ROUND 8 : Loton Park : 9 July 2011

by Tracey Haynes

It was finally here; the event I had waited for all year, Loton is a clear favourite of many of the hillclimbers and is certainly my favourite by far. I had organised everything on Friday evening so I could get away in good time on Saturday morning, however I didn’t quite get my timings right and ended up arriving before "sign on" opened and that was after stopping to waste a little time. This gave me time to walk this spectacular hill and take in the ambience of the paddock, everyone busying around getting ready for the action, applying numbers and timing struts occasionally stopping to greet fellow competitors.

Jon Goodwin arrived in his 458 Italia for the much awaited first competitive appearance on the hills so a new class record was on the cards. Tony Attwood with his beautiful Rosso Dino was a newcomer to this hill which meant we had two Dinos in the line up for the first time in many years.

There were 17 Ferraris on the entry list, but Sean Doyle had scratched earlier in the week so 16 were expected for practice. The first practice runs came round fairly quickly as we were Batch 3 in the running order, but we were a man down, our reigning Champion Chris Butler was missing! All there completed their 1st practice albeit a little cautiously as the track was still a slightly damp from the overnight rain and slippery in places. Chris arrived later and after returning from his practice run looked a little perturbed and announced he had no ABS, all the classic drivers looked on with the same thought “welcome to our world!”. In good PFHC fashion the bonnet was opened and anyone with the slightest mechanical inklings was trying to help restore the ABS to Chris’s 355. After a phone call and much disconnecting and reconnecting of leads (re-booting) the culprit was found and ABS was restored.

Second practice saw most knock a fair few seconds off their first runs as the track had completely dried out in the basking sunshine. Sergio Ransford (308) realised when he got to the top of the hill that one lens had fallen out of his glasses. He had knocked over 4 seconds off his first run time so considered ditching the glasses completely for his competition runs. Gooders had broken 60 seconds on his second practice run and was leading the field at lunch followed by Richard Prior (355), Chris Butler (355) & Nick Taylor (348GTC).

As usual at this double header Jon Goodwin had organised a top quality BBQ lunch for us all at a very reasonable rate from the local Pub.

After lunch Richard Prior announced that there was a competition running between the Ferraris and Paul Matty’s Lotus drivers whereby 10 drivers from each club were chosen and if they were quicker than their previous personal best time the team would have negative points and if they were slower the team would gain positive points. The team that had the lowest number of points at the end of the official runs would win. With added verve we returned to the Paddock waiting for the competition runs to start during which time Chris was giving updates on the British GP qualifying sessions from his iPhone.

Tony Attwood led the Ferraris to the start and had a much improved run knocking nearly 4 seconds off his best practice time. Pauline Goodwin (328) put in a very competitive run crossing the line in 65.54 which earned her leading classic points for the event. Colin Cambell (246GT) recorded his best time of the day stopping the clock at 90.13. Peter Rogerson in his 360 also put in his best time of the day finishing in 71.17 as did John Marshall (68.56) in his newly restored GT4. Julian had not been able to make this event last year so was chasing his PB from the previous year and was one we were relying on for negative points for the Ferrari vs. Lotus challenge; he didn’t disappoint improving to 70.08 and a new PB.

Sergio decided wearing his glasses would be the best option and broke 70 seconds crossing the line in 68.37. Brian Jackson (308) was chasing Pauline for the leading classic but finished two hundredths short at 65.56. Mad Dog Holman (355) was next to attack the hill and stopped the clock at 62.67 which put him into the lead although this was short lived as Gooders continued in the sub 60 second bracket recording a 59.27 to take the lead from him.

Next up was Richard Prior who recorded a respectable 62.50 although this was a second short of his best practice time, Chris was flying up Cedar Straight but had an out of character moment going straight on at Fallow which kept him out of the running for R1. Nick Taylor was also not quite on the pace on this run and crossed the line in 63.71. So returning to the paddock after R1 Goodwin was leading with Prior second closely followed by Holman.

Unlike the meetings of late the sun continued to shine and the track was in perfect condition for R2. Tony continued to chip away at his time and finished the day on 73.27, Ian Chadwick (348ts) was also improving and took the handicap prize with a 71.56 and a new personal best. Wendy Ann Marshall (328) had been improving all day and continued in this vein and improved by six tenths to 74.34. Tracey (328) was battling with fellow tortoise Sergio and managed to take the leading tortoise honour with a 67.46. Mad Dog was the first of the leading contenders and was off the line in a flash recording a sub 2.3 second 64ft time, however this enthusiasm caused him to overcook it at Fallow, or at least I think that is what he said when he got out of his car but he seemed to be speaking in a foreign language!

The red flag was deployed whilst the marshals did a bit of sweeping and this gave Gooders a rerun and a second stab at the first part of the track, which he said he was grateful for as he'd made a mess of it first time. The sound of this awesome machine is superb and as this roar neared the top of Cedar Straight it was obvious that this was an impressive run, Jon’s control around Fallow and Museum was spectacular, and the 458 looked as if it was trying to get away but Jon kept it in line to set a new class record of 58.83.

Richard Prior followed with a 60.92 which looked to be second place until Chris stopped the clock three hundredths quicker at 60.89 taking second. Nick was last to run and was flying through the early part of the track but lost the back end coming out of Fallow and had to pull the GTC back onto the track and crossed the line at 62.06.

After PEP was added Prior took first and the 20 points, Gooders second and Butler third.

On returning to my car at the top of the hill a single seater Lotus driver was lying back in his car with his eyes closed facing the sun, I asked him if he was O.K to which he replied “Couldn’t be better in fact there is no better place to be; I am in the heart of the countryside in my car at probably the best hillclimb with the sun on my face and the sound of Ferraris roaring at full throttle in the distance” This, I feel, summed it all up and we got to do it all again the next day.

With the competition over it was now time for the hill climbers to socialise some more at the Albright Hussey. As usual Gooders had arranged an excellent menu and we were treated very well by the Hotel staff. After dinner Colin being the oldest and wisest competitor shared some words of wisdom. The top three trophies were presented as Jon had to leave before prizegiving to direct the parking of the Ferraris on the Hotel lawn.

As for the Ferrari Vs Lotus challenge unfortunately this was not won by the Ferraris, after adding up all the seconds over or under the personal best times, the result was Lotus -0.67 seconds per driver and Ferrari +0.71 seconds per driver…….Oh well there is always next year !!