The Midsummer Splash

The meeting was laughingly called "Midsummer Astons" but there was little summer about it as the cars splashed around the Brands short circuit in teeming rain. Given the conditions, it is a great credit to the field that there were so few incidents.

Following on closely from the car-damaging previous round at Castle Combe, it was a relief to see a reasonable field of 20 Ferraris turn up for qualifying on the Saturday. Ian Hetherington (F50) took his now habitual place at the head of the field but less than one tenth behind was Alan Cosby (F512M), with Graham Reeder being the quickest of the Challenge cars. Gary Culver drove splendidly in his "O" class 355 to take fifth on the grid. His regular sparring partner, David Ashburn, qualified out of session and was to start from the back of the grid with a 10-second penalty.

Rory Fordyce took over the Zest Testarossa for this race and put it seventh on the grid and it was also an impressive circuit debut for current Ferrari Hillclimb champion, Robin Ward, who occupied 11th slot.

The race start was not until 5.00 p.m. on the Sunday and by then a gradual drizzle had settled over the Brands bowl. As the cars came out for their formation lap, the heavens opened and conditions became even more treacherous, with large areas of water collecting on the track.

Pole position at Brands is notoriously unhelpful and it was no surprise to see Alan Cosby slither into an immediate lead from Hetherington's F50 and Peter Lowe's 308GT4. Phil Nuttall had made an excellent start from sixth on the grid to lead the Challenge cars from Graham Reeder, with Rory Fordyce next up.

The "O" class battle got as far as the fourth corner, when the leading Gary Culver slid off the streaming wet track, hit the bank and went no further. This gave the class lead to Shaun Powell (F355), who already had the determined Robin Ward in his rear view mirrors.

At the front Hetherington hung on gamely to Cosby's car but the latter had it all under control. Despite the conditions and the frequent lapping of slower cars on this short circuit, Cosby looked secure and the F50, although only just behind, was not able to find a gap. Behind the two leaders Peter Lowe circulated quickly and on his own to maintain a firm grip on third place and in fourth place came Phil Nuttall, who maintained his lead in the Challenge class, ahead of Fordyce's Testarossa and the second 355 Challenge of Graham Reeder.

The track conditions caught out David Ashburn, who had fought his way up from the back of the grid to be just behind the class-leading 355 of Shaun Powell. He recovered from the spin and re-caught Powell to finish less than half a second behind when the chequered flag came down.

The drive of the race, however, was that of Robin Ward, who took his near-standard 308 into an amazing seventh overall, easily ahead of all the "O" class runners. His little-modified car and his deft hand on the tiller proved an ideal combination in the awful conditions.

Cosby kept it all on the road to take his second successive win in a row, with Hetherington 1½ secs. behind, and then a large gap to Peter Lowe. Nuttall managed to narrowly hold off Fordyce's Testarossa and in sixth and seventh places were Reeder and Ward, with Shaun Powell winning the "O" class in eighth place overall. It was a very wet and no doubt relieved bunch of Ferraris which took the chequered flag after 15 laps of racing in the most difficult conditions.

The next round will take place at Thruxton on Saturday 23rd July 2000.