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ROUND 14 : Shelsley Walsh: 18 September 2011
by Sean Doyle

We were greeted by cloudy but warm weather as we arrived at Shelsley Walsh for the penultimate round of the PFHC, a round that could make or break quite a few positions in the championship including the title.

The track was still damp but expectations were high that it would dry out through the morning. There were a few regulars missing, Richard Allen was still at Silverstone basking in the glory of his first podium this season in the classic series. After many people had asked “Has anyone seen Fiona?” it turned out that Nick Taylor had scratched from the event earlier due to other racing commitments. Others missing included Jeff Cooper with power steering problems and Richard Preece who was having trouble “switching on his tyres”. Maybe a call to his local race car factory in MK would help as they seem to have solved this problem quite well this season. Another notable absentee was Jon Goodwin and his 458 Italia, which the 355 brigade were very happy about ....

So on with the first practice runs which are carried out in a way unique to Shelsley Walsh. Here competitors choose which batch (of about 20 cars) they want to join for their runs, unlike other hills where we would run in numerical order. As a result the times are a tad confusing to the outsider with cars running on very different track conditions. And on this day the longer you waited the dryer it would become, until the weather changed that is! A "weather eye" might be considered a quality a hardy hillclimber might possess but most are rubbish at it!

Shelsley local Andrew Duncan (348GTC) was one of the first up, unperturbed by the still very damp track, followed by Mr & Mrs Marshall (GT4 & 328), the Dino boys of Campbell and Tony “Sid Watkins” Attwood, Scorchio Ransford (308), Tracey Haynes (328) and Mike Spicer (328). The serious championship contenders, plus Doyle (GT4) who was erroneously seeded out of sequence as the final runner, waited until near the end of practice hoping for dryer conditions, and they were, with Prior laying down the gauntlet ahead of Butler and Holman (all 355s). In the Classic Cup Spicer was leading the way followed by Doyle and Ransford. As we were to discover later in the runs that count, that picture would change drastically.

Second practice showed some incredible improvements with Duncan, Attwood, Spicer and Haynes going 6 seconds quicker. Even Holman lopped 5 seconds off his time and he was doing quiet well to start with! With big improvements by everyone and the dry weather holding on despite some rather threatening cloud formations, expectations were high for the first competition run in the afternoon. For the record Butler was quickest in practice (34.04) from Prior on 34.39, these two being well clear of the rest of the field.

For lunch we enjoyed one of the jewels of Shelsley, the restaurant in the renovated barn. This is a fabulous place to sit, eat and soak up the unique atmosphere of the oldest motorsport venue in the world whilst listening to boyhood tales of this very track from our own Shelsley historian Spike Micer.

The afternoon saw the start of the serious stuff, with cars now back to proper numerical order. Andrew and Colin set their quickest times. Tony Attwood put in a brilliant time of 40.56 in the little Dino, especially noteworthy as this is a real "power hill"; his time would net him eighth place overall. John Marshall also flew up the hill in his GT4 to stop the clock at 37.19. A great effort which makes you wonder how fast he will go when really gets really comfortable in his new “Old Classic”. Spicer looked good with a 36.70 and Wendy Ann was pleased to go quicker again with a 45.30. Amongst the disappointed were Tracey who was slower by 0.18, not a lot but enough to irritate none the less. Her pre-event pep talk from hillclimber husband Charles advising her to take it easy and be careful seemed to be working at this point!

Up at the sharp end Holman showed that he still has the Mad Dog in him with a 36 dead. However, Prior was demonstrating his desire to win the championship with a 35.24 whilst Butler, reluctant to hand his champion title back quite so readily put in a 34.93. This required a lot of steering input and was a brilliant drive but with the +1% champion's PEP added it was not enough to overtake Prior for the maximum points - by five hundredths of a second.

Bringing up the rear was Doyle with a 38.81. This was not what he was hoping for and not good enough to help his Classic Cup aspirations. Whilst he remained in his car Butler, who had stopped next to him, felt much the same about his performance, but with one more run to go, it was back to the pits to regroup and hope for better fortune in the next run.

Whilst we waited for that the heavens finally opened and our fate was sealed. With the track soaked nobody was going to go any quicker but this does not, however, mean our boys and girls pack up and go home. On the contrary, they are made of sterner stuff than that and, what’s more, there are spectators and they still have a show to put on! They do now, however, resist the temptation of putting money on the result, as the damage costs far more than the kitty ever raises! They all say they were not trying of course, but there is no such thing in hillclimbing. So, just for fun you understand, the front runners in the very wet were MD with a convincing 41.31, Spicer close on 42.12, Ransford on fire with a 42.53, Prior with a stately 42.68 but Butler in the doldrums with a 43.14.

So the first runs decided the results, with Butler taking the scratch win from Prior and Holman followed by Spicer and Marshall. Once PEP’s had been calculated it was Prior on the 20 points. This ended Butler’s (17) determined effort to retain the title. A superb drive by Shelsley record holder Marshall in the GT4 bagged 15 points for 3rd closely followed by Spicer in the 328 and our ever-lovable Mad Dog Holman despite being about as far away from his flatlander comfort zone as it's possible to get.

Many people left with a nice smile equally matched by those wondering “If only” which just about sums up the highs and lows of the sport we love! It has been rumoured that Chris Butler left for the long drive “Up t’North” feeling fed up about being out of this title hunt for this year. He arrived home to be greeted by a big “I think you’re the Best” smile from daughter Isabella, who after listening to his tale of woe promptly phoned Ferrari H.Q. to question the scoring system!

So while we were packing up to go home all the talk was about the grand finale at the notorious Cürburgring. With all still to play for we can look forward to some hard fought battles amongst all those partaking, at every level. As this event has attracted 27 Ferraris not only will it be a fantastic sight, it will be an excellent advert for our club in its 25th anniversary year of Hillclimbing. The downside to this will be a few disappointed drivers as we all want to win, but sadly we only have room for one! From a personal point I think it’s going to be a cracker.