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They were neck and neck as they came to the final round of the Club’s 2012 Pirelli Hillclimb Championship at Curborough: either Chris Butler or Andrew Holman would walk away as the new champion, both driving 355s. Butler could have wrapped it all up at the previous round at Shelsley Walsh if he had scored the maximum 20 points but instead it was an inspired Holman who excelled in the tricky conditions and took the 20 points, forcing the championship to remain open until this final round.
The atmosphere was tense as the crème de la crème of the Club’s hillclimbers assembled at a sunny but chilly Curborough, a tricky little track, for the Midland Automobile Club’s end of season meeting. In years gone by this was the meeting at which the country’s top hillclimbers and sprinters assembled for a final non-championship thrash before putting their racing cars away for the winter; drivers swapped cars, mechanics and wives were given a go at driving, and it was all good fun. But in these straightened times, when entries at most speed events were down, this sort of frivolitie had fallen by the wayside. Indeed, the big Ferrari entry of 26 cars was about half of the entire paddock. Holman had taken an early season lead and it was round 4 before Butler put in an appearance and went on to score the maximum 20 points at each of his first four events, putting him right in the championship chase. Holman fought back and also scored four more maximums. Richard Prior (355) drove brilliantly and led the championship at one time but was handicapped by the extra 1% penalty which is applied to the reigning champion’s time. Nevertheless he scored a string of 20s and 17s to keep himself in the chase until that penalty just became too much to overcome. The only other outright winner this year was Nick Taylor in his manual 430, but that tipo was too heavily handicapped with its +2% to keep him a championship contender. It was a generally a couple of ‘tiddlers’ who kept the big beasts honest. Mike Spicer (328 -3%) and John Marshall (308GT4 -4.5%) took good advantage of their generous PEPs and, aided by some forceful driving, were nicely placed in the top six and came first and second in our Classic Cup (for tipi before the 348). But back to Curborough. The first of three morning practice runs took place on a dry but slippery track and it was Butler who put himself at the top with a 36.24 sec run, ahead of Prior (37.45) and Holman (37.80). Butler was on new Michelin tyres, joining Holman and Prior who thought they were grippier than the Pirellis used by most of the field. Taylor was fourth but said that his 430 was a real handful in the cold conditions with little grip, and in a strong fifth place was our Chairman Richard Allen in his circuit-racing 328, showing all his experience of this technical little track. The second practice runs saw a similar picture, with Butler again leading Prior and Holman, but behind came some excellent times from James Spicer (in the ex-Prior 348), Richard Preece (355) and again Allen. The third runs were squeezed in just before the lunch break, and this time it was Prior who set a fabulous time of 34.53, the quickest yet, with Butler on a 35.08 and Taylor next on a 35.65 as the track warmed a little to give his Pirellis more grip, and Preece in an excellent fourth on 36.95. But where was Holman? On this hugely important day for him his car suffered a puncture as he went to the start line. With no spare, prompt assistance from our own Mr Tyres, Mike Spicer, brought one of those emergency ‘get you home’ aerosol cans and Holman drove out onto the main road [racing numbers off and with the CoC's permission - Ed.] to try and distribute the foam evenly throughout the tyre. But he had lost his third practice run and would not know whether the tyre would hold up until the first competitive run after lunch. During the break someone noticed an awful lot of lady drivers in the Ferrari part of the paddock..... A count ensued and we discovered that we had no less than six of them in our class! We had the long-term regulars, Pauline Goodwin, Tracey Haynes, Wendy-Ann Marshall and Lorraine Hitchman, and then our 2012 addition Caroline Cooper, and finally newcomer Sally Maynard-Smith who was having her first Ferrari outing for 12 years. Nearly a quarter of our class was ladies but, as someone said, the downside of that was that three quarters were therefore still men.... Then it became time to start the serious business of the day as the paddock marshall called the Ferraris to the assembly area. The running order was perplexing, instead of having the cars seeded so that the quicker ones join in at the end, making it fairer for the competitors and more exciting for the spectators, it seemed to be random with no logical order until someone pointed out that a Dino at the beginning (2.4 l) and a 550 at the end (5.5 l) gave something of a clue. So, it’s official, according to the MAC bigger engines go faster! First off was Doc Attwood in his Dino, driving it enthusiastically to set a 40.47 sec time. This was immediately bettered by Jack Hargreaves who shared the 308 with Dad Mark, setting a 38.29. Brian Jackson, in his lovely yellow 308, knocked a smidgeon off with a 38.24 before Richard