This was one of the best PMFC grids ever seen

Micheals narrowly leads into the first corner, Culver is right behind

Shaun Powell retired from a strong fourth place

Close stuff: Skid Carrera and Robin Ward sort out 5th place early in the race

Hetherington throws the 360 through Camp with Ashburn and Lowe behind

John Seale worked hard for the win, from 5th to 1st

The 328 of John Taylor sticks its nose hard into the barriers, but he was fine

Heroes all: Seale, Hetherington, Smeeton, Micheals and Culver

pics by Paul/Fotografia Corse

PIRELLI MARANELLO FERRARI CHALLENGE
RACE REPORT : ROUND 2 : CASTLE COMBE : 16 APRIL 2001

Seale's Calculation

On paper it already looked a good entry but by the time we arrived at Castle Combe a few more late entries made this surely one of the best grids ever.

It was particularly exciting to see no less than five 360 Challenges, with Mark Cale and Nathan Kinch joining the three we had already seen at the previous Donington round. The "C" class had twelve 355/Chs, including the first appearance by current RAC Hillclimb Champion, David Grace. The "O" class also, from being a little thin at Donington, had grown to six entries, which included Simon Bartholomew's new 360 Modena and the welcome reappearance of David Ashburn in his F355.

The 12-cylinder heavy metal included the two very quick flat-12s of Alan Cosby and Skid Carrera. We were going to be in for a peach of a race.

Morning qualifying under grey but dry conditions turned into a chaotic affair. After everyone had done a couple of laps the session was red-flagged as Mark Cale hit Ian Hetherington in the chicane and was unable to re-start his 360/Ch, which was stranded broadside across the track. When the field was released again John Taylor (328GTB), whose car had been trailing oily smoke from the beginning, lost the rear end at Camp Corner and hit the tyre barriers at frightening speed. John was fine but the car bounced back on the race track and we expected another red flag which, however, did not materialise. David Grace, who had been following Taylor, said that fluid had been leaking from the back of the car and this had probably got on to the tyres.

Mercifully, the chequered flag came out before there were any further incidents and pole position ended up with Gary Culver (355/Ch) ahead of Seale (360/Ch) and series returnee Andrew Micheals in his indecently quick 308GT4. Fourth, and benefitting from a couple of days of testing at Castle Combe, was Shaun Powell (355/Ch) ahead of Skid Carrera (Testarossa), Hetherington (360/Ch) and Ward (355/Ch). Amongst the "O" class, Richard Smeeton (360) was the highest on the grid but only just ahead of Ashburn (355) and John Avery (355).

The happenings after qualifying brought complete confusion. Firstly, most of the drivers were called to the Clerk of the Course for alleged yellow flag infringements following Taylor's accident. It turned out, however, that no green flag had been shown after the incident but it took a long time to determine this. Somehow only Alan Cosby failed to escape the 10-second penalty. Then it was decided that all the 360/Chs exceeded the circuit's noise limit and were thus going to be excluded from the meeting. Further discussions took place and it was lunchtime before a grid sheet was issued, which showed all the 360s back in their normal places.

A heavy shower during the lunchbreak threatened a damp race but by the 3.30 p.m. start all was dry again, except there were spots of rain in the air. The grid, as always at Castle Combe, was tightly packed and we feared the worst as they headed off towards Quarry Corner. There a cloud of blue smoke erupted, followed by waving yellow flags, as Smeeton was tapped into a spin and various others got caught in the melée, although all continued.

As they streamed by on the first lap Micheals was leading ahead of Culver, Powell, Ward, Seale, Hetherington and Carrera. The front group soon distanced themselves from the rest of the field and by the third lap Micheals, Culver, Seale and Powell were in a jostling nose-to-tail group. Seale firstly slipped passed Culver and by half distance had moved into the lead, followed by Culver and Micheals, although the order of the latter two was soon reversed again.

Powell was an unfortunate retirement from this leading group as his engine dropped on to four cylinders.

Micheals hung grimly on to the tail of Seale's 360 and made a frantic last corner attempt to slip around the outside in the run up to the chequered flag but Seale crossed the line first, having moderated his pace to do just enough for the win.

Culver finished a few seconds behind to take an easy "C" class win, followed by Hetherington's 360, who had Ward glued to his tail. Nathan Kinch finished an excellent seventh, ahead of Peter Lowe and then another tightly packed bunch of cars consisting of Smeeton, Grace, Rod Carman (355/Ch) and Ashburn, all four of whom finished within one and a half seconds of each other.

Smeeton's drive to the "O" class win was another good one. Having dropped to 13th place and behind Ashburn and Bartholomew as a result of his first lap spin, he then picked his way passed the other two class rivals to narrowly take the "O" class win.

Alan Cosby made up excellent ground from his back of the grid starting position - into 17th on lap three, seventh place by lap eight but with every prospect of making up further places he spun on the last lap and slipped back to 14th again. Skid Carrera, in the Zest Testarossa, looked most dramatic as the stiffly sprung car skipped and jumped over the Combe bumps and the inevitable happened on lap seven when he spun at Camp and soon after retired.

It had been a tremendous race, with many battles up and down the field but an excellent and tactical drive by Seale gave him the win he deserved. Micheals' drove his heart out in the GT4 and admitted afterwards to being somewhat out of shape for what had been a very physical race. Culver firmly cemented his reputation by his drive into third overall and a good win in the "C" class.

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