ROUND 5 : Prescott : 28 May 2011

by Graham Easter

This meeting was billed as "La Vie en Bleu" - a celebration of all things French. There were some fairly tenuous connections at times but you have to give it to the Bug Club, they make an effort and there was a big crowd. 18 Ferraris were entered, but sadly Jon Gooders was hors de combat so we will have to wait another day for the eagerly anticipated hillclimb debut of a 458 Italia . Out for the first time in 2011 were Sergio Ransford (308), Colin Campbell (246GT) and Tracey Haynes (328). Tracey's right arm was still mending after being broken and was in a support. We also saw former 430 Scuderia pilota John Marshall's new GT4 for the first time and very nice it is too. Nick Taylor (348GTC) late as usual, reversed to within 1mm of a tree, got out without applying the handbrake and the car rolled away. Fortunately he avoided running himself over....

P1 saw that Nick was not a bit phased by this as he was well in the lead from Richard Prior (355) and Mad Dog Holman (355). Phil Whitehead's 355 would not start which he cured with a hard re-boot - pulling some loom plugs out and pushing them back in again. He celebrated by going off. Birthday girl Pauline Goodwin was an excellent fourth overall in her 328 but sadly she bashed it in the Esses on her next run, so this was not a happy day for Ecurie Bellevictorie. P2 was red-flagged again when Phil Whitehead put two wheels onto the grass at Semi-Circle. Then everything stopped as the Wing Walkers arrived and lunch was delayed whilst Prior and Taylor took their runs. When the dust had settled it was Taylor fastest in the 49s from Prior who'd got into the 50s and drawn clear from Chien Enragé. Mike Spicer (328) was fourth overall and was quickest classic from Sean Doyle (GT4).

Lunchtime saw Holman's Haberdashers open for the distribution of 25th anniversary clothing. Fiona Taylor revealed that she was going to "the other" Royal Wedding (Monaco) and she would ask her pals if there were any spare rooms going in their Palace when our lot do the Monaco Karting GP again this winter.

Colin Campbell led the field away on the Ferraris' first competition runs. This run was to be his best. Wendy Ann Marshall drove well to record her best time of 59.81. After a couple more runners, Sergio Ransford was noticeably quicker, bobbing and weaving his way through Orchard and locking up his brakes into Pardon. His 55.10 was fastest to date by a substantial margin. Julian Playford admitted he was struggling on his first visit to Prescott, it is a very "technical" hill and he had been unable to book any time in the PFHC simulator. This first run time of 57.78 was to be his best.

Sergio's Tortoise Club play-mate Tracey Haynes was next up, her run looked better than the 60.85 on which the clock stopped, later she revealed that her still weak arm meant she had missed second gear off the line. Sean Doyle delivered his normal attacking run. He carried good speed into Ettore's, yet there was no understeer into the Esses. He seemed to brake early for Pardon, but this may have been a rev-limiter avoidance strategy, he later said he could not get first gear but got away to tyre-squeal his way through the Esses to record the fastest time of the day so far, 53.64.

Mike Spicer managed to get through Orchard flat but looked to have carried far too much speed into Ettore's, he went straight on through the gravel trap but stopped it before the Recticel barriers. He later said his front brakes locked. John Marshall recorded his best time of 56.96; a GT4 must take some getting used to after a 430 Scuderia! Mad Dog Holman applied his Curborough constant throttle technique through Orchard, this looked effective and was as the splits later revealed, he was quickest of all in this sector despite a lower peak speed. It will also help his team to correlate track with wind tunnel data. He took an ultra-tight line through Ettore's, was good through Pardon, had a dab in the Esses and took the lead with a 50.33 and looked to have overcome his flatlander's fear of gradients.

A couple of runners later Richard Prior blasted into view out of Orchard. He carried good speed into Ettore's, but slowed it down enough to avoid the dreaded mid-corner understeer; indeed he even managed a bit of oversteer on the exit. His run through the Esses was fast and fluid, generally the sign of a quick run and indeed he took the lead with a 49.07, whopping 1½ seconds off his P2 time and well over a second off his personal best. Could Nick Taylor do anything about it? His run looked good, the stiffer, tweaked 348GTC more twitchy than Prior's standard 355. Any possibility of understeer at Ettore's was cured by a nice tail flick on turn-in and the rest of the run looked similarly good; yet the time was 50.30. Massive tyre squeal from the out-of-view Semi Circle provided a clue. Nick later said he'd got into a big four-wheel drift there (this is one corner where you can actually fall off the edge of the world, MD).

Due to the huge entry and delays (TBH some of which caused by us) it was a long, long, long time to the second run; in fact it was 5.15pm before the Ferraris hit the track and it was noticeably colder. Ian Chadwick improved marginally to 58.32 and won the Handicap. Pete Wilson improved too, but Tracey Haynes was slower after a massive lock-up going into Pardon and just avoided the gravel trap. Sean Doyle was a gnat's slower. Mike Spicer still looked to be troubled by grabbing brakes, but still managed to record 52.68. He was followed by another giallo car, the 308 of Brain Jackson, smooth as silk and Brian revealed that after the start he does the whole hill in second gear. He improved to 53.09 which would give him fourth place points after PEPs.

Barrie Wood (308) improved to 54.69. Holman was slower, Phil Whitehead kept it all together to make a useful improvement to 51.10, just off the podium in fourth. Prior was a bit slower, so now it was all down to the last runner Nick Taylor. He could only manage 50.22, leaving a delighted Prior the only one in the 49s and a clear winner, his first time in a 355.

As is tradition we repaired to the bar where the winner generously bought us all a drink. It was a double celebration for Richard as he got max. points too, with Nick Taylor the second and Andrew Holman third.