ROUND 3 : Harewood : 14 May 2011
by Graham Easter

Those hillclimbers who had enjoyed the balmy climes of Jersey experienced a rude shock on their return to mainland hillclimbing at the Wuthering Heights of Harewood. For much of the day, as last year, the wind was gale force and bitterly cold. Strangely enough there weren't nearly as many camp followers as in Jersey. This put a bit of a dampener on the social side but did not affect the racing.

16 Ferraris were entered with reigning champ Chris Butler making his first proper competition appearance of the year. He had done a bit of roundy-roundy at Silverstone but that doesn't really count. Mike Spicer finally took to the track in his new giallo 328, his third tipo of the year! Another yellow car was the familiar 308 of Brian Jackson who, resplendent in new hat, suit and gloves was making his return after a gap year. We also welcomed local man Peter Rogerson to the 2011 competition in his lovely TdF 360F1.

After my early stop at the Pit Stop Cafe in Aldridge, where a bacon buttie based strategy allowed me not to stop again all the way to Harewood, I arrived in time for P2 in which Sean Doyle (GT4) had an off at Orchard, he booted it on the exit and spun off onto the inside which is probably better. Chris Butler (355) was quickest in practice ahead of Nick Taylor (348GTC) with Richard Prior (355) third.

I watched the first competition run from the bank overlooking the main straight. Nick Taylor was comfortably quickest and the only one in the 66s with a 66.81, Chris Butler was second on a 67.37 and Richard Prior third on 67.76. RA had fitted new rear tyres [replacing his Engleberts - Ed] and oversteered his way to fourth on 68.90, his best time of the weekend.

In fifth was Sean Doyle (GT4) with an astonishing 69.33. There was a bit of head scratching about this and the final sector times revealed that Sean had apparently done it in 9.06 secs. This was 1.59 secs faster than Nick Taylor and only 0.49 secs slower than eventual FTD man Jonathan Goodyear in a 300kg or so, 1600cc 250bhp + single-seater who set a time of 53.34 on this run. Now Sean is a good driver and was trying very hard, but given all of the above, plus the fact that he wasn't able to approach his time again it seems a tad suspect.

The organizers were consulted and they said that was the time given by the timekeepers and that was that. John Swift (355) and Peter Rogerson also set their best times on this run, but their other runs were more consistent than Sean's.

The lunchtime craic established that Gooders was absent due to attending a 458 pilota course at Maranello. PG later said he came back insisting she call him Felipe Baby in a Yorkshire accent. The main event was the distribution of clothing to commemorate 25 seasons of the Ferrari Hillclimb Championship. This comprised a jacket, tee shirt and long-sleeved shirt. This stylish kit was organised by Holman's Haberdashers and was gratefully received by all. After some massive posing, some of which included our giallo cars, the serious business got underway - eating hot pies. The next day the pies actually ran out and the chuck wagon lady was heard to say "That Ferrari lot can't half eat".

For R2 I went down to the Esses with ace webteam photographer Dave Clark who was making his first appearance for some time en route to a Fiat 500 Abarth curry nite and picnic in Warwickshire. The weather was mostly bright but it was so windy the Red Kites were going backwards. This is an interesting place to watch as the Ferraris plunge downhill into the Esses and then the very nadgery "Chippy's". The contrast there in changing direction between the big heavy Fazzas and the rocket-powered rollerskate 'bike engined single seaters was marked.

My notes include "Doyle attacking with good lines, massive but controlled steering wheel twirling into Chippy's", "Jacko v smooth, suspension soft", "RA very oversteery", "Prior two wheels on grass on inside of first Ess", "MD Holman in too fast, lurched across road, nearly went off on the inside" - he later claimed this to be a late turn in. "Butler in v fast, good car control"," Taylor - best, in just fast enough, just slow enough in next bit". Let's see what the sector (3) times say; quite what it says about subjective analysis I'm not sure....

Butler	Taylor	Prior	Doyle	Jacko	RA	MD
14.07	14.10	14.21	14.99	14.99	15.02	15.24

Taylor (66.22), Butler (66.76) and Prior (67.20) all set their best times on this run, these being the top 3, as did Chris Hitchman (355 - 69.06), Mike Spicer (70.23), Pauline Goodwin (328 - 70.58), Lorraine Hitchman (328 - 74.36) and Julian Playford (355 - 76.95).

For Run 3 I moved up to Quarry, the final corner and sector 6. Observations here were "Prior carried more speed in than Butler?","Taylor fighting it". Sector times were Prior 10.56, Taylor 10.61, Butler 10.73. Those who improved their times on this run were Andrew Holman (69.75) but he was still a disappointed 7th overall. Brian Jackson also improved to 70.37 which gave him fourth placed points after PEPS. Someone said Brian's smooth style was like pouring cream, whereas his own was more akin to pouring lumpy custard. Peter Hitchman (355) improved to 74.08 and Ian Chadwick (348ts) to 77.42.

This left Taylor with the win from Butler and Prior. RA was fourth on 68.90 and Chris Hitchman fifth on 69.06. This was a good result for Chris which went somewhat un-noticed as he, never one to push himself forward anyway, was running out of batch due to sharing his car with Pa. After PEPs Taylor took the 20 points, Sean Doyle the 17 for second (about which 'nuff said) and Richard Prior the 15 for third. After the prizegiving everyone was pleased to get out of the cold and away to their hotel where the Swiftys had organised a dinner for all. It would have to be a bit of a steady night though because on the morrow they were doing it all again