After a fabulous lunchtime BBQ, kindly provided by Yorkshire Ferrari main dealer JCT 600, the field set off for battle, unfortunately preceded by a typical Harewood "shower". The sun soon came out again, but the lower part of the hill was still very wet for the first runs. The class, including relative newcomer Michael Spicer in his 308 GT4 and the rare and raucous 348 GTC of Nick Frost, coped well with the difficult conditions. New boy, Robin Ward, in his Gordini blue 308GTB had been the sensation of practice and was visibly quicker than anyone else, until he tried a bit too hard exiting Country Corner, spinning off onto the grass.

The ensuing delay benefited those who followed as the track dried out and Brian Jackson, in particular, set an excellent time of 77.08 secs. in his yellow 308 GTB when things were still fairly slippery. BARC Yorkshire Centre Chairman, Simon Clark was given "No Time" in his 328 GTS and had a re-run in the dry immediately prior to the second runs, emerging on top with a 69.14. Clark led the second runs with a 68.56, which eventually proved to be the class-winning time, making full use of up-to-date knowledge of track conditions, not to mention warm tyres and brakes as a result of his run. Still, that's hillclimbing!

The efficiency of the ever-friendly organisers ensured that there would be a third class run and this was where almost all of the best times were set. Everyone was trying very hard and all sorts of glorious Ferrari noises were singing out through the Yorkshire Dales, with some standard cars pulling surprisingly high revs. Watching at the fast Farmhouse Bend proved to be good value with Stuart Bailey (246GT), Christopher England (308GTS) and Geoff Dark (308 GTB) all hanging the tail out. Jeff Simpson drove well to break through his personal wall of 74 seconds, recording a 73.84 in his pretty little 246 Dino. John Swift attacked his local hill with gusto, despite the fact that he was running old Michelin tyres and was not eligible for points. He found that French tyres, unlike French wine, do not improve with keeping, so time to buy some new ones Swifty!

Rising star Robin Ward failed to beat Simon Clark's second run time by just nine hundredths of a second, recording 68.65 secs! Trying his utmost, Clark went straight on at The Esses on his final run, so neither were able to approach Christian Mineeff's long-standing Ferrari record. The final result, then, saw Clark and Ward down in the 68 secs, with Geoff Dark and John Marshall following in third and fourth places. The results were incredibly close, with sixth to thirteenth place covered by less than a second! Battle done and honour satisfied, everyone then headed off to the nearby "Harewood Arms" for dinner.

Hard-fought, but friendly competition and convivial company is the essence of the FHC, which, under the leadership of Richard Allen, explains it's healthy condition. If you are tempted to compete in your Ferrari, but do not want to race, you could not do better than to join in the FHC. To make it even easier, you could attend the Harewood Hillclimb School first to see if it's for you. Avvertire la passione di concorrenza!

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