Report - Round 2 - 2009 Pirelli Ferrari Hillclimb Championship - Club Racing Series'

Bouley Bay is a beautiful rocky inlet vying for attention amongst several others on the north coast of the Channel Island of Jersey. What makes it different from the others is its dual function as an occasional hillclimb track with its winding road up from the picturesque harbour and as such forms a perfect setting for the start of the more social part of the hillclimb calendar that seems like a million miles away from the last bleak venue.

Good Friday saw 16 Ferraris make the rather rolly 4 ½ hour crossing from Poole on the fast Seacat. These were made up of 12 competitors and the ever keen Anglian Supporters Club that included Ian Button’s 355 and Bob Holmes’s 328. Other spectators included the Club's Finance Director John Warner & wife Jenny, the Smeeths in their blue 550, the Skinners who managed to get over without breaking down at the port this time, and guest motors included a Maserati Quattroporte (2 door) and the Secretarial Alfa of Peter & Suzanne Everingham (2 speeda wipers).

As usual, Jon Goodwin was making a late dash over on the Sunday in his wife’s silver 550; due to his usual diary clash with some (allegedly) good looking point-to-pointers back home. We think he means the human kind, not the hay-burners.

Following the conversion of the group's usual hotel to apartments, our intrepid expedition needed new accommodation and quickly settled into the Pontac House overlooking St Clements Bay. Kindly sourced by the aforementioned equine socialite, happily this was not a stable and was conveniently situated on the south coast, which enabled a drive of suitable length in which to warm the cars before the competition.

After squeezing into the car park, Saturday saw much car washing following the rain most had encountered on the trip down. Sunday involved a trip up to the Bay for an enjoyable lunch at the Waters Edge Hotel, with a stunning view over the sea. This enabled our competitors to remind themselves of the public road that would be closed the following day for the event.

Despite gloomy weather predictions dawn broke on Monday to see the sun in the sky, rising at the same time as the glorious sound of our competitors’ cars disturbing the early morning air in St Clements for a 7 am departure.

Once again the Ferrari paddock was at the top of the hill enabling the best view of the action - and conveniently adjacent to the burger van enabling our brave lads and lassies to maintain their necessary hillclimbers intake of bacon butties. This however didn't stop RA and Gooders from ordering a morning fry-up at the Waters Edge at the bottom of the hill and thus missing the drivers' briefing.....

Our group ran mid programme; locals only get one practice to remind them of this daunting hill, but the Ferrari Championship got 2 and these were made back-to-back with a quick turnaround at the top.

In practice Richard Prior set down his marker immediately with a strong 51.43 second run. John Marshall managed to overrun the top corner requiring use of reverse gear to get him back on track, after a close shave with the hard grass bank in his new weapon of choice – a 430 Scuderia. This left a large number of competitors and spectators waiting to see just how quick the Scud was going to be.

Marshalls had been talking up the superb abilities of the car and his admirers were split between those thinking he would take too much care to be quick and others believing he would walk away with the scratch win.The other cars were holding up well, Prior had managed to plug the nail hole in his rear tyre with a can of Halford’s foam, although question marks were raised over the new clutch of Richard Preece's GTC that seemed to have fluid dripping on it from the triple seals that were yet to fully "bed in" as his garage had promised.

A remarkably similar smell emanated from the fellow GTC of a determined Nick Taylor who, keen to make up for his lack of performance at North Weald, found his tyre warming antics had strained his worn clutch plates to a point where they were also showing signs of distress.

Everyone else managed the hill without incident and even the Spicer Shed (known locally as the Ferrari Shed) was left intact to hold garden machinery for another year, although it did look a little worse for wear as Mike found out when paying a sentimental visit, though on foot this time.

Second practice saw three cars break into the 50 seconds, Marshall and Taylor and Prior. We realized we were in for an exciting day when we realized Richard was under Gooders’ record time here with a stonking 50.12 run! I had been looking at the records on the ferry over and remember thinking we wouldn't see a 348 in that table ever again - just shows what I know. Everyone was going faster, notably Mike Spicer and Wendy cut 3 seconds off their times, although Holman only managed a small improvement.

