Race Report - Round 11 & 12 - 2002 Pirelli Maranello Ferrari Challenge - Club Racing Series'

PIRELLI MARANELLO FERRARI CHALLENGE
REPORT : ROUNDS 11 & 12 : BRANDS HATCH : 3/4 AUGUST 2002

Being invited to race at the prestigious Ferrari Maserati Festival was a nice accolade for the PMFC and it ensured a good entry of 28 cars for this double-header. It also brought out a few new faces. Marco Attard, a quick pedaller of 355/Chs in years gone by, had hired Simon Bartholomew's 360/Ch for the weekend and it would prove interesting to see how his recent drives in the British GT Championship (in a 360GT) have sharpened his already considerable skills. Martin Rich was having his first Ferrari race in a 355/Ch run by Robin Mortimer and Club Secretary, Peter Everingham, was having a one-off drive in Richard Allen's 328 GTB.

There was plenty of practice time, starting with the Club's Track Day on the Wednesday, which was used by a number of the racers to find out which way the Brands GP circuit went, and there was further free practice available on the Thursday and Friday.

Official qualifying took place on Saturday morning and it was Marco Attard who took a superb pole position over half a second ahead of Gary Culver (360/Ch), who was followed by the similar tipos of Oliver Morley, Richard Smeeton and, in his best ever qualifying performance, Mark Cale. The "C" class was, with no less than 14 entries, very competitive at the top and Chris Catt was narrowly quickest ahead of Graham Scott and Richard Stevens. In the "O" class John Taylor dominated again in his 360 Modena, ahead of David Back (355). The latter unfortunately clanged into the barriers at some speed and deranged his car sufficiently for it to become a non-starter for the rest of the weekend.

The threatened rain had kept away all day and as the grid formed up at 4.30 p.m.on Saturday everything was nice and warm and ready for a great race.

Unusually for Brands, Attard managed to make the most of his pole position and he shot into Paddock Bend in the lead just ahead of Morley, Culver, Scott (demon start from seventh!), Smeeton, Catt and Stevens (Cat Stevens.....).

As the field streamed around on their opening lap we had the first of an unfortunately succession of accidents as Les Charneca hit the barriers in his 355 and damaged it too such an extent that his whole weekend was over. Then, as they dipped into Paddock Bend for the second time Scott lost his 355 in the biggest way possible and hit the outside barriers very hard. Another gone for the whole weekend. A further casualty was Shaun Powell, who hit the barriers at Druids and pulled into the pits to retire with severe bodywork damage. Not a good start.

At the front Attard began to drop Morley but the latter was being caught by the flying Culver and on lap 4 Culver slipped cleanly by going into Druids to take second place. He immediately closed up on Attard, with Morley trailing in third and Smeeton an equally lonely fourth.

Behind them the "C" class battle was intense between Catt, Stevens and Rich and they were gradually joined by Henry Lawson (355/Ch), who had magnificently worked his way up from 16th on the grid. Ted Reddick (355/Ch), Cale and a curiously off-form Alan Newton (355/Ch) followed in places 9, 10 and 11.

On lap 8 we lost another runner as Mike Furness's "O" class 328 went over a large piece of debris dropped by another car and wedged under his rear suspension, pitching him into the barriers.

On the penultimate of ten laps, Attard and Culver were still running nose to tail but Morley had dropped some six seconds back, with Smeeton running in a lonely fourth ahead of the incredible four-car 355/Ch battle between Catt, Stevens, Rich and Lawson. The order stayed the same to the chequered flag and it was a delighted Catt who took his first-ever "C" class win whilst Attard, of course, wrapped up the big class.

John Taylor had run a lonely race to win the "C" class ahead of Peter Everingham and Jon Goodwin (Mondial t).

An excellent race spoilt by lots of damage to four cars, of which only one (Powell's) was repairable for the Sunday race.

The second race on Sunday midday started in bizarre fashion. It began to rain as the cars sat on the dummy grid and the officials classified it as a "wet" race. Then, however, instead of being allowed the usual ten minutes to change to wet tyres the field was waved away for two green flag laps, with everyone still being on slicks. As they formed up on the grid proper the rain had largely stopped but the track was still glistening wet. Extra caution on slithery slicks was the order of the day.

Marco Attard, who had never driven his car in the wet before, made a cautious start from pole position and it was Culver who led away, followed by Morley and Smeeton, with Attard next, followed by Catt in the leading "C" class car.

By lap 2 Culver had already drawn out a significant advantage over Morley but Attard was beginning to move forward. As he locked on to Smeeton's tail the latter spun in the tricky conditions and dropped down to 20th place before resuming.

On lap 3 Culver had a 5sec lead but Attard was now right on Morley's tail and as they rounded Druids Morley's car got away from him and he hit the barriers with sufficient force to bend the bodywork on to a front tyre. He pulled into the pits and retired. Attard then set off after the flying Culver and a couple of laps later had caught him up but then threw it all away with a harmless but time-consuming spin at the bottom of Graham Hill. He resumed in second place but by now Culver was 16 seconds up the road.

Behind them came a repeat of the fabulous "C" class battle we had seen on Saturday, with Catt, Lawson and Powell furiously contesting the class lead and third place overall. Smeeton was also flying up the order. From dropping down to 20th place as a result of his spin, he was back up to sixth by lap 7 but could make no further progress on the "C" class battle ahead of him.

By the time the chequered flag came out Culver had eased his pace back and Attard closed up to within ten seconds; whilst the others were spinning Gary had kept it all together in the difficult conditions and never made a mistake. The "C" class scrap narrowly went to Lawson who finished third overall, followed by Catt and Powell, with all three covered by less than one second. Smeeton finished in a lonely sixth place, followed by Reddick, Stevens and Witt Gamski (355/Ch).

The other great battle of the race was down in mid-field between Cale, Robert Carrington (355/Ch), David Ward (360/Ch) and Duncan McKay (355/Ch). They shot around the track as if glued together until Ward manged to pull out an advantage but the other three flashed across the line together in the order Cale, Carrington and McKay, having had a clean and exciting contest.

In the "O" class Taylor almost had some competition whilst the track was still wet and slippery in the early stages. Jon Goodwin was almost able to overcome the power disadvantage of his Mondial and closed to within a few seconds, but as the track dried he began to drop back again. However, he took an excellent second in class, ahead of Richard Allen's 328.

Another good race, with numerous battles keeping the large crowd of spectators thoroughly entertained!