Report - Round 4 - 2009 Pirelli Ferrari Hillclimb Championship - Club Racing Series'

On 23 May the PFHC were attending Prescott Hillclimb, home of the Bugatti Owners' Club and birthplace of the FOC, high in the hills above Gotherington. This was the "La Vie en Bleu" meeting with lots of French cars and a general French theme befitting Bugatti. The warm sun and clear skies meant this was a highly enjoyable meeting and it was nice to see a few Ferraris in the car park and to meet their owners in the paddock, where all enjoyed the views and basked in the pleasant ambience.

A large contingent of Ferraris had entered - twenty in fact, with a couple dropping out, namely John Swift after his sticky throttle incident at Harewood and Peter Wilson for reasons unknown. Out (hopefully for him) for the last time in his 348GTC was Charles Haynes. Rumour has it he has sold the car bringing an end to the quartet of 348GTCs that graced the hillclimbs and sprints of the PFHC; the others belonging to Taylor, Preece and Shelsley specialist Andrew Duncan.

Near octogenarian Colin Campbell was first away with first practice, after he had eventually found his paddock slot , gunning the little Dino smoothly off the line. Cars ran slightly out of order in first practice as marshals shepherded cars to the start line haphazardly. Charles and Tracey Haynes (328) were next with Tracey pretty briskly up the track recording a 56.52 but Pauline Goodwin following was flying on a 52.93, a time already faster than her previous best with her 328 set nearly two years ago.

John Marshall was impressing the the younger element of the crowd with his 430 Scuderia who followed the car's movements around the paddock with their mobile phones. He also impressed us with his 50.22 first practice time! Tomlin (355), Prior (348ts) and Mineeff, out in his silver 360, were in the 51 second bracket just behind Geoff Dark and Phil Whitehead, who recorded similar times in their 355s. Geoff wrong-footed Andrew Holman, to whom Richard Prior had generously given a shared drive, by stopping at the finish line marshals' hut to ask where the timing display was! Andrew was red flagged and Geoff learned they had moved the time display to the return road, although it didn't work anyway.

Mike Spicer (355) showed us a clean pair of heels with 50.67, just a fraction off Chris Butler's 50.51 in his 355. Breezing through the lot of us and going faster than his previous best here was Nick Taylor on a 49.67, an amazing time for first practice and his first time under 50 seconds.

During the warm up for P2 it was noticed that Wendy's 328 was gushing steam from the rear. Examining the car the radiator was found to be cool, it seemed to be an air lock problem and after topping up and bleeding the system she was able to continue. Tracey's 328 was also stricken with the same problem later on in the day, which was cured in the same way. P2 started and Sean Doyle in his very well polished GT4 notched up 55.89 seconds, a good time for him and ahead of the Haynes duo. Phil Whitehead knocked nearly 2 seconds off his previous run and Richard Preece following also went faster by around 2 seconds.

Brian Jackson in the giallo 308 was already down to 53.22. Nick Taylor pushed on very confidently in his GTC hitting 69 MPH around Orchard and finishing the run at 49.23! Another fastest time for him. Talking later, he said the car had a new set of springs and had been properly set-up, so was handling much better than previously, the tipo's normal understeer having been eliminated. Chris Butler pressed on to record 50 seconds dead. Jon Goodwin in what is popularly referred to as "the wife's shopping car", the silver 550, was last away and recorded 51.29.

Practice over, an extended lunch break allowed various attractions with a French-ish flavour including some Can-Can girls in a vintage Parisian bus traveling slowly up the track. There was a Butler on the bus, but it was Ali, not Stan and she wasn't driving. A few Bugatti Veyrons did demonstration runs, I don't know if they were as quick as the Ferraris or not. There was also demo runs by an ex-Ayrton Senna Lotus Renault 98T, amazingly this is still on Goodyear tyres, which must be like concrete now.

The highlight of the lunchtime entertainment though was not French, or even German, it was the display of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, their Lancaster bomber PA474 was joined by a Mark 19 PR Spitfire and a Hurricane. Three individual displays were run through for our enjoyment including the Lancaster flying over with bomb doors open - a sight which no doubt would have been met with a very different reception 60 odd years ago by the current owners of the Bugatti marque!

Now for the competition runs and in such ideal conditions everyone was going to give it the lot and it was inevitable a few personal bests would go. Those with the biggest improvements on the day were Pauline Goodwin, who was very pleased to record 52.17, David Tomlin, Mike Spicer and Nick Taylor. Phil Whitehead also did his best run in T1 finishing with a 51.58, a couple of tenths off his quickest time here. Andrew Holman had started the day off apprehensively, this being his first event after his Bouley shunt, but said after T1 that he was enjoying it again and all was fine. We look forward to seeing him in his new car.

Barrie Wood (308) got into the 54s, just. Richard Prior's runs looked smooth and fast, but he got stuck in the 51 second bracket, in fact he was "Mr Consistency" with only a few tenths between all of his times. Brian Jackson was out to prove what a 308 could still do and flew over the line with a 52.71 second run. Nick Taylor who was red-flagged due to gravel on the track eventually took 49.66, not his fastest on the day but he had taken a leaf out of Prior's book and consistently banged in 49 second runs. Butler, 6 hundredths behind, could see the trophy disappearing from his grasp, and of course the twenty points! All to do in T2 then.

In T2, half the drivers were to improve their T1 times including John Marshall in the mighty Scud - he broke into the 49s as he had in second practice and only a third of a second off Taylor. Once again, the car impressed by the way it whooshes out of corners, stops and the crispness and control of the computerised gearchanges, especially the downshift into Pardon hairpin. John had to settle for fourth on scratch behind Christian Mineeff who pipped him with a time 4 hundredths faster. He had been perplexed by a general lack of grip throughout the day, borne testament to by a big slide round Orchard on T1 and huge understeer elsewhere, but he fiddled with tyre pressures and made the best of it on his last run.

Tomlin got down to 50.65 a new PB for him, despite (because of?) rattling it over the inside kerbs in Ettores. Brian Jackson flung the 308 up in 52.48, enough to ruffle a few 348 feathers and took fifteen points, a time very close to his best here in that car. When you've competed in the same car for so long, minor differences in the day must have a big effect.

Gooders went slightly slower than in T1 so his 50.68 gave only seventh place and his additional 1% PEP for winning last year's series knocked his points down too. However, the irrespressible Gooders is gradually getting to grips with this less than optimum hillclimb device and it'll be interesting to see how times end up if he sticks with it. Nick Taylor got into a huge tank-slapper round Orchard and had to settle for his T1 time. Butler did his best to beat him, but recorded an identical time to T1 and this was not enough to catch Taylor's T1 time and he ended second on scratch and after PEP. Whilst their menfolk were fighting tool and nail for victory, it was amusing to see the their spouses totally relaxed and chatting amicably.

So it was Nick Taylor's day with the trophy and the twenty points. The downside was the £50+ bar bill afterwards when he generously bought everyone a post-event drink - cheers Nick!

Footnote
mention must be made of the 0 - 64ft times with some quick starts among the competitors, fastest of all was Tomlin with a 2.31, Prior on 2.36, Taylor 2.37, Pauline and Mineeff on 2.39 together. Amazing traction off the line for the more powerful cars which are often not the fastest off the mark.