"Forget Silverstone, let alone Zolder" said Chris Butler "This is the place to be this weekend." Apart from being clear to the cognoscente it also proved to be a wise decision for him to forsake the cost and crush of the Silverstone GP and the heat (41°C!) and dust of Belgium for the pastoral delights of rural Shropshire on a balmy English summer's day.

Talking of heat and dust, Sean Doyle was absent, on holiday in Turkey. Fellow Tortoise Group Member Tracey Haynes (later) took absolutely no pleasure at all in telling him he'd missed not one, not two, but three rounds of the Championship (Loton double-header and Gurston Down) but also that Club Chairman Richard Allen had deployed the 328 Rat Racer to rack up points in the mysterious "Classic Cup". The current state of matrimonal harmony Chez Doyle is not known..... RA emerged from the Rat shattered, eyeballs revolving, having driven it 190 miles to do this event. It's good to know that within our Chairman's chest still beats the heart of a racer and that he's determined to be more than a figurehead at picnics. Further proof of this was that he'd invested in new tyres to replace a 12 year old set, only a pair of fronts though.

Further tyre talk was that Andrew Holman had bought a new set of Pirellis all round and that Charles Haynes was seeking advice on tyre pressures for his newly-acquired 328. It gives you some measure of the competitiveness of the Series (on-track) that his wife, who is a seasoned 328 competitor, told him 18 psi and Pauline Goodwin (328 ditto) told him 65 psi. I helpfully told him that the truth probably lay somewhere in between.

P1 was difficult for all the contenders because of an oil slick. This is often one of the perils of sharing the bill with "historic" cars. The cement line was on the middle of the racing line and Peter Rogerson actually claimed it was helpful as he just followed it. Peter was setting cracking first 64ft times all weekend in his 360M F1, traditionally considered notoriously difficult to get away. Peter said that he had no idea how he was doing it, but I'm sure there was Yorkshire canniness going on there. Eventually he did 2.34 secs, which some said beat the previous best ever 360 time set by Christian Mineeff. [Not so, 2.23 secs at Harewood on 19-09-2009 still best - Ed.].

On P1 Butler's 63.07 was best. P2 was a little better with Nick Taylor (348GTC) on top with a 61.27, though I think he steamed into Triangle a bit too fast and the front end pushed on. It seems that Butler (355), John Marshall (430 Scud) and Andrew Holman (355) all fell off at Fallow. There was talk of emulating Brian Jackson's patented manoeuvre there of moving right to take a wide line into the left hand corner Fallow. Holman tried it twice and fell off twice and this, together with a bizarre line through Triangle on P2, meant he was way off the pace. I guess if you were charitable you could say that they were all establishing the size of the envelope early on in this long weekend of racing.

Lunch was a splendid BBQ organised by Jon Goodwin and catered by the nearby "Old Hand & Diamond" where many were staying that night. During lunch Sergio Ransford drew our attention to the Cinnabar moth caterpillars feeding on the yellow flowers of Ragwort. Just the sort of thing you would expect from a sweet, silver-haired pensioner. There was some discussion on the toxicity of this plant to vertebrates and farmers' obligations to clear it led by Farmer Campbell.

Lunch over and onto the serious stuff. By now the temperature had changed from balmy to sultry, though there was the odd refreshing breeze. Most were interested to see if the heat would help Nick "Obiwanbe" Taylor's tyres. Ian Chadwick (348ts) led away and looked smooth, whereas PG attacked more and had the tail out at Keepers, the corner before Cedar Straight, this cost her some time, but worse was to come....

Peter Rogerson really did look like he was following the marker line a lá Bonneville Salt flats and his time of 68.41 took the lead and was to prove his best of the day. Unsurprisingly this was not threatened by Colin Campbell's Dino, now nicely repaired after being bumped into on the way to Prescott. His race number plate fell off and Wendy-Ann Marshall was red flagged. Colin was later ticked off by PFHC Commissar Richard Prior. Tracey Haynes was driving with notable attack until she too was flagged. She later recorded her BTD of 67.02. Hubby Charles was next up, still getting used to a 328 which is nowhere near as well sorted as his wife's. His time was 73.56. Sergio Ransford's 67.94 meant Tracey was Top Tortoise - for now.

