ROUND 11 : CURBOROUGH : 16 AUGUST 2009
by Graham Easter |
As is right and proper the Curborough double-lapper, the most demanding round of the Club's hillclimb championship, was preceded by a test day. Most of the usual suspects were there though Chris Butler and the Goodwins were notable by their absence, the last two had been away terrorising Europe in their Rolls Royce Phantom. Also absent was John Marshall so we did not get a clue how the 430 Scuderia might perform before the event.
I had the privilege of a number a rides around the course. Richard Prior displayed great car control as he wheel-twirled his way round in his 348ts. As you might expect, Nick Taylor's GTC was stiffer and taughter, but still quite sideways. Christian Mineeff's 360 felt bulkier, was smoother, but broke away quite suddenly and Andrew Holman's 355 felt the best of the lot, well balanced, nimble and riding the kerbs well; you can quite see why many regard this (Scuds apart) as the best hillclimb tool. In reality, these test days are of limited use because warm tyres and brakes distort the picture, but everyone had a lot of fun.
The event itself attracted the magnificent entry of 22, including the return of Scuderia Hitchman, Pa and Chris in the former's classic Mondi t and Lorraine in her 328 which had done 3 miles in the last two years. This meant we had four ladies competing, but only had 3½ of our married couples competing as Charles Haynes was absent. The Preeces had had a torrid time getting to Curborough as their 348GTC was attacked by a suicide fox, the impact with which broke the front splitter and lifted the car right up, they also encountered a cyclist on the wrong side of the road and someone reversing down the A38 slip road!
Wendy Ann Marshall (328) looked to be going quickly in P1 and it proved a little too quick as she had a big spin. In P2 Lorraine Hitchman shimmied her way round the Mole Hill before falling off and Tracey Haynes (328) had the embarrassment of going off after the finishing line! As there was a smallish entry there was plenty of time for a third practice run which was a shame as most would have preferred it to be a third competitive run
At Curborough, often the harder you try the slower you go. Most did set their best practice time on P3, but it's interesting that a number of the quicker runners, including Messrs. Mineeff, Butler (355) and Taylor set theirs on P1; all were in the 63s, with Nick Taylor's 63.16 the best of all. Ominously, also in the 63s was John Marshall. He had overshot the corner at the end of the straight on P2, as the 430 Scud's brakes are so powerful it is a very fine line between braking too early and too late.
The weather was breezy but sunny and there's a good chuck wagon at Curborough, so after a mountain of chips had been consumed all were in a good mood to go racin'. Wendy led the field away and delivered her usual competent and tidy run. She was quicker than Lorraine Hitchman, who was still feeling her way back in. She locked up her brakes at the end of lap 1, but looked quicker on lap 2. Peter Hitchman went quicker than his daughter-in-law
and his 70.96 was to be his best time. Sean Doyle (GT4) was trying very hard, taking lots of kerb, had an oversteering lurch out of the top corners and lots of opposite lock at the end of lap 1.
It was nice to see Pete Wilson (348tb) out for the first time since Round 1, his 74.58 was to be his best of the day. Tracey Haynes had led the Tartaruga Club [story soon Ed.] in practice with a 69.71, but when I congratulated her she said it was by no means over as "Mr Pastry" (Sergio Ransford) was a notorious sandbagger in practice. She was spot-on in this as she went slower (70.90) and Sergio was noticeably more aggressive in his 308 than her and popped in a 69.57 to take the lead of the group!
Peter Rogerson had recorded a 68.96 in practice but could not repeat it, despite leaning on the ABS at the end of lap 1. Jeff Cooper's 360 looked brisker than Peter's and he improved substantially to 67.15 to win the battle of the 360F1s as neither would improve. Pauline Goodwin was a bit sideways out of the Mole Hill and locked the brakes on her 328 going into the top corner and once she got on the grass it was all over and she ending up in a ditch; this meant that all of our ladies went off in the course of this meeting!
Richard Preece was going hard in his Reynard-modified car with a bit of a rear-end flick going into the Mole Hill on lap 2, and sure enough his 66.01 took the class lead until Phil Whitehead (355) came along, that is. His run was smooth and fast especially through the fast corners and with moderate use of the kerbs. His 64.59 beat his personal best by 1½ seconds, which must have made up for his footie team Everton Rovers being thrashed 6:1 by Arsenal Athletic (or something) the day before.
Jon Goodwin was in the 550M and the big car looked surprisingly "wieldy" on this tight venue, the fast corners flowing nicely and with controlled oversteer out of the slow ones. I reckon his was the best drive of the first runs. Richard Prior missed a gear and was off the pace with a 66.45. Andrew Holman missed a gear too and must have been disappointed with his 64.92, a bit slower than in practice, though he had gone off in P3. Mike Spicer (355) was yet another to miss a gear and he too suffered the "Curse of Curborough" and his time of 64.64 was his best competition run, but slower than P2.
