At the start, Andy dives inside the front row....

...but halfway round he's back in third

Cale and Lowe finished just 1sec apart, the older car in front

The tremendous race between Carman, Ward and Reeder. The latter won

Nathan Kinch impressed all and won from pole

The 360/Ch of Hetherington opened a healthy gap to his persuers Culver and Cosby

Jon Goodwin makes, as always, his Mondial work

Robin does like the rally drivers. It didn't work and he fell off

pics by Paul/Fotografia Corse

PIRELLI MARANELLO FERRARI CHALLENGE
RACE REPORT : ROUND 5 : ROCKINGHAM : 13 MAY 2001

Nobody could remember a previous occasion when one driver has so comprehensively cleaned up at a PMFC race. Nathan sat on an easy pole position, commandingly won the race, set a fastest lap 1.5 secs quicker than anyone else and, on top of all that, also took the Driver of the Meeting award as well as the trophy for the best turned-out car. What's more, he thoroughly deserved every single one of them.

The Rockingham meeting was eagerly awaited, albeit with some trepidation. Not many people had seen an oval course before but the stories about the unreadiness of the track made everyone a little nervous. In the event, despite there being the occasional hiccup, it turned into a wonderful race meeting held in warm, sunny and dry conditions.

The circuit used on the day included some of the oval course but was mostly on the infield which, however, turned out to be a little fiddly and point and squirt. Some of the drivers were even using first gear for the hairpins and the ideal gearing was similar to that of the Brands Indy circuit.

On pole position sat the gleaming silver 360/Ch of Nathan Kinch, with Ian Hetherington's similar tipo alongside on the front row. Alan Cosby (F512M) and Andy Chrisopher (308GTB) occupied the second row ahead of the first of the 355/Chs driven, inevitably, by Gary Culver.

The "O" class was again an evenly matched affair between Simon Bartholomew and Richard Smeeton, both in 360 Modenas, who qualified just 0.15 secs apart with David Ashburn's F355 a couple of seconds behind.

The grid looked tremendously impressive as it lined up on the pit straight in front of the massive grandstand structure. As the lights turned green Andy Christopher tried to dive down the banking on the inside of the two front row 360s but by the time they reached the first corner Kinch just moved ahead from Hetherington, Christopher, Culver and Cosby. The "O" class battle was over as soon as it had begun when Bartholomew was forced to park up his 360 on the first lap with transmission failure.

The field howled around the start/finish banking on lap one, with Kinch edging into the lead and Hetherington in an equally secure second place. Behind them Cosby and Culver ran nose-to-tail ahead of David Jones (360/Ch), with Andy Christopher hanging gamely on, and then one of the best battles of the race which lasted until the very last lap between the three 355/Chs of Rod Carman, Robin Ward and Graham Reeder.

The first three stretched their lead out further and further, with Kinch comfortably ahead of Hetherington who in turn was well clear of Cosby's F512M. Culver, running in fourth place, was however being caught by David Jones and Christopher but because they were in a different class he conceded his position and Christopher took fourth place overall, whilst Jones disappeared into the gravel on lap eight and became a non-finisher.

The tremendous battle between Reeder/Ward/Carman ran for lap after lap, with plenty of slipstreaming (or drafting, as we should call it) until Carman lost his ABS and slipped back, and Reeder performed a magnificent last lap manoeuvre to get by Ward and finish sixth overall and second in the "C" class.

Smeeton ran a lonely race to take an easy "O" class win from David Ashburn's 355, the latter having been knocked into a spin by an unidentified black car (probably Mark Cale's).

Retirements included the 355/Chs of Phil Nuttall with throttle problems, and David Grace, who threw it into the gravel on the second lap.

In the Club's marquee after the race Nathan charmingly collected his various awards from Pirelli's Steve Bradwick It is hoped that this young star will continue to stay for a while in the PMFC before inevitably moving into the European 360 Challenge, where his father and older brother already race. Like Robbie Sterling, Tony Worswick and John Wilson before him, his will be a name we will see in much quicker forms of racing before long.

The various results have left Richard Smeeton with a handy "O" class lead ahead of Simon Bartholomew, whilst in the "S" class Ian Hetherington has moved into the lead ahead of John Seale, who has decided to concentrate on his European 360 ambitions instead of doing any further PMFC races. In the "C" category Gary Culver seems unstoppable but Robin Ward has now consolidated his second position from Shaun Powell, who will be out of racing for some months following his leg injury.

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