In short - the rubbish weather continued unabated, there was a record entry, negligible incidents and Butler won his fourth 20 pointer out of four entered.

What, you want more detail?  The day had started dry but rain had always been forecast at some point, and many had had their drive over interrupted with some very heavy showers. As ever, our lads and lassies in the Pirelli Ferrari Hillclimb Championship were optimistic and tipped out to the person to make an all time record entry of 28 drivers in 26 cars. Shared entries being Mr and Mrs Cooper in the 360 and Hargreaves and son in their 308. The paddock was a splendid sight indeed with mucho pleasure expressed by spectators and the organisers alike. We had one new driver amongst us, Jim Campbell, in a 355 Spider. I'm not sure how many people in the group found out about this man’s past, as an ex-Scottish Hillclimb Champion with a rather bulging motor sport CV, this rag top 355 driver was going to be of interest here.

It was lovely to see the return of our doctor, Tony Attwood, complete with a full set of 6 pistons all facing the right way and not a hole in any of them! A pair of Dinos in the pack is always better than one; they are beloved by all.

It quickly became known that a fair few in the field had taken advantage of the Hagley & District Light Car Club’s charity event a couple of weeks before. It seems that members of the public had actually paid to have passenger rides up the hill with this lot! Some runs were apparently quite fast, with some, like Nick Taylor, asked to slow down by their customers. So Nick Taylor, the Spice Boys, the Goodwins, Prior and Doyle had all had been getting in some sneaky practice. 

First practice was dry yet slippery. There was a degree of tentativeness amongst the field, doing what some say you’re meant to do in practice and not go ballistic. Personally I prefer to think of practice as the perfect time to test grip levels, but such a philosophy has had to be re-evaluated as it has so often given me fastest times then rather than when they count!  In the end it was Taylor who was quickest.

Then the rains came, throughput suffered as cars went off into the undergrowth and everyone tried to keep as dry and as jolly as possible under the well known, much loved, but slightly leaky hillclimb gazebo (a sponsorship opportunity if ever there was one!). Meanwhile, there were others working terribly hard at keeping the event going. On the spectator side of the track at Triangle there is a large water sump, what used to be a pond before the MSA got too worried about competitors falling in and drowning, what with the advent of seat belts and so on restricting rapid exit from cars under water. So this was duly filled in with shale, but that still means water flows from the hills around, up through the rocks behind, and into this cavity, ready to tip over the track at a moments notice in a stream in its attempt to travel south. In the absence of what one may think the sensible solution, a pipe under the track to drain it to the other side, there is a man whose job it is to lay a plastic hose across the track and start a pump downwind to try to keep up with the dampness. He had already been up most of Friday night and was on duty Saturday night as well, fuelled only by cans of Strongbow and complaining about never having enough time to get enough water out during the day.

So, P2 was clearly going to be a challenge and would sort those con cojones. We reckoned the damp would put at least 8 seconds onto the times. Yet it took Mark Hargreaves, Campbell and Doyle only 3 seconds longer whilst New Shaun got his time down to just a second longer at 75, but perhaps that also included learning this track, new to him. However, it was the double runners who provided the excitement, Jack Hargreaves was actually a smidge quicker, but the prize went to Caroline Cooper.  Although new to competition of the four-wheeled variety and used to 399 horsepower less, she stormed up the hill knocking four seconds off her dry time and finished on 76.36, a time that placed her 11th fastest! Clearly husband Jeff would have to keep an eye out here.

Lunch was a BBQ provided again by our friends from the local hostelry, and again very kindly arranged by Jon Goodwin. It was a trifle damp; our usual ground had turned into a bit of a quagmire and trying to eat a plateful at the same time as hold an umbrella and keep feet dry, whilst sitting on a damp wall, brought out people’s ingenuity. But none the less it was enjoyed by all and, as the sun came out, we were able to cut a cake, kindly provided by PG, to commemorate Sergio Ransford’s retirement from motor sport. Sergio, the only Italian amongst us, is an ebullient founder member of the Tortoise sub-group, he always brings fun and friendliness to the paddock and entertained many a marshal with classical music emanating from his car up to the start line. He will be sadly missed, his 308 goes off to auction soon and his helmet may still be in date if you’re on the scrounge.  Someone else will have to torment Tracey Haynes from now on.

The sun was now doing its job. To its credit, Loton always does dry out quickly and our man on the pump had been working hard, so we were presented with what looked like a pretty dry track for our first “official” run. We were also rather aware, with dark skies over Wales that this was likely to be our only chance at a time (and it was as it turned out); it’s a difficult balance when you might need to get it right on just one run, so no pressure then.

The double drives of Mrs Cooper and Hargreaves Jnr. set off first; they went at the end of the previous batch to enable the cars to return for the other drivers to go up with the main group. What is always a concern here is that the weather may intervene and enable those early runners to have a dry track, and the rest of us face a downpour. We were safe this time. The majority were quicker than P1 but Tracey Haynes (328), John Marshall (GT4) and Pauline Goodwin (328) were unhappy not to see an improvement. Having said that, this was Tracey’s first outing for a while so her runs that nearly cracked the 70 second barrier were impressive.

