Report - Round 4 - 2008 Pirelli Ferrari Hillclimb Championship - Club Racing Series'

This second Prescott in a month was "The Classic and Invited Clubs Meeting" a mix of cars ancient and modern, but the Saturday was basically a Clubbie and a good thing too, giving clubmen the opportunity to compete at this wonderful venue. There were lots of modified road cars and a number of one-make classes, one of these being the Ferraris. The weekend was billed as "La vie en Bleu" and was French themed with a number of very interesting French things about, including cars like Bugatti Veyrons (German) and Ayrton Senna's Lotus Renault 98T (English), but at least no Jaguars (Indian). The Veyrons and the Lotus all undertook a generous number of demonstration runs.

John Bolster's legendary Shelsley Special "Bloody Mary" was there too. At first this seemed an odd choice as It's hard to think of anything less French or having much to do with Prescott, but the excellent programme did point out Bolster and the car's many connections with the venue. However, one couldn't help but think it had appeared a week too early and about 35 miles too far to the South East, but maybe this was due to the BOC being faster on their feet than the MAC.

You do have to give the Bugatti Owners' Club credit for their efforts in promoting the sport and attempting to make it attractive to as wide an audience as possible. One minor quibble is that the BOC has taken over the catering and the Orchard Restaurant has gone up-market. No-one wants a big lunch with claret at a race meeting nowadays, so consequently it was empty and there were long queues at the food kiosks where you had to pay £3.00 for a miserable little bacon bap; though as always at Prescott, there were some nice tarts.

On to the main business of the day and there was an excellent entry of 21 Ferraris. An interesting meeting was in prospect with the winners of the last two rounds, Nick Taylor and Chris Butler, both absent in Monte Carlo for the GP. Jon Goodwin's new 430 coupé was finally in full working order and duly appeared. One of his main reasons for chopping in his 430F1 cabrio against this manual car was to improve getaway times (never a bad thing in hillclimbing or when living in Stoke).

At Harewood two weeks previously John Marshall's 430F1 had about the same 1st 64ft time as the oldest tipo in the class - Jon Goodwin's 250GT Lusso. Here Gooders went one better and his 430 manual was actually slower over the distance than the oldest tipo - Colin Campbell's 246 Dino (2.99 secs vs. 2.95 secs)! Consequently there was much hilarity at Gooders' expense - but he did have the last laugh. There is no truth in the rumour that Ferrari GB were on the phone begging to buy the 430 back.

Pauline Goodwin (328 Mk.II) had an eventful practice, going straight off into the gravel trap at Pardon on P1 and almost repeated the process in P2. Husband Jon had an interesting time too. Having found that starting off in "Race" mode bogged the car down, he decided to try it in "CST" (all driver aids switched off). This was Clearly a Silly Thing, as the resultant sideways lurch on opening the throttle a bit too briskly on the exit of Orchard showed.

Other practice incidents included Tracey Haynes (328) going straight off at Semi-Circle. She said as she slid gently down the bank she wasn't worried as she remembered that the long grass had safely arrested a 328 in the same predicament some years before - and happily it did so again. Practice ended with Gooders comfortably in the lead with a 49.96 ahead of Dave Tomlin (355 - 51.04) and Mike Spicer (355 - 51.30) ahead of Richard Prior (348ts) on 51.51. Swifty was going well in his 355 with 52.43. Mrs Swift attributed this to the adrenaline surge caused by a late departure from Yorkshire that morning.

During the lunch break it emerged that Colin Campbell had come straight from Tesco and had taken his shopping for a run up the hill. This brought on other tales of piloti proudly driving their exotica round the Nordschleife and being passed by locals in Astra estates complete with shopping, kids, dogs etc.. Finally, after interminable queuing for butties, and being distracted by the wildly unsuitable but beautiful and very skillfully driven Lotus 98T, it was time for the first competition run.

Colin Campbell (and shopping) led them away. Wendy-Ann Marshall (328) was next up, recording her best time of the day, 58.83. Tracey Haynes made it home safely, then it was Ed Briscoe, who either wasn't braking, or whose brake lights weren't working. Andrew Holman was in Mad Dog mode with all sorts of bizarre things going on in and around Ettores.

Charles Haynes' first run time of 56.68 was his best in his 348GTC and he was headed by the similar tipo of Ricardo Preece, who took a wide entry to Pardon on his way to a fine 52.23, also beating Swifty and Phil Whitehead's 355s, but Whitehead did get him on his second run.

