ROUND 6 : Doune: June 16/17th
by Richard Prior

We all know Doune is one of the most demanding of hillclimb tracks with its quick and blind corners and is a long distance to travel to (even for those in the north of England) so for these reasons there were only 5 on the starting grid but they were some of the most committed PFHC Hillclimbers from recent years.

Previous champions (and current FOC Chairman) Richard Allen (328), Chris Butler and Richard Prior in 355s, expert 308 GT4 handler Sean Doyle (now campaigning a 348) and long time hillclimb competitor and circuit racer Pauline Goodwin in her trusty 328 GTB.

We were warned in the final instructions that the tarmac track surface had been re-laid just the week before. Conditions looked to be the same as 2011, lots of rain but now on top of new tarmac could make for a sinister combination.

RP, PG & Old Sean drove in convoy straight to the hill on the Friday evening and took a bracing walk up the track, the Clerk of the Course warned us to be extra careful as early indications were the track would be extremely greasy, "Practice should be taken with great caution, spread the word" he said. Apparently it could take up to 4 years to wear in and get decent grip back!

Saturday practice was a very slow day; in P1 it seemed like every other car on the hill was returning on a recovery truck after ignoring the warnings and didn't treat first practice as they should. One poor Westfield lost control after the first left hand corner and had a very short weekend. Fortunately I can say the sensible Ferrari drivers took heed and avoided any damage.

Chris Butler confirmed it was like ice when he got to the top, Prior turned at the top of East Brae to find no grip and ran onto the grass but still finished, and expert starter Pauline pointed out there was more grip away from the line than we all thought (and she should know). Richard Allen was quickest in the nimble Rat Racer on 62.93.

In P2 RA was still trying hard and controlled a big slide as he emerged into the meadow, he also got it sideways in the last corner and had to back off but he remained at the top of the Ferrari time sheet with 62.55, over Prior (65.11) who had a flapping door number panel through Meadow which finally came adrift at the top of East Brae with Butler over 2 seconds behind on 67.33. PG was still in touch with the group on 68.56 and Sean Doyle brought up the rear with 69.30.

The rain seemed to come and go throughout the day but the track never really dried. More comparing of notes before P3 showed that the Ferraris felt like they were floating through the corners, not quite gripping but not quite getting into a slide, real seat of the pants driving. Talking of which, Sean Doyle felt he was approaching the first left hand corner off the start like young Scott Moran in the top single seat Gould car, but halfway round the corner bottled it and turned back into Sean Doyle again.

For P3 we had accepted the conditions wouldn't improve any more but smoother driving saw a few small changes. Prior finished just 8 hundredths of a second behind leader Richard Allen's time of 63.21, and Pauline Goodwin (67.49) was quicker than Chris Butler's 68.02, thanks to a better start and was already ahead of the 355 by 0.43 of a second after the first 21 yards. Sean was still getting used to the power increase of his 348 over his previous 308 GT4 (in these conditions the GT4 might have been better) but he continued improving to 69.27.

With the practices over at least we could get back to the Dunblane Hydro and a warm bath before our annual evening dinner date with the enthusiastic Scottish Area Groups.

The following morning we could see the rain from the dining room while having breakfast. Not a promising start to the day. At the track we had 1 more practice run before the 2 "officials" (they think competitors take more care when it's called practice) but that's not always true. More delays caused a backlog during the day which meant they eventually had to scrap the lunchbreak, which was a big shame for the Area Group members and Graypaul Ferrari who bought the company demonstrator cars along but were denied the usual convoy run up the track during lunchtime.
4th practice was much the same order as the previous day, Prior leading Butler by 3 hundredths, RA 2 seconds in front of Pauline, who was almost 2 more ahead of Sean.

Into the all important "official" runs now. PG was called forwards first, a smooth run of 65.13 threw the gauntlet down to Doyle who kept his foot in this time to catch her, exiting the tree lined section too fast he was almost spat out of 'The Tunnel' and was unable to take the righthander at Junction, plenty of room to harmlessly spin a 348 without damage in the Meadow, just dented pride this time (even Chris Butler did the same on his first visit here in 2004).
Richard Allen next on track put in a cracking effort of 61.64 and his fastest of the weekend, so good in fact for a 328 that Prior only just beat it by 0.13 in the more powerful 355. Chris Butler finally got the better of Prior this time with 60.91 and took the class lead.

The rain had at least stopped for the final run, you still couldn't call it a dry track and there were more inevitable off's ahead of the skimpy Ferrari class. Pauline's run was cut short by a red flag after a Mini left the track ahead of her. It turned out to be a fortunate restart with warm tyres as Pauline had quite a moment at the righthander at 'Garden Gate' and she knew not to get the power down so early this time which resulted in a much better climb of 63.78. (When PG arrived at the top paddock she realised the earlier 'moment' was close to being disaster as the 328 had kissed the Armco on the right hand side and left it's 'Doune Stripe' mark in the paintwork). Sean made sure he stayed on the black stuff this time and clocked a thrilling 64.00 his best performance of the weekend and only 0.22 behind his arch-rival Pauline.

Richard Allen was trying to make up time on the top two of Butler and Prior when he lost the back end of the 328 going through 'Meadow' and took to the grass but quickly recovered and finished in 83.80. So to the last 2. Prior went first, really pushed his luck through the now slippery Meadow and the tricky right hand kink before ascending East Brae and got to the finish in 57.46, it seemed like a great result, until Chris followed up from a 2.32 start and still slipping sideways through 'The Tunnel' but passed the finish line on the rev limiter in 57.41, taking the class win by just 5 hundredths of a second!

You've got to admire the guts it takes to push that little bit further on such a treacherous surface, Chris got the 20 points too, from Prior on 17, Allen 15, PG on 13 and even Sean got a suitable reward of 12 points for completing the day unscathed.

This is a fantastic place at which to compete and certainly deserves more Ferraris on the entry list. If we return next year we'll need to entice some more of those adventurous PFHC drivers to join us.