PIRELLI MARANELLO FERRARI CHALLENGE

RACE REPORT: ROUNDS 4 & 5 : DONINGTON PARK - 24/25 MAY 2003

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Being the Ferrari and Maserati Festival it was inevitable that the meeting would attract a good entry from the PMFC runners. In fact, the only noticeable one missing from the entry list was Terry Coleman, who had long ago planned a holiday, but a welcome addition was Ian Flux driving Coleman's spare 360/Ch. This was the ex-Carrington car which, in the hands of Marco Attard the previous season, had already shown its paces. Flux was guest driver, not eligible for PMFC points.

A significant returnee was current PMFC champion Gary Culver (360/Ch), who is unfortunately only planning on doing a part-time season but had decided to test the mettle of the current crop of front runners. Ian Hetherington was also having his first race of the season in the 550 Maranello which proved so recalcitrant last year. Some detailed revisions to the braking system had transformed it and Ian was feeling much happier about its prospects.

Twenty eight cars set out for qualifying; ten of them being 360/Chs and no less than 12 competing in the "C" class. The "O" class was again the laggard with only two entries, but then we did have the Formula Classic race to look forward to, which would include a number of cars that would have qualified as "O" class runners.

The first qualifying session took place at 9.00 a.m. on Saturday under threatening skies but a dry track. Young Lewis Carter snatched an impressive pole ahead of the similar 360/Chs of Marco Attard, Peter Sowerby, Gary Culver, Ian Flux and Oliver Morley. The latter, however, was already in trouble with probably a broken camshaft which would see him side-lined for the rest of the meeting. Phil Burton (360/Ch), whilst 8th on the grid, suffered from gearbox maladies and the JMH team quickly had to get his spare 360 race-ready. The Hetherington 550 went well and claimed a fifth row starting position.

Amongst the "C" class 355s Henry Lawson was quickest, followed by Les Charneca, Chris Catt and, in his best showing yet, David Back.

Some of the "C" class boys were also having problems. Graham Reeder sat at the very back of the grid, having suffered from an oil leak and a slipping clutch, whilst Ted Reddick had his 355's engine go bang. Ted managed, however, to just qualify on the back row and when Charneca discovered that his clutch had failed the two came to a deal whereby one good 355/Ch would be cobbled together and each would do one race in it.

Later in the morning there was a second qualifying session but soon after the cars hit the track a heavy rain shower swept across Donington and it was generally the time from the first practice which decided the grid.

Race 1

3.00 p.m. on Saturday was the scheduled start for the first of the two PMFC races. The weather had remained threatening all day, with another heavy downpour during the lunch break, but by the time the cars lined up on the grid the track was completely dry. Everyone looked forward to the prospect of a very exciting race with some additional uncertainties as to how the newcomers like Flux, Culver and Hetherington would fare.

Carter got his start badly wrong and it was Attard who shot into the lead, followed by Culver, Carter, Niarchos, Sowerby and Flux. In the course of the first lap there were so many position changes at the front that lap charting became impossible but at the end of the first lap Culver was in the lead, with Carter right on his tail and then a small gap to a group of four cars in the order Flux, Attard, Niarchos and Sowerby. Then came Hetherington all on his own followed by the "C" class contest in the order Lawson, Catt, Gamski and Back.

By the third lap Culver, Carter and Flux were completely glued together nose to tail down the straights and fanning out as they tried to out-brake each other into some of Donington's sharp corners. It was a wonderful race for the spectators. Attard was in a solid fourth place and was dropping Niarchos and Sowerby, with a slightly bigger gap back to Hetherington's 550. The "C" class was equally tight with Lawson and Catt running nose to tail and Gamski in third place, but there were two "C" class runners who were really flying up from their back row starting positions: G. Reeder and Reddick (driving Charneca's car). At the half way stage they had already moved into fourth and fifth in their class and were looking good to make further progress.

At the front the racing was inch perfect but neither Carter nor Flux could dislodge Culver from his first place. At one point Flux made a slight error and dropped back and then ran a sensational 1:13.9 sec. lap to catch up again, which was over a second quicker than anyone else had gone. But as soon as he caught up with the Culver/Carter scrap there was again no way past.

Graham Reeder was beginning to catch the Lawson/Catt battle for "C" class honours but then his clutch began to slip and he disappeared down the order again. Mark Cale (360/Ch) inherited tenth place overall from Reeder but was almost caught by the flying Reddick who had moved all the way up to third in class by now.

