Prescott is always the most manicured of venues and the end-June meeting is quite a cultivated way of spending a hillclimb weekend. The only slight drag is that it is a two-day meeting - practice on Saturday and the racing on the Sunday, which makes for a lot of hanging around just to get a few runs in. The organisers said they would "try" to get everyone three practice runs which, in the event, was the case but Sunday with just two runs was a very long and drawn out affair.

As always the entry was good with 18 Ferraris turning up, and all the Championship contenders - Butler, Taylor, Prior - were there as was the formidable 430 Scuderia of John Marshall. This had totally crushed the rest of the field and the hill record at Shelsley Walsh at its last appearance and, with its sticky List 1B tyres, was widely expected to do the same at the twisty Prescott hill.

And so it did. On his first practice run Marshall recorded a time of 48.60sec which was already under Jon Goodwin's record of 48.87 set in the previous year in an “ordinary” 430. The rest were left a bit reeling.....

Chris Butler (355) rose, as always, to the occasion but was almost a second slower, having taken three runs to get there, but it was Nick Taylor (348GTC) who got the closest with a 49.30 time on his second practice run. He spent much time with a bottle of Windowlene in his hand, chasing the coveted Paddock Cup.

Christian Mineeff (360) ended up fourth quickest but took all his three practice runs to get there, and just managed to squeeze ahead of Jon Goodwin in his mighty 550 Maranello which had, wait for it, sacks of sand in the boot to try to get more traction off the start line! I bet Adrian Newey never thought of that. Mike Spicer (355) slipped in a quick 50.54 on his first run and then spent the rest of practice going slower as, no doubt, he mentally prepared for the tussle of Sunday when it really counted.

Dave Tomlin (355) who, apparently, had recently won the Belgian GP at Spa only had time for two runs before he had to nip home to cut the grass but he did well. He was just ahead of Andrew Holman who had his lovely yellow 355 out for the first time to take the place of the 348 left downside up in Jersey, and he quickly got to grips with it to put in a good run just a mite ahead of Richard Prior (348).  It was Holman who won the aforementioned Paddock Cup.  Prior pulled one of his usual stunts - running out of fuel on the starting line - but a quick sprint back into the paddock for a can of fuel had the 348's engine burst into life again.

John Swift (355) made a welcome return to the series with his newly repaired car looking better than new after the ravages of Harewood's first corner, and he set a very competitive time just ahead of a phalanx of "3-series" tipi led by Pauline Goodwin (328) on a 52.74 in front of Brian Jackson (308 Bob) by two-tenths of a second, and then all the rest of the gang with their own intense private battles.

Practice finished in good time and there was just enough time to get to the bar for a Diet Coke break before the heavens opened with a torrential downpour, but it was too late to spoil the day; except for those camping that night.  One or two had left their race suits out to air and they got soaked, but Tracey Haynes took them home and brought them back laundered.  It was revealed by Chris Butler that Ali washes his racing undertrolleys by hand - I suppose an itchy bum in the middle of Pouhon (where Tomlin passed Schuey apparently) would be less than ideal. 

I went up to the Esses to watch the first runs, where I had a great view of the track and the luxury of a staff photographer - Liz Malone.  This meant I could see most of each run.  Colin Campbell led away in the Radio Luxembourg Dino (work it out), with Tracey Haynes next up and looking a bit steady.  She was slower than Wendy Ann Marshall (328), probably for the first time and Wendy definitely carried more speed into the Esses.

Pauline Goodwin was next up, was obviously much more aggressive and easily the fastest lady, but would have been much more pleased to have beaten Geoff Dark, back in his 308m.  Brian Jackson drove well as always to pinch the lead from PG with a 52.84.  He was quicker than Andrew Holman who was playing himself in gently in his new toy.  This was not true of “Italian Pensioner” Sergio Ransford; he was flinging his 308 about with considerable brio to record 54.74. 

Dave Tomlin was next up and is always good value as he experiments a fair bit.  Most did not work out; he was slow out of Ettores and fell off altogether at Semi Circle.  However, he was pleased to have proven that you cannot take that corner without braking.  Richard Prior was next up and was driving aggressively and well, with all the bits connected up.  This is hard to explain, but I guess the closest I can get to it is that the car is kept loaded all the time whether accelerating, braking or cornering, each state uses all of the grip available and there is a controlled transition between states.  The car is never left unloaded or “dithering”. 

This phenomenon is best illustrated by the driver who lifts some way before a corner, coasts into an impossibly tight and early apex, whereupon the car crabs across the road in a sort of dead understeer ‘til it more-or-less stops, with the steering on full lock.  At this point, the real maestro of the art gives the throttle a big prod, resulting in either the dreaded zero m.p.h. spin, or with a lurch of opposite lock, fires it off the track forwards.  There are a couple of corners at Curborough where all this can be demonstrated to perfection, as I know to my cost. 

