Report - Round 13 - 2008 Pirelli Ferrari Hillclimb Championship - Club Racing Series'

<% theSection = "club_racing_series" %> Report - Round 13 - 2008 Pirelli Ferrari Hillclimb Championship - Club Racing Series' - Ferrari Owners' Club

PIRELLI FERRARI HILLCLIMB CHAMPIONSHIP

ROUND 13 : CADWELL PARK : 13 SEPTEMBER 2008
Report by Andrew Holman and Associates

A First for Prior

But more of that later.....

Along with most outside activities, this year's hillclimbing hasn’t seen great weather and the forecast for Round 13 at Cadwell Park in deepest Lincolnshire didn’t look good either. Getting up at 5 am to drive up on the Saturday morning promised to be damp and dreary, and the thick eastern fog merely added to the gloom. Indeed it was fog all the way that showed a stubbornness to clear and didn’t bode well. Yet, miraculously just down the road from Cadwell, It began to clear and the sun continued to do its good work throughout the day meaning the hillclimbers' gazebo (a.k.a. The Pirelli Temple) was put to new use - as a sun shade.

This parkland track is narrow by circuit standards, for us hillclimbers it is like a motorway and measures nearly four Butlers wide, although the man’s absence on the day meant an exact measurement could not be taken. Indeed it wasn’t just our Championship second place man who was missing. The FOC doesn't seem to like the East of England much. Track days at Snett were cancelled due to lack of interest and speed events there have rarely been well supported by the PFHC ragazzi. A late date change for this Cadwell outing meant that this round clashed with the formula classic event at Oulton Park where the starting money was said to be better. This, together with the East's general unpopularity, obviously contributed to the lack of entries.

Initially only five entries were received for this Borough 19 Club organised event, so maximum points would not have been awarded. Some lobbying ensued from contestants who had the chance to improve their Championship positions, so with this, together with threats and blackmail, the entry grew to the magical nine that permitted the maximum 20 points for a win.

Cadwell still provides a great, nay unique drive, providing our fastest outing in the season; it's made up of more brows than Alistair Darling and a series of blind corners that demand a retained knowledge of where you are in a rather same-looking landscape. It's not surprising this picturesque venue has been dubbed the mini-Nürburgring. The facilities have recently been taken over by Jonathan Palmer which means decent loos and showers with hot running water! However, the paddocks are still mud in places and you still can't get a Verrückhundwurst mit Kraut.

It was not clear for the first runs whether it had all dried out under the trees from Hall Bends to the Barn and also what affect mud-caked tyres would have on grip. Our first couple onto the dance floor were Charles & Tracey Haynes, his 348GTC managed a 115 second lap but also managed to scare him with a shimmy at Gooseneck. Tracey’s 328GTB was just a second and a half behind.

Peter Rogerson’s 355GTS followed, he nearly hadn’t made it after a breakdown at the Brands Hatch Track Day two days before. Thankfully, Kent High Performance, upon hearing about the threats being made to Peter’s innocent cats if he didn’t turn up, made an outstanding effort to mend his car and all worked well with a time of 124 seconds.

Given the fast and long straights at Cadwell it was going to be interesting to see how Jeff Cooper's 360 Modena faired, contrary to rumour he didn’t know his way around Cadwell from before and there hadn’t been time to walk the track beforehand and there was no car convoy either. Despite this lack of knowledge Jeff managed an impressive 113 second run. But it was our next runner who was to set the pace. Geoff Dark had been doing some work on his 355GTB, a manifold repaired and some others bits sorted. He managed a stonking 102 seconds dead. Phil Whitehead wasn’t going to travel all this way not to make an effort, so whilst his 355 couldn’t match Dark's time, he was only 2.4 seconds behind.

Next up was last year's Champ Richard Prior. Richard hasn’t had the best of seasons, but has been saving his pennies to buy a new set of tyres to match his front Toyos. Despite his fitters managing to mount the tyres the wrong way around so his rims were once again on backwards, he used his knowledge of Cadwell, gained from some 'bikers trackdays here, to good use and slipped in a 104.2. Mike Spicer (355) was frankly disappointed with his initial 110 sec run as was Andrew Holman 348tb with his 107.

Second practice followed swiftly on and showed a good general improvement apart from Charles who was still a little bit shaken from his first run. Of particular note, Cooper chopped 9 seconds off his time, Spicer 7, Prior 3 ½ and Holman 3, leaving them all in the 100 to 104 second bracket. But it was the unassuming Whitehead who broke the 100 second barrier with a 99.27 to go quickest.

The organisers do a good job here. There was no needless waiting around, we were called up clearly, drove down to holding area and onto the track for our runs, a very pleasant experience that could be copied elsewhere. We normally see the Borough 19 team at North Weald in March when they are coping with the direst of British Spring weather.

Following a lunch that looked more appetising than it actually tasted in the nicely kitted out MotorVision canteen [an allegory for modern motor racing - Ed.] the sun had emerged and warmed the track, there was even some glinting, so all seemed right with the world and times were sure to tumble. Yet Cadwell warned us not to take her lightly, a Peugeot ran off into the Armco at Hall, a TVR was towed into the paddock covered in fire extinguisher foam, as was a Lotus with damage front and rear; people were obviously trying hard.

Charles Haynes stayed safe with a 116 whilst Senora H had overtaken him with a good improvement into the high 112s, a time she could not better. Rogerson made his cats safe with a 117.42 and Cooper once again came impressively closer to the front runners with a 102.52. Dark was just ahead with a small improvement to 101.81. Our front-runner Whitehead was determined to improve; he stormed off the line and later assured everyone he was way, way faster than before until 4 wheels left the track at Gooseneck and his run was disallowed.

This allowed Prior to take his place as our sub 100 man, improving yet again with the fastest time so far of 99.27. Spicer lost time as he wiggled off the line but managed a 102.38 whilst Holman knocked another 3 seconds off to record a 101.48

On to the final run. Rogerson still got 8 points for being 9th. Charles improved by another 3 seconds to 113 to finish in 8th. Tracey was 7th and, after his great start, Dark couldn’t make the improvements others had and came in 6th. He was overtaken by Cooper who again knocked 2 seconds off to record 100.63 and a good 5th place.

The next four runners all went under the 100 barrier. Whitehead stayed on this time and stopped the clock at 99.4, leaving him third on scratch. Blagger Spicer leapt up the order with a 98.85 into 2nd place. Holman’s 99.52 put him down in 4th on scratch, but placed him ahead of the 355s on PEPs. Prior's 98.08 was not only good enough for the outright win, but kept him ahead by nearly ½ a second on PEPs to give him his first max. points of the season. This was an especially notable achievement as he still carries the +1% Champion's penalty.

This gave lucky Richard his first chance ever to buy a drink for everyone, there being no bar when he's won outright before. As most were driving, sadly we were unable to do his victory full justice, but oh how we cheered his treble - scratch and PEPs win and new Cadwell record!