictures.

A dry mild night and warm morning meant some fast times were expected. Gurston is not afflicted by overhanging trees like the aforementioned Longleat, which gives a very slippery surface beneath them.

The Ferraris were allocated an early slot, in fact our first runner, Wendy Ann Marshall, was only the third car on the track in, as normal for Gurston, a very early start. Things got going at 8.30am with first practice. As usual a small amount of panic gripped the paddock as some competitors weren't ready, though no dozing wives were carted to the start line.

So with first practice Wendy Ann, Sean and Adrian were first away and took cautious steady runs. Pauline Goodwin (328) though, was on it straight away and already in the 41s and John Day (nice to see him again on the hills, though not registered for the Series) was heading up a bunch of 40 second drivers namely Wood (355), Holman (348) and Dark (back in his trusty 308 modificato) all within a half second of each other.

Jon Goodwin's lead in the Championship has a lot to do with cunningly matching tipo to venue, but this time he got it wrong. He had brought "Lucy" and quickly wished he hadn't after his first run of 43.91 showed she was too slow for this fast blast and the hill was too short for even her generous PEP to be effective. John Marshall didn't let a long gap between visits of several years put him off and recorded 38.96 with the F430. Prior (348ts), Spicer (355) and Tomlin (355) were just behind on 39 seconds + , although Tomlin shouldn't have been as he went straight on at Karousel up the grass bank causing a small amount of damage and a bit of a fright for the marshals. Richard Allen, always quick here, blasted up in an amazing 37.82, only a tenth off his best in his 355, although astonishingly he had been faster in his 328.

In the paddock after P1 the fast drivers were considering how much they had to do to catch Allen who was obviously right on the pace. John Day mentioning that he had forgotten to take off his handbrake and only noticed the light on as he crossed the finish - no apparent damage was noticed - so perhaps it was only partly on, or maybe 328 handbrakes don't really work.

After the bacon butties P2 was upon us and the newbies Wendy Ann, Sean, Adrian and Jeff Cooper all knocked 2 or 3 seconds off their times, Pauline Goodwin had a moment when lifting for the finish, this unsettled the car and she spun out and into the corn field! No damage and a good time of 39.94 was recorded. Pauline, as seems usual, now spent about 15 minutes clearing debris from under her car. Holman managed to give the slip to the Day/Wood/Dark posse, leaving them in the 39s and joined the 38 second massiv ahead of Prior and Spicer who also stayed in the 39s. Marshall,Tomlin and a slightly slower Allen were now in the 38 second bracket. Gooders knocked 0.8 off with "Lucy" but realised this was not going to be enough. He did try a rain dance later in the day - luckily nothing happened at Gurston, but apparently it did cloud over briefly in Hanley.

During lunch the figures were compared and tactics debated; it was seen that the timing was arranged slightly differently with an additional timing beam at Ashes, the left-hander away from Deer's Leap. This gave a time from Karousel to Ashes, the quickest drivers of our crew would do this in 10 seconds or thereabouts. Also three drivers had managed 94 mph through the finishing line speed trap - Tomlin, Spicer and Wood - all in 355's. Interestingly the much more powerful 430 of John Marshall couldn't match these speeds.

After lunch and with the first competitive run most drivers went faster. Adrian Wilson knocked a huge one and a half seconds off his time to record a 42.06. Pauline did another 39.49 with no spin this time! John Day lost a half second off his best practice time while Wood was only one hundredth better. Wendy improved as did Jeff Cooper and marginally Sean Doyle. Mike Spicer got into the 38s with a 38.28, the fastest he has gone here, about half a second faster than his 328 time and this shows that Gurston is a happy hunting ground for 328s. John Marshall took another third off with 38.49 as did Jon Goodwin with 42.8. Holman and Prior both went slower than their best practice times but not by much.

Tomlin had Allen in his sights and fully on it took a new Ferrari record with a 37.03 finally knocking Jon Goodwin off his perch - his record of 37.4 in a 355 having stood since 2002 - an amazing drive and he was pleased as punch, but more was to come, as Allen trounced him with a 36.97 (wow!) - absolutely incredible! So Tomlin's record stood for two whole minutes before Allen claimed it. So all to go for in the second timed run....

The newbies all went faster with Jeff Cooper coming out on top with a good time of 40.61. Wilson got into the 41s, Doyle into the 42s with his GT4 and Wendy into the 43s, a good performance and enough to give her the handicap trophy, with which she was overjoyed. Pauline, John Day and Andrew Holman all went slower in the second run. Your reporter just managed to pip Prior and Dark by a couple of hundredths, despite running onto the grass at Ashes.

Just when Allen thought he had the record in the bag Tomlin extracting the very utmost from his 355 shaved another three hundredths off to take the record from him recording 36.95 seconds! Allen running next, not knowing, this went a fraction slower with 37.22, a time which earlier in the day would also have brought home the record. So Tomlin took the win and the 20 points.

Jon Goodwin knocked an enormous nine tenths off but couldn't catch the leaders, even after the application of the PEP. So the trophy winners were Tomlin, Allen and Spicer, all in 355s. After PEPs Spicer was replaced by Geoff Dark his 308m grabbing the fifteen points for third. It is interesting to note that 0.85 of a second separated Prior, Spicer, Day, John Marshall, Wood and Pauline for the points - very close indeed.

A very good day of hillclimbing enjoyed by all - roll on Gurston next year!

Next round: Curborough nr. Lichfield, August 17th