Widely regarded as the finest and most exhilarating hill in the country, Doune is a heck of a long way north! The Ferraris had been there only twice before, in 1991 and 2004 (when only three made the journey), but this time thirteen drivers reported for duty on a weekend when the weather forecast for Sunday was dire…..

The longest journey was that of Barrie Wood who did 520 miles each way in his 308 from the south coast and whilst some in 355s and a 430 had creature comforts like aircon, Jon Goodwin’s Lucy the 250 Lusso rattled up from Staffordshire with nary a thought to modern conveniences and other such decadent paraphernalia. The championship rules prohibit trailering to the meetings, the cars need to be driven on the road, and this gave Richard Allen a bit of a problem. His 328 had raced at nearby Knockhill circuit the fortnight before and it had been trailered up all the way up from Suffolk, so to comply with the spirit of the hillclimb rules he ditched the trailer miles away and drove the circuit racer the rest of the way on the road. He’s hard….

The fine entry included the three who had been to Doune for the 2004 event, Chris Butler (355), Richard Prior (348) and Jon Goodwin, and they had a clear advantage for the first practice runs up this difficult-to-learn hill with its very quick but blind corners. The bottom half of the hill needs much bravery and commitment to produce a decent time, and there’s no view around the corners that hide behind very solid barriers and stone banking. Uniquely at this venue, newcomers are driven up in road cars by experienced Dounatics to at least give them some knowledge before they start the serious stuff.

There was plenty of practice available, the plan being to have four runs on the Saturday with another one on Sunday morning before the racing itself started with two further runs. But where was the 355 of Peter Rogerson? Still on the way , it turns out, apparently some Yorkshire activity called Rugby League had taken place the night before which couldn’t be missed so he didn’t set off till Sat morning.

It was Wendy-Ann Marshall in the family 430 that led practice away but it was clear that Chris Butler was using all his previous knowledge and he stayed in front all day long. Compared to the Ferrari record of 54.50 secs (Jon Goodwin/355) he reeled off an impressive set of times, 56.74, 55.60 and then 53.72 which caused the others a bit of head-scratching. But there were two big surprises in practice: the first was the pace of Doune debutant ‘Adrian’ Holman (348) who took the second quickest time of the day, just a microsecond ahead of Prior’s 348, and the second was the speed with which Gooders was thrashing Lucy up the hill! He was barely behind the other three on scratch times, and by the time the infamous Lusso PEP of -7% had been applied, which would give him about another 3.5 secs, he would walk away with the 20 points with one arm behind his back.

Rogerson eventually turned up to do his practice runs, whilst Richard Allen opened his glasses case prior to his first run to discover it was empty. A quick sprint through the paddock retrieved his specs, but he could then see that his 328 had no timing beam, so there was another sprint back to the toolbox to get a spanner. And all that at his age….. The wonderful 430 of John and Wendy Marshall looked alarmingly wide for the track so had its wing mirrors folded back just in case it got stuck, and all the Ferraris acquitted themselves well with only a few scares but no incidents to report. Sure, some were being circumspectly driven but at the sharp end there was going to be some hot racing on the Sunday when it really mattered.

As this meeting was also a round of the British Hillclimb Championship we all took the opportunity of watching the top single-seaters do their practice runs – and it was just unbelievable as the likes of Graeme Wight Jnr and Martin Groves hurtled up the hill in their F1-powered machines, full aerodynamics glueing the cars to the track. Roger Moran mentioned that he was pulling in excess of 125 mph through the bottom part of the track , around the Oak Tree corner – and we were standing just 3 or 4 yards away. Respec.

Saturday night brought an excellent Ferrari dinner at the nearby Dunblane Hydro with the cars lined up outside, all organised by Chris Butler, and whilst the drivers tried to impress our new Dutch friends in the chat-up stakes (unsuccessfully) the hangers on propped up the bar and methodically worked through, from left to right, the single malts. Was this because by now it had started chucking it down with rain outside….?

It was awful on Sunday morning, water and rain everywhere, but there was serious business to be done and at 9.30am the morning practice run began. The surprise was that Butler was only fourth, whilst ahead of him the order was Prior (58.40), Holman (58.42) and Lucy (58.47). Lucy?? Gooders reckoned that the narrow and modestly-powered tipo was ideal for the wet track and we began to wonder whether we would see the upset of the year.

