ROUND 1 : North Weald: 14 March 2010
by Richard Prior

At last the long winter break was over and spring sunshine greeted the hardy Pirelli Ferrari hillclimbers at North Weald Airfield down in deepest Essex. Unfortunately airfields are flat and windy places and the north wind took the edge off the temperature, but the competition was still as hot as ever. The drivers were straining at the leash (even at this venue which resembles the M25) and a decent entry of fourteen cars were assembled for the first round of the 2010 season.

Mark Hargreaves made a welcome return to the Championship and had also enrolled his son Jack as a first time entrant to share the drive in the 308 GTB, which has been seen more recently in the PFfc racing series. [It cops for the extra Gp.2 “modified” PEP].

John (430 Scud) and Wendy Marshall (328) had made an early start to the season. They hadn't appeared at North Weald for a few years but the sunshine had bought them out to play. Barrie Wood was another welcome sight in the paddock bringing his 355 along this time; hopefully we’ll be seeing more of him in 2010.

The track is fairly featureless and is marked out with cones. On the first practice run no less than eight of our lot were awarded with ‘Wrong Route’ on the scoreboard instead of a time! The four who behaved were looking very smug with themselves; David Tomlin in the 355 GTB was leading on 78.63, Julian Playford in his black 355 was nicely holding 2nd place on 89.68 seconds, Jeff Cooper’s 360 Modena was closely behind on 90.57 seconds and remarkably Jack Hargreaves in his first ever Ferrari sprint was in a fine fourth position.

We did expect a few sarcastic comments from the marshals for the number of incorrect runs, the best being “is that why Ferrari drivers need such a large scoreboard?” and “how the heck did you lot even find your way to the event?”

Second practice was much better. Chris Butler was now at the top of the timesheet on 78.12, David Tomlin was in close range on 78.47 seconds and Andrew Holman was in third place on 79.25.

John Marshall was finding the dusty track slippery in the 430 Scuderia and put in a careful lap on 87.19 seconds. Richard Allen had bought out his silver 328 “Rat Racer” to give it some exercise after its winter hibernation, but while a big lock up and lots of tyre smoke at the far end of the track wouldn’t have harmed his time too much, a spin at the second hairpin definitely did and resulted in a time of 100.53......

The Borough 19 Club decided it would be a good idea to get the first competition run in before lunch, which should (and did) guarantee three runs, which was nice. Mark Hargreaves led the field down to the start line while son Jack watched from the paddock. His smooth run resulted in a 1½ second improvement on his practice time with 86.72. Andrew Holman was next to the line and described his run as a gentle banking lap, putting him on 78.01 and the fastest so far on the day, at least until the next man John Marshall took to the tarmac and now pushed the target to 77.75 (it’s amazing how at home these East Anglian drivers are on a flat airfield).

David Tomlin was only 1/100th of a second behind Holman with 78.02, and Barrie Wood took nearly half a second from his best practice time with 83.17. Chris Butler went wide around the last corner almost knocking the boundary cones over, which resulted in a slower time for him.

Jeff Cooper improved by over a second and a half and Adrian Wilson by 3½. Julian Playford had been tipped off that he could use 4th gear on the 355 during the return route from the far end roundabout and his extra speed was clearly visible, maybe this caused over-excitement during the rest of the run and resulted in the spin after the second hairpin. Sean Doyle was a little off his pace but Richard Allen had pushed the 328 into the 81 second bracket. The car was handling so well he was sure a 79 second run was possible.

By the time the lunch break had passed the clouds had returned and the track had cooled off. Mark Hargreaves still put in his best run of the day with 83.92 despite starting the run with too much wheelspin on the dusty start line and then locking up on the approach to the roundabout at the far end, and also in the first hairpin producing plumes of tyre smoke. Andrew Holman left the line just as enthusiastically, leaving behind a whiff of hot clutch and this was also to be his best time of the meeting setting a new target of 77.14.

John Marshall, up next, couldn’t match Holman despite an equally fast getaway from the line followed by a massive twitch as the Scud changed up to second gear halfway down the straight. Wendy Marshall claimed her fastest time of the day with a neat and tidy run on 94.58, as did David Tomlin who couldn’t match Andrew Holman’s time and finished with 77.73. Chris Butler was more cautious around this time, especially around the second hairpin, and the clock showed him to be behind the other 355s of Holman and Tomlin, whilst Adrian Wilson in yet another 355 found the dusty outskirts of the circuit after exiting the second hairpin and threw up loads of debris.

Before the final run Holman had almost convinced himself that he had done enough to take the first place but as the sun made another return he felt sure he had something in reserve to improve his best time....

As the cars queued for the start line at 3.45pm it was looking good for an early end to the day. Mark Hargreaves finished with 84.15, followed by Holman who was really pushing the 355 to the limit but the car gave a worrying lurch as it flew through the fast left hand kink, nearly losing the back end as he had earlier in the day, and it clearly lost him some time as the clock read 79.23 - slower.

John Marshall had the Scuderia under control but also lost time on his run and was no threat to Holman’s lead; Wendy also had a slower time, so had the track lost its grip this late in the day? Was it too late for Tomlin and Butler to catch the leader?

Barrie Wood found there was grip out there and recorded his fastest in the 355 of 82.36 seconds which must have spurred Tomlin on, who would surely have beaten Andrew as he was on a “real flyer” [Murray] until a mishap changing down a gear at the end the run led to the clutch eating itself. He limped through the finish line via a shortcut and was given ‘Wrong Route’ instead of a time.

Pete Wilson finished the day on a high with 87.24, this being his fastest in the sole 348 here today. Adrian Wilson was slightly down on his best but Julian Playford was sharp out of the trap and made a great effort to finish on 86.58 just ahead of Peter.

The battle between the 308s of Doyle and Hargreaves. M went down to the wire as Sean snatched the advantage back from Mark by just 0.33 of a second and also taking 12 points, his highest tally to date.

Jack Hargreaves, in his first ever Ferrari sprint, had performed amazingly well, finishing in 11th place and taking 7 points. He progressively whittled away at his time from the very first practice down to the final run of 85.90 without putting a foot (or wheel) wrong, thus starting a very promising season in the 308. Hopefully we’ll see more of the Hargreaves team throughout the year.

Andrew Holman was overjoyed and even starting practicing his victory dance until he realised Chris Butler had yet to cross the finishing line. We all had one eye following the red 355 around the final corners and the other on the clock... 77.04..! Chris had beaten Holman’s time by just one tenth of a second and was also on the 20 points as well.

Only one car could now stop him getting the double and Richard Allen was wringing every ounce out of the 328’s performance and stopped the clock on 79.98. With Richard’s minus 3% PEP factor applied it gave him 77.58 (not quite enough to take maximum points this time) but Richard said the car was handling so well he was sure a 78 second run would have been possible [Murray], especially as he had forgotten to remove the gear blocker for 4th gear. Consequently he ran out of revs and freewheeled into the roundabout at the far end of the circuit....maybe another time RA.

Congratulations to Chris Butler for the first win of the season and taking the early lead in the championship, but commiserations to the next three drivers Holman, Tomlin and Marshall who were all in the same 77 second bracket, and took 17, 13 & 10 points respectively. By taking the third place 15 points, RA proved that there is life yet in the 328.