Richard Allen (355) won the single-lapper meeting here at the end of 2008, so he must have been frustrated with his 66.07. He locked-up going into the hairpin at the end of Lap 1 and had a big slide on the exit. Nick Taylor knew he could win the 2009 Championship here. He was very fast in the fast bits and duly took the lead with a 63.51, which he held as Mineeff only got a 64.06, going very wide out of the Top. Butler took less kerb than Mineeff but was wide out of the Top too on his way to 63.76. John Marshall recorded an identical time to Mineeff! The Preece laptop soon revealed that Nick's time meant he had the 20 points and with them the Championship - for now.
The second runs soon rolled around but in the meantime we enjoyed the antics of various Reliant Scimitars rocketing round the course like turbocharged roller skates. I think one took FTD with a low 60 second run. Back with the Ferraris, Wendy and Lorraine both improved. Peter Hitchman got into a tank-slapper around the Mole Hill and spun on the exit. Sean Doyle improved to 70.25. Pete Wilson spun on the entry to the Mole Hill. Tracey's rear end proved a bit wayward round the Mole Hill on Lap 2. Sergio was slightly slower than R1, but won the Tartaruga class yet again. After the 360F1 duo, PG got round OK this time, carrying good speed round the Mole Hill and taking a tight line round the Top. Her 68.35 gave her the "classic" class win again.
Richard Preece improved to 65.66, despite overshooting the corner at the end of Lap 1; this was surely his best drive of the year. As usual, Chris was the fastest Hitchman, getting the Mondi smoothly round in just under the 70 second mark at 69.96. Richard Preece was delighted to beat RA, though the latter did improve to
65.72. Richard Prior, though, just escaped from Preece's clutches with his 65.37. Gooders improved to 63.99 and Holman set his best time of the day with a 64.13. Nick Taylor was slower on 64.03 and next came Christian Mineeff.
This
run was much different to the one previous, being noticeably smoother and using the kerbs a lot less, but would it be quicker? The answer was yes, the clock stopping on 63.50 to give him the lead from Taylor by just one-hundredth of a second!
Afterwards he said that after R1 he'd had a think and realised that he'd got to concentrate on getting out of the slow corners more cleanly. Christian said that the 360 has a very narrow "operating window", which it's easy to fall out of. Chris Butler went slightly slower than R1, then all eyes were on the mighty Scud. It turned out that on his first run he'd accidentally changed up in the top corner. There was no such mistake this time. The run looked good, John using the power and grip well. There was a little wiggle out of the Top before the car rocketed down the straight and over the line at 102 mph to stop the clock on 62.48. This gave John the win by over a second and broke yet another class record! This left Mineeff second and Taylor third.
His first run time and 20 points therefrom meant that Nick Taylor could not now be beaten to the 2009 Championship. His is a well deserved and popular Championship, his third. He realised early-on that the competition had hotted-up a lot this year and did something about it, having the GTC set-up to eliminate its inherent understeer. He also dedicated himself to the Championship, doing all of the rounds and avoiding the distraction of the dreaded roundy-roundy. Finally, he said that on the test day he had realised that calmer was faster round Curborough and so it proved. All of the above meant he beat his personal best at this course by 1.39 seconds to take his fifth 20 points of the season. Congratulations!
Back home, the PFHC points spreadsheets (unofficially) confirmed that Nick could not now be beaten and revealed that Chris Butler, who finished fourth overall, had the 17 points. Jon Goodwin bagged the 15 points for third despite the handicap of the reigning Champion's +1%. The over-keen PEPs mean that the Scud was way down in 10th place on points. This meeting begged a few questions:
- With the mighty Scud leaving other runners reeling in its wake, should they be allowed to use the same List 1B tyres (with a suitable PEP) in order to try to prevent their total anihilation in outright wins?
- Is it right that the car that wins outright should do so poorly in the Championship?
- How fast can it go?
- Had the absent Swifty been properly abducted by aliens this time?
- Have they taken Tommo too?
Finally, as the Hillclimb Tipster said. "This year has seen a spectacular upping of the game in this Championship; take Curborough for instance, out of the top 11 runners 9 beat their personal best!" Four of these were in a different tipo, but it gives some idea of the competitiveness of the Series.
Click here to go in-car with Reynard Preece.
Click here for
the (unofficial) results and points.
Click here for the (unofficial) Championship positions.
Click here to return
to the Pirelli Ferrari Hillclimb Championship page.
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pics by Dave Clark (mostly), Andrew Holman, CMDigicams, Graham Easter, Liz Malone & Stephen Grounds |
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