Lorraine Hitchman (328) got under 80 seconds, Mark Hargreaves managed a 73 second run as did Tony Attwood, who squeaked ahead in his Dino, whilst Wendy Ann Marshall (328) got it together a tenth of a second quicker on 73.26. New Shaun had a pep talk from his wife and managed a 70.89 with Jack H a smidge ahead, but who was going to get down under 70? The first to do so was our Italian stallion Ransford with a retirement run of 69.03. Brian Jackson could always be a threat on PEP and we would need to get the calculators out for his 66.65 run, proving in the end to be good for 6th place on points. Following him up the hill shortly afterwards was Daddy Spice (328), Mike was lying second in the championship table and had been quietly racking up some points and his time of 64.68 would require the front runners to knock off at least a second from their previous runs to better that.

RA (355) followed but, despite a fast start of 2.33, was still on 64, Phil Whitehead (355) also improved to a 65. Holman combined a cracking start of 2.26 seconds with a scrappy run to leave him disappointed on 62.52, leaving the field wide open for the following three to gnaw away into the 61’s. Prior (355) got 61.78, knowing his 1% champ’s penalty could damage his placing, Butler (355) was faster on 61.51 and comfortably ahead so far, but Taylor (430) had his eye on the points until he saw the clock stop at 61.40 which would not be far enough ahead to get them.

Then the rain started and thus our gallant top three overall would remain as Taylor, Butler and Prior. Butler was once again dominant in the points stakes with four appearances and four 20 points. Was there no stopping this man? Prior was second and Holman third.

Despite the result being settled, ours are a competitive bunch and talk turned to how close you could get to the morning’s wet run. Halfway around Triangle we were now presented not with wet, but a ford!  The water wasn’t too deep on the inside line I took, just a bit of aquaplaning, but others going wide caused plumes of spray to go up towards the hardy spectators’ area.  Miraculously all of the Italian electrics kept working.

One of those trying too hard was Jim Campbell, whom we haven’t followed so far. Jim had been getting used to the car and remembering the hill from days gone by, but forgot about putting the power down too early out of the top corner, leaving him with the slowest time of the day with 104 seconds, but one that included a spin and 5 point turn.

Lorraine’s wet time was significantly improved, as was that of Richard Preece (355) who is clearly getting to grips with the new car. Swifty (355) was just ahead of him however. Butler also improved to a 72.90, but Holman piped him with a 71.57 and thought he was going to walk away with the wet prize; until rainmeister Prior finished nearly a second quicker on 69.73, an incredible time in the conditions.

Shortly after most repaired gratefully to nearby hostelries and later enjoyed a meal together and all prayed for better weather the next day when they were going to do it all again.

Ferrari/Lotus Intermarque Challenge

Last year the organisers for the Ferrari and Lotus championships got together and came up with a little intermarque challenge. Each would nominate 10 drivers they thought would get closest to their personal best. The differences would be added together and averaged out with the team nearest their total PB times winning. Well the inaugural year’s results were disappointing for Scuderia Ferrari Velocità Montagna GB to say the least, however, we now have this event’s figures, based on the dry first official run only as the Loti go all funny in the rain.

Team Lotus

1. Lyn Bird - PB = 70.57 / 2012 = 72.40 / diff = + 1.83
2. Gordon Morrison - PB = 66.11 / 2012 = 70.09 / diff = + 3.98
3. Jane Millward - PB = 65.08 / 2012 = 68.62 / diff = + 3.54
4. Richard Shimmin - PB = 64.83 / 2012 = 68.08 / diff = + 3.25
5. Dick Swindall - PB = 65.17 / 2012 = 71.09 / diff = + 5.92
6. Steve Millward - PB = 66.81 / 2012 = 68.94 / diff = + 2.13
7. Nikki Cottrill - PB = 60.39 / 2012 = 63.33 / diff = + 2.94
8. John Cottrill - PB = 63.26 / 2012 = 63.39 / diff = + 0.13
9. Tony Wallen - PB = 55.98 / 2012 = 56.23 / diff = + 0.25
10. John Palmer - PB = 57.55 / 2012 = 60.84 / diff = + 3.29

Total difference = + 27.26 / average per competitor = + 2.73 seconds.

Scuderia Ferrari Velocità Montagna GB

1. Richard Allen - PB = 62.39 / 2012 = 64.66 / diff = + 2.27
2. Mike Spicer - PB = 63.72 / 2012 = 64.68 / diff = + 0.96
3. Chris Hitchman - PB = 65.68 / 2012 = 69.66 / diff = + 3.98
4. John Marshall - PB = 66.81 / 2012 = 68.23 / diff = + 1.42
5. Phil Whitehead - PB = 62.42 / 2012 = 65.30 / diff = + 2.88
6. Pauline Goodwin - PB = 65.38 / 2012 = 67.68 / diff = + 2.30
7. Richard Prior - PB = 60.79 / 2012 = 61.78 / diff = + 0.99
8. Tony Attwood - PB = 72.22 / 2012 = 73.39 / diff = + 1.17
9. Andrew Holman - PB = 61.95 / 2012 = 62.52 / diff = + 0.57
10. Tracey Haynes - PB = 66.73 / 2012 = 72.52 / diff = + 5.79

Total difference = + 22.33 / average per competitor = + 2.23 seconds.

Commendatore Richard Prior reports “We beat them by an average of 0.5 of a second per driver (overturning the thrashing we got in 2011) with the top 2 performers being Andrew Holman, only 0.57 slower than his PB in the dry, and Mike Spicer just 0.96 off his best in the 328 GTB. Congratulations to all in Team Ferrari!”

Next up: Loton Park: July 15

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