PIRELLI MARANELLO FERRARI CHALLENGE
REPORT : ROUND 11 : OULTON PARK : 25 & 26 AUGUST 2001

And so we come to Round 11 of this 14 round championship. Whilst the various class leaderships had more or less been decided, there were still some good needle matches in the offing. Would recent 360/Ch-convert Simon Bartholomew be able to triumph over his more experienced rival Ian Hetherington? Who would be the quickest 355 - Gary Culver or David Ashburn? Indeed, around the short Oulton Island course would a 355 be able to take on the 360s?

A reasonably good grid of 23 Ferraris set out for qualifying on late Saturday afternoon, with the track still bathed in warm sunshine - in complete contrast to the downpours of the previous day. The half-hour qualifying session started bang on the dot at 5.30 p.m. but was quickly red-flagged after Chris Chadwick dumped his 355/Ch into the gravel. More drama ensued as Barnett Fletcher's similar tipo pulled into the pits and promptly caught fire.

When the field was released again the two 360/Chs of Hetherington and Bartholomew were soon at the top of the time sheets, with Ian getting pole by almost three quarters of a second. Gary Culver was quickest of the 355/Chs and slotted into third place but closely behind were Skid Carrera and Robin Ward in their similar tipos. Alan Cosby (F512M) was sixth and he was followed, again very closely, by three more 355/Chs, those of Franck Pelle (driving Graham Reeder's car), David Ashburn and Rod Carman.

These qualifying times were being used for Heat 1 but the finishing order of that heat would decide the grid for Heat 2.

Heat 1

On Sunday, although still warm, it had become a little cloudy by the time the cars formed up on the grid at noon to open the TOCA meeting. The crowds seemed enormous.

As the lights went out and the field funnelled into Old Hall there was the inevitable bumping and boring. There were too many versions of the incident to decide who did what to whom but the net result was that Ashburn spun way down the field. Two corners later there was a further coming-together between Carman and Cosby and this time it was the latter who had to rejoin at the very tail-end.

Up at the front, however, Hetherington had moved into an immediate lead from Bartholomew, Ward, Carrera, Culver and Pelle.

Bartholomew hung gamely on to the rear of Hetherington but could not find the extra speed to make an attack, but behind them Culver gradually moved up from seventh place on the first lap to take over third spot and the lead in "C" class by lap seven. Then, however, he heard an almighty bang which caused him to slow down and with the on-set of brake problems he wisely retired.

There was more drama at the front as Hetherington's 360 suddenly went off the road as the brake pedal disappeared. He rejoined the track behind the now-leading Bartholomew but was also passed by the rapid Franck Pelle, who had overtaken Ward for the lead of the "C" class.

It took Hetherington a few laps to adjust to his braking problems and then he re-passed Pelle and immediately gave chase after the leading Bartholomew. Pelle then nearly ruined an excellent drive by spinning and rejoining on the last lap and handing the "C" class lead back to a jubilant Ward.

At the end of the final lap Bartholomew held on to take his first PMFC win by five seconds from Hetherington, with Ward, Pelle and Carman filling the next three slots. Peter Lowe (308GT4) took full advantage of the various casualties in front of him to finish in an excellent sixth place and the two lap one miscreants, Cosby and Ashburn, drove their way back up the field to finish seventh and eighth.

Heat 2

The final race of the day, the Ferrari grid formed up again in glorious sunshine with the crowds surprisingly still in place. Non-starters included Gary Culver, who was unable to trace his brake problem from the previous heat. John Swift was also absent following his retirement from Heat 1 with a badly misfiring engine on his 308GTB. This time Simon Bartholomew sat on pole with Ian Hetherington next to him. In theory, all Simon had to do was stay within five seconds of Hetherington and the overall win would be his.

As the lights went out Hetherington, however, had completely different ideas and he shot into a lead that he inexorably extended, leaving no chance to his pursuers. On top of everything, Bartholomew also made a poor start and dropped behind Ward for the first two laps. Carman had made a blistering start to slot into fourth ahead of Pelle, Cosby, Ashburn and Lowe.

At the front Bartholomew could only watch the fast-disappearing tail of Hetherington's 360 and in turn he pulled out a safe distance from Ward's class-leading 355. Behind him Pelle had taken up the chase, repeating his great drive in the previous heat, but this nearly turned to disaster as the 355 suddenly caught fire following a fuel leak. The track-side marshals quickly extinguished the blaze.

Cosby and Ashburn were now running nose-to-tail in their battle for the vacated fourth place, with the powerful 512M sprinting ahead on the straights but the nimbler 355 catching it in the corners. Once or twice there was contact but there was no way through. On lap 10 the two of them went past the blue 355 of Ward as it developed a persistent misfire, and this elevated them to third and fourth. Peter Lowe also just managed to slip by Ward's ailing car as the chequered flag came out.

Hetherington took the win by 14 seconds and thus ensured the aggregate victory, with Bartholomew in an equally secure second. Cosby took third in the S-class, having pipped Lowe by virtue of quicker aggregate times. The C-class winner, for the first time, was Robin Ward with Ashburn second and Carman third. Steve Young was the easy winner of the underpopulated O-class in both heats.

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