There were several delays as the locals scattered bits of their cars around various corners of this unforgiving track, all accompanied by quips from the pair of local comedians commentating. These two had been fueled by an interview with PG who happened to mention Jon had pinched her 550 shopping trolley for the event, which set them speculating whether the car’s body roll was due to the champagne and caviar rolling about in the boot. Little did they realise it was actually brown ale and turnips.

The first competition run was squeezed in before lunch, pleasing the large crowd, most of whom were centered around the notorious Radio hairpin with its unforgiving rock wall on the outer face. We were all entertained by the local (Ford) Escorts that tried hard to see who could drift their rear end out closest to the wall.

The Ferrari fans saw Richard Prior almost repeating his practice form by putting in a time of 50.39, he was followed half a second later by the 355 of old hand RA on 50.93, Nick Taylor in the GTC on 51.04 and Mike Spicer's 51.06. Next came the mighty Scud, starting to show form in a well balanced performance from Marshall on 51.37, closely followed by the 348 of Holman 51.54, so all the top runners were within 0.6 of a second of each other and the mid field not so very far behind either. Geoff Dark (355) had improved to 52.61, Swifty was also just in the 52s in his 355 and Richard Preece was very pleased with his 53.03, especially as he was ahead on scratch of PG’s very respectable time of 53.73 in her 328. Bringing up the rear on her first visit to the hill Wendy managed a 61.70 in her 328.

The excitement was mounting; with no less than five previous and current Ferrari Hillclimb Champions competing, the day was set to be a very close fought contest indeed. The second run saw Prior’s 348 have a 'moment' during braking for Radio and he had to look through his side window for a while to regain his line. However, his look of mild panic didn't last long and he maintained his speed to clock a show stopping 49.84, that smashed Goodwin’s hill record in his old 355 and gave him what would surely be an unbeatable PEP (handicap) time of 48.84.

Taylor improved to 50.23 whilst Mad Dog Holman completed the 348 dominance with a 51.02, but next up was the Scud…. Having tested his braking zones, John was ready for a faster run and managed to be the second Ferrari ever up under 50 seconds, in fact finishing on exactly the same time as Richard! This was believed to be a first time we have had two drivers tie for the record. In this circumstance the honour goes to the driver with the next quickest run, so at this point Richard had it. But we had one more run to go...

Meanwhile, getting faster was Goodwin’s 550 although it seemed just too big for the hill and even this vastly experienced driver could not get his gearing right and exploit the power of this car. RA again went fast with a cracking sub 51 with Spicer only just behind. Taylor had leapt ahead of Holman into second place on PEP with a 50.23, however the mid-range pack were all a bit slower.And so the Ferrari contingent was led down to the bay for their final runs of the day. The crowd had applauded their efforts warmly and the commentary was more than a little appreciative of the spectacle being played out in front of them. I certainly couldn't think of any other form of motorsport where a new 430 Scuderia would be fighting hard to compete with a nearly 20 year old 348. Whilst both were in the hands of highly competent drivers, it has to be hats off to the twice champion Prior who showed just what a capable driver he is.

Wendy once again led the field away and managed to finish slightly slower on 61.82. Despite her double burn outs, Pauline was also slower on a 54.50 as was Preece on 53.69, Swift on 53.43, Dark on 53.14 and Spicer on 51.52.

Then it was Holman’s turn. The spectators are only inches away from the cars as they warm their tyres with nothing other than a plastic cone or two to separate them, MD managed to get a few running for cover as a rather large plume of rubber smoke blocked the afternoon sun. Unfortunately he pushed a little too hard on the fast right hander after Café corner and left the road coming to rest upside down in a small ditch alongside. He was completely unhurt but recovery of the car was going to take some time and, as this is public road that had to be re-opened at a certain time, any further racing racing was cancelled for the day. This meant the order from Run 2 remained unchanged with a historic return to form by Prior and a great first appearance of the Scuderia.

That night, socializing went on until very late.....