Mike Spicer (355) was trying hard, taking a wide line into Ettores and stopping the clock on 51.69 to take the class lead. John Marshall was next up in the first of the 430s, looking a bit "tippytoes" but its grunt being noticeable on the squirt out of Pardon, his 52.20 was his best competition run, though not his best of the weekend. Richard Prior always goes well at Prescott, took a very late and deep entry to Ettores then rattled it over the kerbs on the inside, driving hard and well to take the lead from Spicer with a 51.28. Geoff Dark (355) was in the 51s, but the veteran could not match Prior or Spicer.

Dave Tomlin took a particularly novel approach to Pardon. Despite (because?) of this he still took second from Spicer by three hundredths. Finally, it was time for Gooders. It looked very under control round Orchard. Unlike most, he got the braking for Ettores over before turning in to the corner, rattled it over the inside kerbs, but ran slightly wide before blasting up to Pardon, touching the rev-limiter on the way. The car grounded slightly in the hairpin bend and hesitated momentarily on the exit. I wasn't sure it it would be good enough, but then came the time 48.87! Nearly 2½ seconds quicker than anyone else, the first 48 second run up Prescott, which knocked 0.49 seconds off Jon's own record set in 2002.

The day had grown noticeably colder and windier by the time the second runs came around, but Tracey Haynes still managed to knock a tenth off. Ed Briscoe made a huge improvement of the best part of four seconds to record a 57.87, this was within three-tenths of Sean Doyle's second run, but he had already comfortably won the battle of the GT4s.

Peter Rogerson was next up with the lid on his 355GTS this time. I suspect this was for comfort rather than performance reasons, but nevertheless he improved to 53.90. Peter Wilson improved too, as did Barrie Wood, but only by five-hundredths, which rather suggested that he'd come to the end of that particular lollipop. Mad Dog was due up next, but for some reason it was PG. She improved, but only a gnat's to 53.60; for her, this seemed to be one of those head-scratching weekends that everyone gets occasionally.

Swifty surpassed his practice form to break into the 51s, with a 51.95. Richard Preece displayed a phenomenon that a number seemed to share in seemingly being unable to unwind the lock fast enough on the exit of Ettores. However this was but nothing compared to his only just avoiding the Pardon gravel trap, virtually coming to a halt; still he will have been very happy with his first run time. Phil Whitehead looked to be apexing a bit early, but made a useful improved to 51.34.

Brian Jackson was clearly trying very hard in his 308, drifting right to the edge of the road on exiting Orchard. Brian's 308 is always smoothly and quickly driven, but the tipo is no longer a challenger for outright wins. However the combo are both highly competitive on PEPs as this run showed, the 52.35 taking the 15 points for third. Mike Spicer did well to improve to 51.05 which put him in second place. Richard Prior had other ideas about this and charged up the hill. All was well until a screech of tyres in the Esses. It later emerged that he'd got it sideways in the first Ess then got into a tank-slapper in the second. He did well to recover it, especially as the time was an improvement to 51 seconds dead.

Geoff Dark was pressing on and his outside wheels touched the grass on the exit of Orchard; he kept it all together, but understandably was slower. Dave Tomlin improved to 51.22, unique line at Pardon an' all. Gooders was marginally slower, but still in the 48s. It was noticeable that he had to give the brakes a good dab before the right-hander after Pardon, the powerful 430 clearly moving very fast. Last up was Andrew Holman. His alternator warning light had been on all day and when it was his turn to go his 348 just wouldn't start. He was saved by someone with a portable jump-starter and was allowed to run last. His run was noticeably tidier and his reward - an excellent 50.89, a full second under his previous best and second place overall.

There were close battles throughout the field, as you can see by the new "Gap" column in the results below, but it does show that Jon Goodwin and 430 were over two seconds clear. In addition to the class win and the record, Gooders took the maximum points and the Handicap Award. It was clear from Prescott that with nearly 500bhp on tap, the tipo is shatteringly fast, but has to be treated with respect. I think it'll be some time before anyone realizes its full potential. However, I do agree with the Editor of this website that we've witnessed the dawn of a new era for the PFHC, with the goalposts being moved enormously.

Lest owners of other tipi get too depressed, this is of course why we have PEPs and why the Championship is decided by them, Gooders actually taking maximum points in consecutive meetings with the oldest and newest tipi in the Series! Andrew Holman's PEPs time was just three-tenths off Gooders' and with the 17 points he scored he grabbed the Championship lead. As we've said before, this is going to be an interesting year.