Prescott’s La Vie en Bleu Festival has just got better and better over the last few years, and the effort has paid off with the extra French-themed attractions bringing in increased visitor numbers. But the forecast for this Saturday wasn’t looking good and photographs taken at 8 o’clock show the umbrellas are out already. Still, never mind, there were plenty of other attractions, including, for some totally bizarre reason a troupe of very English Daleks!

The entry included Autocar Editor Steve Cropley in a 430 on loan to the mag by Ferrari North Europe. He is known to be no slouch on the hills, Prescott is his home track, he organises training days here for Autocar readers and always takes part himself. Also he regularly enters events here jointly running up the hill with his son in a variety of machinery. [Less keen on the lack of Ferrari anti-rain hospitality were his pair of minders from Ferrari Europe North looking damp under their shared umbrella - Ed.]. 

We can deal with the practice runs fairly quickly. Both were wet and the first was used as a bit of a test by all apart from Nick Taylor in the 348GTC who launched straight into a high 55 shod with those list 1B tyres that everyone said wouldn’t work in the wet.

Second practice saw a few more get under 60 seconds, Richard Allen (328) was doing well on 57.20, although his time was still nearly 3 seconds behind Taylor. Allen was hotly pursued by Holman, Prior and Whitehead (all 355s), also of note were good sub 60 runs by both Pauline Goodwin (328) and Sean Doyle (GT4) trying hard against each other.

Then it was lunch time and, of course, the sun came out. Consequently, the only ones to get a dry run up the hill were the Daleks. Andrew Holman did suggest to one young spectator that he better be careful calling them names but he reassured him he was not stupid, he knew these ones weren’t the real ones.

With lunch over it was time to rain again and generally times were slower by the time the Ferraris got back out on track. The first appearance of the year for Tracey Haynes (328) put her in the middle of a group recording 60s which was led by Sean Doyle (GT4) who, whilst a couple of seconds slower than practice, was very pleased to be faster than the 430 Scuderia of John Marshall.

They were followed two seconds later by Barrie Wood (355) and Ransford and then Cropley, who was concerned with the conditions and feared wrapping his long term loan around the Armco (see below). Then there was Briscoe (308) on 67 seconds, who was still slightly ahead of 308 returnee Ransford, but only just!

And so to the sub 60s. Interestingly, all but Allen went quicker. Holman knocked over a second off his time to 56.07 leapfrogging Allen into second place behind Taylor.  Prior and Whitehead did the same into the low 57s but the question remained, could anyone do anything about Taylor who was now on a 54 second run with a speed trap time of 64 mph? He was now some 7 mph faster than the next quickest and the always hard-trying Pauline Goodwin. The good news was that she did manage a good start and fast speed through Orchard, and got a time. Unfortunately, due to a spin, it was the slowest of the day at 104 seconds.  

Time was now getting on with many on-track incidents that needed clearing up, To add to the Ferraris' troubles a car had lunched its engine on its way up the track and doing an impression of a Florida coastline, had managed to lay its sump contents on the racing line from the first corner onwards. The marshals had done their best, but combined with the rain they weren’t confident the cement dust had done its job.

Amazingly many of the Ferraristi then put in their fastest times of the day. Pauline Goodwin didn’t let oil or spins get to her, clocking the same speed trap and, managing to keep it on the dark stuff she went over the line in 56.58, a time fast enough for fourth place on PEP. Equally quick off the line and under the bridge was Doyle, whose 57.43 got him a third place on PEP, his highest ever score.

Cropley managed to get to grips with the 430 off the line with a sub 3 second 0-64ft time, he went the fastest he had done through the trap as well and managed a 59.23, good enough to finish mid field. 

So what were the front runners up to? Whitehead was quick early on in the batch with 61mph and a 55.46. Marshall was nearly as quick but couldn't get the power down and only managed 57.91. Prior followed him out and put in a great time of 54.29.

Holman's giallo 355 arrived at Orchard and slid slowly sideways, once on the damp and oil the grass had to be the next port of call. However he managed to control the spin and continue up the course acknowledging the applause of the crowds. Penultimate competitor Allen had heard the tyre squeal ahead of him but didn’t let it put him off and still put in a great run of 55.55.

Taylor went into Orchard at 70 mph which would be fast in the dry. In the damp there was no chance and he swapped ends and reversed across the track before coming to rest up against the barriers. He still just managed to win on scratch with his first run, followed by Prior and Whitehead. RA was the well deserved winner of the 20 points, proving there's life in the 328 yet, with Prior second and Doyle a superb third.

This is what Steve Cropley (pic) wrote about his experiences in an Autocar Editorial:

"Saturday heart stopping day out with the Ferrari Owners' Club, driving the F430 in the latest round of their hard fought 2010 hillclimb championship at Prescott. Great bunch of people: down to earth, welcoming and mustard keen on the cars, which they really know how to drive. We were allowed two practice runs in the morning and two official runs in the afternoon. The first was wet. the second was streaming wet. The 430 felt massively quick when I could get the power down, but also very big on the narrow track. I drove it with a distinct lack of bottle.

After lunch the Meeting Director announced that an Austin Seven had lunched its engine and coated the entire track with oil. The marshals had done their best with cement dust, but, well, it was still raining and they hadn't been very successful. the 430 and I tried hard but were soundly thrashed by all the decent FOC drivers. This is the kind of challenge good drivers rise to, and I'm afraid I failed the test. On the other hand, I didn't stick the car's nose under the Armco, which was another kind of achievement".

Next up: Shelsley Walsh : 5/6 June.

Click here for a slideshow by Andrew Clarke.

Click here for (unofficial) results and points.

Click here for (unofficial) Championship positions.

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