Report - Round 9 - 2008 Pirelli Ferrari Hillclimb Championship - Club Racing Series'

The conditions on the drive from Oxfordshire to Longleat were so bad that I knew this would be one of the wettest meetings at which we’d ever competed. The forecast got it spot on, so it really wasn't a surprise. Anyone who forgot their umbrella or turned up wearing flip- flops couldn't accuse Michael Fish of misreading his seaweed.

Longleat has one of the few grassed paddock areas remaining on the calendar (you can’t blame Lord Bath for not tarmacing over his front lawn just for us) but unfortunately it was turning to a mud bath on arrival, and the Hippopotami in the lake were looking interested in joining us.

Signing on gave us temporary shelter from the rain, but trying to apply race numbers to already wet car doors while the rain fell made for some real comedy moments. Two of our class were to lose them during practice despite best efforts with industrial strength gaffer tape.

Understandably the organising club wanted to get underway as soon as possible and, eager as ever, Andrew Holman joined the queue to paddock exit while most of the other drivers were still grumbling about the drizzle. The first practice was a complete lottery to judge where there was standing water or how green the surface was. But Mad Dog lived up to his name and turned out to be the most fearless in P1 on 52.48, due partly to having his 'extreme wets' on his 348 or maybe just in a hurry to experience the novelty of what a view from the top of the hill looks like (they're denied this this pleasure in East Anglia..!)

After a few more had gone up there was a gap in the proceedings and we thought maybe another of our lot had gone off due to some reckless speed on the soaking wet course, but eventually the Dino of Colin Campbell appeared over the Horizon. He clocked up 120.78 seconds, slow by Colin's standards, but he confessed to losing sight of the track, partly due to the bad weather, and partly due to the demisting fan not working on the windscreen. He was sure he went off the track somewhere, but couldn't tell on which corner as ""they all looked the same". This caused the red flags to come out for Pauline following too closely behind in her 328, but it could have been a rare overtaking manoeuvre for a hillclimb event.

Barrie Wood had the fastest 0-64ft time of 3.03 and the other end of the scale was Jeff Cooper with the 360 Modena's unrestrained power and zero grip, it was hard to tell if he was moving away from the start line at all. At 5.13 seconds this could be a new record for 64ft!

The rain eased off, then started again, then changed its mind once more, and even some blue sky could be seen in the distance. So with a drier track in front of them everybody reduced their times. Barrie Wood lost his race numbers when the tape gave up the ghost at the first corner, Colin Campbell understandably made the best improvement, taking almost 30 seconds off his previous run and Holman had the best 0 to 64ft with 2.95 seconds but Tomlin (355) had a ¼ second lead over him by the finish, with 48.23.

There were only two other drivers below 50 seconds, Geoff Dark and Chris Butler who were in 3rd and 4th place on 50.51 and 50.62 respectively.

The organisers announced the lunch break just as the sun appeared again and the track looked in great condition for the competitive runs, but surprisingly (and a little worryingly) the PA system announced it would be almost 2 hours until the restart. Apparently this was to allow the flag Marshals to get dried out and whilst we sympathised with this most of us felt it would be more beneficial to get on with the meeting proper as soon as possible with the weather being so changeable.

So we all planned our leisurely lunch break, some in the restaurant under his Lordship’s house, and others tried a record attempt to see how many hillclimbers you can get in Sally Maynard-Smith’s Mini to watch the start of the British Grand Prix. As the race reached the 2nd lap the storm broke yet again in Wiltshire, and it was torrential! The PA system again crackled into life and the officials of Woolbridge had realised their mistake and decided (but too late) to bring the start of the afternoon runs forward 15 minutes.

Once again we remounted our steeds, returned to the start line, and the rain persisted. Jeff Cooper did well to stay on the track and record his fastest time of the day on 53.17. Adrian Holman was slower than P2 but was happy to be sub 50 seconds in the wettest conditions of the day.

Nick Taylor followed, but was consistently slower than Mad Dog on the 64ft and split, and crossed the finish line on 49.87. David Tomlin was next but couldn’t match the pace of the two 348s running ahead of him, despite having the fastest time to the halfway split.

Barrie Wood found good traction off the line and crossed the first 64ft in 2.90 and went quicker in the 355 than in the morning session on 50.33, and Geoff Dark had his similar tipo on top form to sneak in with 49.95 and currently 3rd place.

Gooders also improved on practice, with a terrific run in Lucy and 51.76 seconds, but more importantly had the best PEP time thus far. Mrs Gooders also brought her time down to 52.85 and Brian Jackson inproved to 51.94 in ‘Bob’. Richard Prior just managed to pip him by a cruel 0.02 of a second, and Andy Grier tried hard but couldn’t match PG in the only other 328 and settled for 53.80.

So far Holman’s run was looking surprisingly secure at the top of the score sheet, with Nick Taylor and Geoff Dark in 2nd and 3rd place respectively, with only 2 more runners to go…

Chris Butler doesn’t give up easily, and despite an off at this track last year could still have done enough to take the win away from Holman. He was almost a second ahead at the split and by the time he had crossed the finish line he was down to 47.82, and fastest of the lot. Colin Campbell was the final runner, (0-64 ft identical to Prior’s and faster than Jon Goodwin’s) he took the Dino up in 69.79 seconds, with no misty moments this time.

As we assembled in the top paddock, no-one left their cars. We stayed in the dry, but other competitors in their open-topped Locaterfields weren’t so lucky and just had to grin and bear it.

On return to our parking spaces in the main paddock we were informed that the Clerk of the Course was inspecting the track to see if conditions were still safe for racing. An anxious 5 minutes passed before the loudspeakers announced the meeting had been abandoned. There was standing water on the lower parts of the course and streams running across the tarmac further up and it was deemed too dangerous to continue.

This meant no official results would be issued as not all of the competitors in the programme had completed their first official timed runs. So, no trophies would be presented and most frustratingly of all, there could be no Championship points awarded for the Ferraris. . A washout in more ways than one….