The first Harewood traditionally marks the point in the PFHC season
when more people join in. This was true of Chris Butler (355), who was
expected
to be right in contention for the outright win. Christian Mineeff brought
out his 360 and Peter Rogerson was making his first competition appearance
in his recently acquired Tour de France blue example of the same tipo.
Joe Billingham’s 360, resplendent on its smart Challenge-type
wheels made another appearance, although it was a close thing. Gooders had dragged Lucy out of the garage but the old girl was clearly reluctant and conked out on the way up. Jon summoned the RAC, who now have a dedicated Goodwin Section, to take them home whereupon he switched to PG’s 550 Maranello which just happened to be the one nearest the door. That car’s former owner, Richard Allen, also experienced mechanical difficulties en route with his 355, and he elected to go to the Club’s Spring Picnic at Burghley House instead. There were a few smart remarks about preferring posing to racing but all recognised that it was closer to his home and perhaps, as Club Chairman, that was where he really ought to be. Another absentee was of course Mad Dog Holman, pining in his kennel at home and still without a replacement for the 348 which ceased to be at Bouley Bay.
It was bright and breezy for practice, with Christian Mineeff quickest in P1 with a 68.09, but he dropped to third after P2 behind an on-form Nick Taylor (348GTC) and Chris Butler. There was much of the usual banter at lunchtime; in the absence of Dave Tomlin, Phil Whitehead was standing in as 355 Complaints Spokesperson. Surprisingly, he was complaining about one of their own! Over the winter, Chris Butler has somehow managed to lose weight and must be about 8st. wringing wet. This is not fair to those with a proper sportscar driver’s figure and it was suggested that ballast would be a much better system than PEPs. One tiny drawback to this system would be that, even if John Marshall and Sean Doyle were the same weight, the 430 Scud would have to carry over a tonne of ballast to be on the same power-to-weight ratio as the GT4. Phil had obviously got the hang of the role, as he claimed one run had been spoiled as his bonnet was slightly open. Mike Spicer joined in with the complaint that at Bouley Bay, the nail Richard Prior picked up on one run would have given him greater purchase on the track. Finally Mackenzie Clark (DC6) spotted that one 355 was itself whining, but that turned out to be the fuel pump as the ignition had been inadvertently left on by Swifty. My normal technique for reporting these events is to observe the derring-do intensely and record my observations using a Dictaphone for later analysis and scribbling. The practice at Harewood of running three cars at a time makes this difficult enough, but a high wind and a constant stream of fatuous remarks broadcast loudly by the comedy commentators made it nigh-on impossible. This was annoying, as hillclimbing is a serious business which must always be treated with gravitas. However, I’ll do me best. Commentary apart, this is a wonderful venue in the most striking of settings and it’s a glorious sight as the cars stream up the hill. Sean Doyle was on suicide watch after practice after recording a 97.56, where I assume he must have gone off, and a 79.73. There was some talk of his rolling across the start line beam on this run, but the 64ft time does not bear this out. Anyway, Uncle Mike Spicer offered emergency counselling during the lunchtime and all was well for R1, Sean recording a 73.50 with a typically hard-working run, this being nearly 1.5 seconds quicker than his previous personal best here. Peter Rogerson’s first run of 81.30 was his best, as was the next runner, Pauline Goodwin stopping the clocks on 70.27. This was one-hundredth slower than her previous best and she failed to improve on her next run, so there will have been some stamping of competitive little feet back at Goodwin Towers. Nevertheless she will have been happy to beat Richard Preece in his 348GTC. He claimed that the car still isn’t quite right after the clutch change saga. Funny how clutch seals never seem to “bed in”, no matter how often we’re told they will.... Geoff Dark was the first to break the 70 second barrier, his 69.79 proving to be his best run in his 355, but the next runner John Swift had an unfortunate accident at the first corner when his 355 hit the barriers very hard. Shaken but unharmed he reported that the throttles had stuck wide open. After a lengthy delay while all this was sorted out Richard Prior was next but relatively slow on a 69.26. He attributed this to “crap driving”, but his turn was to come. Christian Mineeff took a comfortable lead in his 360 with a 67.66. He recorded a 0-64ft time of 2.23 seconds, which we believe to be an all-time PFHC best. Mind you, after years of juggling Formula 1 Judd power he ought to be able to make a decent start! Next we had the diversion of the Scuderia Goodwin 550, which puts one in mind of one of those Edwardian racers, a massive, unwieldy engine with a couple of bucket seats bobbing along behind it. Gooders’ 69.66 was his best of the weekend. He and Mineeff simultaneously came up with an addition to the “Racing Drivers’ Book of Excuses”. The delay caused by the earlier Swift incident had caused their ASRs to re-set themselves into the “on” position. They claimed that this had caused their cars to pause significantly on their runs as the gizmology interfered with the workings. It does seem that the demands of hillclimbing are too much for these electronic systems. They seem to say "You want to do what? At this speed? Well you can forget that!". Mineeff’s lead lasted for as long as it took the next-but-one car to come up. Nick Taylor’s run in his 348GTC looked good, quick and “connected up” with no visible undue pauses or slow bits. Chris Butler could not match this; undoubtedly match rusty in his first competitive appearance of the year. Finally, trouser-twinges abounded as John Marshall unleashed the magnificent 430 Scuderia up the hill. At 86mph it was 9mph up on Taylor through the speed trap, but the time was only good enough for fourth. There was bad weather blowing up as the day went on and when the sun went in it was cold, but nevertheless a good many improved on Run 2. The first of these was the first away, Wendy Ann Marshall in her 328, now back to ordinale specification. Julian Playford got to the top this time in his 355 to open his account as a Ferrari competitor. Jonathan Billingham improved to 73.18 in his second ever PFHC event, a tenth or so ahead of Tracey Haynes. Her 328 was much more responsive with its new suspension and she was tending to overdrive, but her 73.28 was a good half-second under her previous best, with undoubtedly more to come as she gets used to it. Brian Jackson improved to 70.21 which translated to fourth on PEPs. Richard Prior bolted his roof on, girded his loins and made a much better job of his second run, knocking off over a second and a half to get comfortably into the 67s. Phil Whitehead put in a stormer to record 67.44, which moved him ahead of Mineeff, who did improve his time but not by enough. Nick Taylor was slower too, but Chris Butler improved, carrying a lot of speed into the entrance to Quarry and dipping under the 67 second mark to take the lead with a 66.94. All eyes were then on the last car to run, the 430 Scud. This thing just accelerates so fast! This is clearly not just down to the 510bhp; it puts the power down well too, John being on the throttle early in Farmhouse Bend and one wonders how much this has to do with the List 1B tyres which are standard on this tipo, whereas everyone else has to run on List 1A tyres. It certainly looks much better than a normal 430. John improved to 67.14. The sky gradually darkened and there where a few spots of rain. Most were understandably cautious on their third runs and as it turned out over-so, as Mike Spicer actually improved. Languishing down in fifth place Mineeff gave it his all but after what looked like a perfect and quick run he got a "no time" and when he went for his re-run the Heavens opened leaving him to splash sadly home. So Chris Butler took the scratch win from John Marshall and Nick Taylor. Butler was third on PEPs and Taylor second, but it was Richard Prior who took the maximum points for the second meeting in a row to open up an early lead in the championship. Next Round: Prescott May 23rd. Dedication Click here for Sector Times. 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. |
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