Then, finally, it was time for racing – and it was still raining. Doune in the dry is awesome enough but in the wet it is very special indeed!

Wendy took the 430 up first, recording 77.37 secs, but the times quickly came tumbling down. Rogerson did a 75.70, clearly trying hard Phil Whitehead (355) took it down to 59.75 and then Allen set an excellent 59.29. Barry Wood was a little cautious in the awful conditions to set 65.29, but John Shirley, running as a guest driver because his modified 355 was not within the regulations, joined the quick brigade with 60.22. The hugely powerful 430 of John Marshall came next and John did well in this pristine car to slither up in 66.10, no doubt with every electronic gizmo turned up full blast.

Then came a fabulous run from Butler, very fast and committed through the bottom section, but at East Brae he slid off, put all four wheels on the grass – and continued to still set a class-leading time of 57.14. Pauline Goodwin was next in her 328, very brave in the conditions, to set an excellent 60.28 just as the rain increased in intensity. Next up were Prior and Holman, both needing front-running times, but would the worsening conditions spoil it? Prior, his 348’s engine spluttering a little, could ‘only’ do a 58.50, more than a second behind Butler, but Holman gave it all and stopped the clock at 58.22 – second place so far. Then we had Gooders in the Lusso, and we were all waiting with bated breath, but as Lucy hove into view she had clearly picked up a misfire and to make it worse she then went off at East Brae and recorded a time of only 62.40 which wouldn’t even be enough for the PEPs win. The final runner was Mike Spicer in his 355 who splashed up in 61.78 to put himself squarely into the tight midfield. Much would depend on the second runs!

During the interval the rains eased, there was even some sunshine about and the track started drying, but then another sharp shower left the Ferrari boys and gals facing a wet track again, albeit a little less so than the first time. Butler continued where he had left off, took nearly another second off his previous time, and left it to Prior and Holman to see what they could do in response. Prior gave it everything but his still fluffing engine held him back; despite knocking more than a second off his first-run time he stayed behind Butler although he moved up into second slot. Then it was Holman’s turn and his run looked the quickest of all but at the final corner, just before the finish, he clobbered the barrier first on one side and then on the other and, although he continued, the time was gone and he had to be content with third place from his previous run.

Allen was another who looked extremely quick, knocked three-quarters of a second off his first time, but just failed to catch Holman and had to be content with fourth. John Shirley was also quicker on his second run and finished fifth, but Gooders’ Lucy engine was by now sounding very off-song and although he dipped into the 59s it was only good enough for 6th on scratch but a very easy PEPs win. Whitehead and PG brought up the next places, with the times in this midfield bunch very closely matched.

Jon Goodwin in both his 430 and the Lusso has now taken the maximum 20 points at all the four events he has entered, but his 13 points for fourth place have given Holman the lead again at the top of the championship table. Until they start dropping points after 8 rounds it’s all a bit academic at present, but when you look at the averages they have scored so far the championship looks like it’s going to revolve around Goodwin, Tomlin, Holman and Butler. But at least two of these are being distracted by circuit racing…..

Next Round: Longleat 6 July

Click here for the (unofficial) results and Championship positions.

Click here for the (unofficial) cumulative Championship scores.

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

Here they all are :

Scottish sun glinting

Wendy-Ann shows just what a tight squeeze it was for the 430!

Peter Rogerson had rugby on his mind

John Marshall's wide 430 pleased the spectators

520 road miles and then this: Barrie Wood

Mike Spicer heads up the steep East Brae

PG blasts it onto the final straight

Phil Whitehead was part of the tight midfield bunch

Gooders at one time nearly caused the upset of the year

Diving into the Esses - guest driver John Shirley

RA set some splendid times for a Doune newbie

Another newbie, 'Adrian' Holman got caught by the difficult hill

Richard Prior reliably led the pursuit of the winner....

...but it was Chris Butler who kept it all together for the win

You can see why the lower part of the hill is described as a "plank-lined trench"

The wonderful blast across the Meadow

View of the paddock

The Ferraris return there

Third placed Holman (centre) is back in the lead of the Championship, Winner Butler to his left. Prior (right) was second

Graeme Wight Jnr. and others reminded us how awesome top-level hillclimbing can be

Pics by Scuderia Fotografia, Andrew & Yvonne Holman, CMDigicams & PG