MD Holman was a lot less random this time, though he did push the left hand front onto the grass on the exit of Triangle. Nick Taylor was fast into Triangle and a touch untidy on the way out, but his 60.27 set the benchmark. Chris Butler could not match it recording a 61.76. It later emerged that he'd braked so hard for Fallow the ABS light came on and remained on for the rest of the run.

Gooders took lots of kerb with the 550 and stopped the clocks on 62.18. Contrary to all expectation, this was to mean that at the end of R1 the big front-engined V12 would be on max. points at the narrowest venue! He said he was very impressed with the car. He was well sideways going into Fallow and it was close to being a mess, but he just let everything off and the 550 sorted itself out. Not bad for a long distance cruiser. RA's 66.46 gave him the lead in the "Classic Cup" but only by just over half a second from Tracey.

Richard Prior flicked into oversteer on the exit of Triangle. His 61.98 was close to Butler but way behind Taylor. He too claimed to have got the ABS light on. I checked the book and "I was blinded by the ABS light" is a genuine new 355 driver's excuse. Talking of excuses, RA ran after Gooders and said he'd had to put his wipers on as the 550 was chucking out water on the line, happily it was only from the A/C. Last up was John Marshall in the 430 Scud. Noticeably more stop-start than the flowing 355s and 348GTC, with colossal acceleration and a glorious blare of sound out of the corners he recorded 60.87. Slower than Nick Taylor and over a second slower than his record time of a year ago, but good enough for second.

On the second runs Ian Chadwick improved but PG did not, spinning at Fallow. She later agreed she'd lobbed it in and just as the back end was teetering out on a trailing throttle, poked the throttle, so it wasn't surprising the 328 spun. I was there and as it came to a halt I'm sure I heard a genteel "Oo" rather than a terse "Sh*t" which is the normal utterance in such occasions. PG was not a happy bunny, but to paraphrase Scarlett O'Hara, tomorrow would be a whole new day.

Rogerson and Campbell were slower, but WAM improved. Tracey Haynes was a bit slower and Chas a bit faster. Sergio was a bit slower, so Tracey was confirmed as Top Tortoise. Holman was a lot faster, knocking a second and a quarter off to record 64.30 with a nice opposite lock power slide out of Museum on the way. Next up was Nick Taylor with a composed grippy run, the 348GTC howling its way up under the magic minute, only the third Ferrari ever to do so. This was despite a few spots of rain falling, but Nick rightly reasoned that the track was so hot it would have no effect.

Chris Butler had no answer although he did improve to 61.33. Gooders was a bit slower and ended up fourth on PEPs as Taylor's time gave him third. Richard Prior made a useful improvement to 61.35. This meant just three hundredths would have given him the 20 points. I wonder if he lost it in a sideways lurch on the entry to the last corner, Museum? Standing at Museum, the overwhelming feature of John Marshall's run was how often the traction control came on as the Scud blasted towards the finish. He was slower so the day was Taylor's and Butler's. Taylor was delighted, Butler will not have been pleased to have been so comprehensively beaten, but will have been relieved to secure the 20 points from Prior, who is looking more and more like a PEPs winner as the season goes on. Mind you, Butler is looking more and more like a Champ.

After a cheerful and chatty group drink in in the Shropshire sunshine, first round courtesy of our winner, most repaired to the "Old Hand & Diamond" for a massive dinner. Tomorrow the lucky lot would get to do it all again. Mind you, I bet the frites were better at Zolder.

Stay tuned for "Loton Part Deux" soon.

Next up: Loton Park : 9 July.

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