Allen took the mark down to 37.13 despite trying to change into fourth with the gear-blocker in situ. It didn’t work. Pauline Goodwin was the first of the ladies and went quicker than all her practice runs with a 38.29, but it was the next-running Mike Spicer who flew his 328 round in 36.32 to take over the temporary lead. The next five runners were unable to better this; Loraine Hitchman, Sally M-S, Tracy Haynes and Wendy-Ann M were in this group, along with John Marshall in his GT4 which is up for sale – already replaced with a 360 CS which we are really looking forward to seeing on the hills. His time of 37.97 was the quickest ever by a GT4. Then it was James Spicer’s turn, in the 348, and he took the lead from his Dad, setting a 36.26. Julian Playford then took his black 355 round in 40.06 before Phil Whitehead set an excellent 36.91, moving him into third. The first of the big hitters then took to the track. Richard Prior as always took his 355 to the very edge but kept it all together to score a 34.86 time, by far the quickest. Chris Hitchman, one of three Hitchmans competing, had the role of interloper because next up behind him would be the big two – Holman and Butler. Hitchman recorded a 37.54 before we then all disappeared behind the sofa and watched through parted fingers the drama about to unfold. Holman went first, not knowing what his punctured rear tyre would do. But he threw caution to the winds and blasted off the start line and hurtled into the first, quick, corner. A slide was quickly corrected, as was another at the first right-hander, but when he took far too much grass at the Mole Hill we knew that the time had gone. A 35.73 was the result, an excellent time but probably not good enough. Butler by contrast was his usual Buttonesque smoothness and made no errors to score a time of 34.70 and so took the lead.
We had hardly had time to catch our breaths when it was announced that the cars of the first three in the championship - Butler, Prior and Holman - would be taken into parc fermé for scrutineering. The organisers had acted in response to rumours that had been circulating for weeks that some of the cars may have been modified too much outside the limits of what is allowed. PFHC cars are supposed to be largely standard with few modifications allowed and the Series is supposed to be self-policing with little scrutineering being necessary. Luckily all the cars were found to be in compliance with the regs and so we were able to focus back on the final and deciding runs ahead. By now the sun was beginning to lower in the sky and track temperatures were dropping. This probably explains why so few were able to improve on their first run times and most of the order remained the same. Caroline Cooper improved noticeably to 38.82, just half a second behind husband Jeff in their shared 360, and Tony Attwood took his Dino round with a sub-40 sec run of 39.89. Loraine Hitchman also went quicker and got down to a 39.37, her best of the day, and Pa-in-law Peter also knocked nearly three quarters of a second off his 550 time. But inevitably the focus was on the championship battle at the top of the table. Whichever of Butler or Holman finished ahead of the other would win the championship, and any interference from Prior or Taylor would not affect that simple fact. Of the four, it was Prior who ran first; he was blindingly quick through the first half of the course, the 355 on the very edge of adhesion with the tyres fully loaded, but at the top corner he spun!
Then it was Holman’s turn. Driving much smoother this time but with less urgency, it looked as though the time would not be quick enough, and when he missed a gear coming out of the top corner it was all over – 35.44, an improvement but slower than the time Butler had set in R1. Butler could have cruised round on his second run but he tried hard – 35.04, just a little slower than his first run. Taylor was the last of the leading quartet to run, he improved to 35.44 and moved himself up into third overall ahead of Holman. So the final order on the day was Butler, Prior, Taylor and Holman, with the two Spicers, James and Spike, in excellent fifth and sixth places, ahead of the 355s of Phil Whitehead and Richard Preece.
And that was the way the 2012 championship finished. An elated Butler had taken the maximum 20 points to score six maximums out of the nine rounds he entered, giving him a best-8 score of 154. Naturally disappointed, having come so close, was Andrew Holman who took five maximums out of the 13 events he entered, to finish runner-up with a best 8 score of 149.
Richard Prior, knobbled by that pesky champion’s +1% nevertheless drove his socks off to score two maximums and finished the year on a best 8 total of 142. The top six were rounded out by Mike Spicer, Nick Taylor and John Marshall. Our congratulations go to them, indeed to all of the PFHC competitors for having delivered another thrilling season of hillclimbing. Finally the Webteam would like to thank anyone who's contributed to our hillclimb reports this season. We really couldn't do it without you. Next up: Watch this space.... Click here for (unofficial) results and points. Click here for final (unofficial) Championship positions.
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