An excellent entry of 23 Ferrari piloti assembled at MIRA on Saturday morning for a weekend of horizontal hillclimbing. The overall entry for the meeting was unusually low at 65, so our Ferraris made up one third of the entries. A grey start to the day did not look too promising but once a few spots of rain passed by at the end of second practice a bright and fairly sunny day ensued.

MIRA is due for a major revamp to its facilities, and some building work appeared to have started near the track being used for today’s event. Let’s hope these Sprint meetings will continue when MIRA has been upgraded.

A few car and driver changes were noted; Richard Preece had intended to bring along his 512 BB but found a split in the header tank which could not be repaired in time, he substituted his 348 GTC instead. Lorraine Hitchman was feeling unwell so withdrew her entry, and Julian Playford was also a non-starter. Charles Haynes however secured a last minute entry sharing wife Tracey’s 328 GTB. All the drivers had Ferrari form at MIRA, except for Tony Attwood in the 246 GT. The cars of Rogerson (360), Marshall (GT4), Spicer (328), and Jackson (308) were new to MIRA.

The small entry meant we were offered four practice runs and two competition runs, so a good value event. Not everyone took the 4th practice, the 308 drivers in particular preferring to keep a reasonable fuel level for the competition runs (the two long left-handers away from the start line cause fuel to flow to the ‘wrong’ tank).

Practice went off without too many problems, Mike Spicer having the most spectacular moment as the troublesome brakes on his 328 caused the fronts to lock as he tried to slow from 106mph. The car almost disappeared in white smoke and back in the paddock both fronts were found to have bald flat-spots (the rest of the tyres had about 6mm tread depth). The tyres were unusable so were replaced by a couple of non-matching spares, one Goodyear and one Bridgestone.

Phil Whitehead had a minor excursion on P3, and one or two others had problems with breaking the timing beam prematurely, or fumbled gear changes.

Andrew Holman (355) led the way at the end of practice on 54.30, quite appropriate as it was his birthday. He was also a full second quicker than his previous PB. Keeping a watching brief less than a quarter second adrift were the 355s of Butler and Prior. Phil Whitehead’s 355 on 56.28 was the meat in a 348 GTC sandwich comprising Taylor on 55.04 and Preece on 57.30. Jeff Cooper was next up in his 360 Modena on 57.60.

Heading the Classics at this stage was Brian Jackson on 58.43 with Spicer just behind on 58.74 as he adjusted to his odd tyre combination. Then it was John Marshall and Barrie Wood (308 GTS) closely matched on 59.12 & 59.17. Doyle (GT4) and Ransford (308) resumed their battle on 60.01 & 60.15. A little further back Tony Attwood hustled the little Dino round in 64.63, trading tenths with Mark Hargreaves (308) and Peter Wilson (348).

Refreshed with cake after a presentation to Birthday Boy Holman, the double-drives lined up for the first competitive run. Jack Hargreaves took the de-modified 308 round in 59.80, followed by Charles Haynes on 69.44, beating his previous PB by 2.5 secs. Sean Doyle indulged in a spin towards the end of the course, ruining his time. He had already beaten his PB in practice and was looking for another improvement.

Peter Hitchman cruised the 550 round in 65.82, a massive 20 secs better than last year's time set in wet conditions. Tony Attwood on 64.81 kept the 246 ahead of Wilson’s 348 by just 0.02 sec, a fine effort on his first visit to MIRA. In the 61 sec bracket were Rogerson 360, Tracey Haynes 328, and Ransford 308, holding off Mark Hargreaves on 61.44. Barrie Wood found himself 0.01 sec adrift of Mark Hargreaves and also behind John Marshall 308, and Chris Hitchman 355, all in the 59s.

First in Classic after adapting to his tyre combination was Spicer’s 328 on 57.60. Behind him Richard Preece 348 GTC on 58.43 held off Jackson’s 308 on 58.64, which was slower than his practice time. Jeff Cooper 360 Modena held 6th spot with 56.54. Then the usual top five suspects were led by Butler's 355 on 53.96, a new PB and fastest time for a 355 at MIRA. Next was Taylor on 54.92, closely followed by Holman on 55.07, another PB. Prior held off the similar 355 of Whitehead, 55.26 playing 55.53.

Run two saw improvements for Rogerson 60.80, Marshall 58.71, Atwood 64.20, Mark Hargreaves 61.44, Doyle 60.34, Ransford 59.10, Wood 59.10, Jackson 58.56, Wilson 63.30, and Taylor 54.53. Then Phil Whitehead took to the track and had a problem with braking after passing the speed trap at 107mph. He seemed to get two wheels on the grass which caused a high speed spin across the grass, the return road, and more grass before the back end of the car embedded itself in the tyre wall and Armco in front of the control tower. Thankfully Phil emerged unscathed but the rear of his 355 was trapped under part of the Armco and could not be immediately extracted. Being in a dangerous position the meeting had to be abandoned and results declared based on first run times.

So a sad end to the day and unlucky also for those posting a faster time on their second run. The points went to Butler, Taylor, Holman, Prior, Whitehead, followed by Spicer, Jackson, Marshall in Classic.

Holman took fastest 0-64ft time on 2.30 secs, Butler the fastest split time on 23.82 secs. In the "Ton-up Club" through the speed trap were Chris Hitchman 101mph, Spicer & Jackson 103mph, Marshall 105mph, Cooper 111mph, Taylor & Prior 112mph, Whitehead 114mph, and Butler fastest on 115mph.

Click here for (unofficial) results and points.

Click here for (unofficial) Championship positions.

Next up: Hethel : 7th August.

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