And so the race ran its course with Culver taking the narrowest of wins from Carter and Flux, with Attard, Sowerby and a slightly subdued Niarchos finishing next. Hetherington finished seventh and was followed home by the "C" class winners Lawson and Catt, who finished just two tenths of a second apart.

Race 2

The second PMFC race took place on Sunday with a slightly delayed start at just before 3.00 p.m. Although there had again been the odd rain shower the weather was quite warm and dry by the time the field took their grid positions. These were the same as for Race 1 so those who had fought their way towards the front had to do it all over again. This time Charneca was back in his own 355 and Reddick had to sit it out. A few of the 308/328 brigade had also decided to give this race a skip and save their cars for the Formula Classic encounter later in the afternoon.

This time Lewis Carter made no mistake at the start and he pulled into an immediate lead ahead of Culver, Sowerby, Attard and Flux.

Then it suddenly went wrong. The red flags came out and the field trickled back to the start line. As usual the story varied depending on whom one spoke to but in a nutshell Charneca, Lawson, Niarchos and Catt got involved in a fracas which ended up with immobilised cars being left in exposed positions and the Clerk of the Course wisely hit the abort button.

Catt and Niarchos became immediate non-starters but Lawson's bashed car was hastily taped together and allowed to take the re-start.

There was confusion on the grid as no-one was quite sure whether it was a re-start of the race (in which case the original grid positions had to be adopted) or whether it was a continuation (in which case the finishing order after lap one would count).

Again it was Carter who led cleanly away from Attard, Culver, Sowerby, Hetherington and Flux. At the end of the first lap Culver dived inside Attard at the chicane but got it wrong and had a mighty spin as he pulled on to the main straight. Normally this is a pit wall basher but somehow he kept it away from the solid stuff but dropped back down to 13th place.

At the front Carter pulled quickly away from Sowerby, who had moved ahead of Attard, and the rapidly closing Flux. The latter got ahead of Attard and set off after Sowerby's silver 360 but on the fourth lap Flux spun coming out of McLean's and it took him a while to re-start the hot engine. With any hope of a decent place gone he pulled into the pits to retire. Attard and Hetherington then settled into places three and four.

The "C" class was led by Charneca from David Back, with Graham Reeder again making up many places from his back row start. Culver, too, was making up places after his spin but any hope of a podium position was long gone.

Charneca lost his "C" class lead with a spin and this was gratefully inherited by Back, who led the class for the first time ever, but rapidly closing was Reeder, with Lawson and Alan Newton in very close attendance. It was a great mid-field scrap. Charneca was also making up places again

At the front little was happening. Carter eased off and cruised round with Sowerby, Attard and Hetherington all at respectful distances. Hetherington's 550 was beginning to look a little wayward with its rear tyres over-cooked and fuel starvation also hampering its progress. Lawson retired on the ninth lap with bodywork rubbing on his front wheel. By this time Hetherington's 550 was becoming even more of a handful and he lost his fourth place to, firstly, the recovering Culver and then on the last lap Phil Burton managed to slip by as well.

Although there was little action at the front the "C" class was hotting up again with Reeder now right on the tail of Back, and Charneca on Reeder's tail. Charneca made a lunge inside Reeder at the Old Hairpin but ended up beached in the gravel. Back managed to hold on to his lead and he and Reeder crossed the line less than half a second apart. Third place in the "C" class went to Newton.

Top step on the podium therefore went to Lewis Carter, who further consolidated his lead in the championship. Sowerby, who had driven well the entire weekend and kept out of trouble, moved into second place in the table, demoting Morley, who picked up zero points, into third. In the "C" class Graham Reeder maintains his healthy lead but behind him there is very little in it between Reddick, Catt, Lawson and Gamski with just a few points separating them all.

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Splashing around in the wet qualifying session: David Ward

The front of the first race could not have been tighter

Graham Reeder had lots of work to do in both races

Hetherington was much happier with the revised 550

McKay and McCormick had to battle like this in both races

A pair of class fourths for Witt Gamski

Niarchos hangs it all out at the chicane

Race 1: the front trio were like this all 12 laps

One of the race 2 red-flag miscreants is taken away

The second restart of race 2 gets underway

Swifty and Tuite-Sterling had an enthralling contest

Two good races have now put Sowerby into second championship place

Ian Flux set a stunning quickest lap

Winner of the C-class in race 1 was Henry Lawson

....while David Back surprised everyone with a race 2 win

Allen got in some useful practice for the Formula Classic race

Now gone red: the Cale 360 tussled with the 355s

pics by Simon Cooke & CMdigicams