Of course, there’s no-one in the Ferrari world who drives anything like this and the last few first runs at Prescott were top class hillclimbing and a joy to watch.  The 430 Scuderia clearly demands a different technique to earlier tipi.  There’s no point in chucking it about, it’s all about making the straights as long as possible to take advantage of the huge horsepower, using the big brakes and sticky tyres.  This involves braking as late as possible into the slow corners to go round them at precisely the optimum speed, not too slow, but not too fast, so the throttle can be opened early and hard, with the car pointing straight.  There is also the small matter of getting it through the fast corners safely.  John Marshall achieved all this on his first run to break another record, leaving it at 48.43.

In marked contrast Prior, Taylor, Mineeff and Butler’s runs were more flowing; they hurled their cars about with (butch) abandon, into the corners and all over the kerbs.  Mineeff recorded a 50 dead and Butler 49.19.  Taylor’s GTC looked twitchier, but it is stiffer and lower than the others.  He stopped the clocks on 49.31.  Then there was only Gooders left in the 550M.  He drove well too and put in another entertaining and quick drive, grass-cutting at Ettores and using the kerbs in the Esses on his way to a 50.87, in a car more suited to long distance cruising than short distance hillclimbing. 

Then came the “lunch” break, as it turned out there would have been time for a ten course banquet and waffer thin mints as we waited nearly six hours for the second runs.  The problem started when, with everything was going well, the organisers decided to take a 1½ hour break; then lots of people fell off causing interminable delays.  I come from a single-seater background and for me the “Top Ten” run-off was the climax of the weekend.  They spoiled this for me when they changed it to the stupid two run-off system and I have to say that I now believe the run-off has no place in a clubbie meeting, especially those with a lot of one-make classes, it’s irrelevant, unfair and time-consuming.  To add insult to injury, the Ferraris ran after the run-offs and very nearly fell afoul of the 5.30 curfew and rain was threatening! 

To entertain all during the delay, the drivers were invited by MD to “Do the hill” in their heads.  They were told “Go” and timed until they said “Stop”.  John Marshall was easily the best, being only a tenth or so off his actual time.  Worst was.....  no, click here for the list. Other lunchtime discussions were on allowing everyone 1B tyres (with a suitable PEP), to give them a chance of attacking the mighty Scud and whether the 360 would be better for hillclimbing in black as apparently it’s slimming.

When they eventually got on the hill for their second runs, our Ferraristi behaved impeccably, not only did no-one fall off, all but three improved.  Tracey Haynes focussed and made a notable gain, Sean Doyle (GT4) improved, despite a big lock-up going into Pardon hairpin.  Andrew Holman improved to a 51.28, which put him ahead of the much more experienced 355 trio of Tomlin, Spicer and Swift, which sounds like a firm of dodgy accountants.  Sergio clipped the grass on the exit of Orchard, which is always exciting.  Tomlin stayed on this time, apexing early and running round Ettores parallel to the kerb to record a 51.33, whereas Prior tried the “go past it and cut back” technique and was also very tight round Pardon.  He was slower, leaving his first run time of 50.71 as his best.  This was good enough for third place points.

Swifty took classical lines (what else?) to improve to 51.91, Mike Spicer improved fractionally to 51.51.  John Marshall was slower, locking his brakes going into Ettores and Pardon; apparently, you can set the ABS up on the Scud with different levels of interference.  John says he has it like this so he knows where he is.  Mineeff went into Pardon too fast and was in the wrong gear coming out, but still improved to 49.48, well inside the 50 second barrier for the first time. 

Chris Butler was very fast through the Esses to get into the 48s, his 48.94 being the best-ever 355 time.  Nick Taylor improved by just a couple of hundredths to 49.29, which gave him third place overall, but maximum points.  Finally, there was Gooders, whose 50.47 was the best of his weekend.  As this was his fourth “50” of the weekend, and he got stuck there last time, this does rather suggest a) the thing won’t go much quicker.  b) Adrian Newey has nothing to fear from Gooders when it comes to vehicle dynamics.

All in all, a good meeting on-track with Marshall winning from Butler and Taylor and which saw Taylor take the lead of the Championship from Prior, but with far too much hanging around. I believe the general consensus in the Ferrari paddock is to keep the two day meetings of Shelsley and Doune but otherwise stick to one day meetings and maybe a couple more double-headers.

Click here for the (unofficial) results and points.

Click here for the (unofficial) Championship positions.

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