Paddock Stories - Round 1 - 2004 Pirelli Maranello Ferrari Challenge - Club Racing Series'

<% theSection = "club_racing_series" %> Paddock Stories - Round 1 - 2004 Pirelli Maranello Ferrari Challenge - Club Racing Series' - Ferrari Owners' Club

PIRELLI MARANELLO FERRARI CHALLENGE

PADDOCK STORIES: ROUNDS 1 & 2 : SILVERSTONE - 17 APRIL 2004

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	click for Results & Points

Wandering around, looking a bit lost, was just-retired PMFC racer John Swift. He's moving across to the Ferrari formula classic series where his blue 308 should be a good front runner. He admitted "I feel a bit of a spare *****" but Anne, as always, was rushing about to make sure everything functioned the way it was supposed to. And it did.
Alan Newton was an unfortunate non-starter with his recently acquired 360/Ch. It ran endlessly in private practice but then, according to technical expert P. Jarmyn, "somefink broke".It emerged that the Spaghetti Marrelli attempted to select 1st and reverse together, which resulted in (a) a sudden cessation of forward motion and (b) an expensive noise. He declined to transfer his number to his gleaming 360 Challenge Stradale despite much encouragement.
Gary Culver looked a bit bleary-eyed. He had jetted in from a three week holiday in New Zealand and was not quite sure what time of night it was. The girls were all left in New Zealand and have apparently been happily adopted by a Maori family.
Looking pleased with his first ever "C" class pole was Mike Furness, who put it down to "evolutionary improvement", whatever that is. Surprise of the weekend was that he discovered that Alan Newton's wife was his cousin whom he last saw some 40 years ago. Forget "Friends Reunited", it's Ferraris that bring the world together.
New permanent Clerk of Course John Felix was, um, away for the weekend but fortunately was not needed. He was off in Monza apparently, officiating at the Ferrari racing there. Good job then that all went off peacefully at Silverstone. Speaking of Monza, it wasn't a wind-up when we heard that Ollie Morley had twice come first in the "gentlemens" (!) class at the Monza 360 rounds - he actually did.
Continuing the recent trend there was not a single car entered in the "O" class and one suspects that this is the way it is going to be from now on. 355/Chs with slicks and big brakes are certainly a more fun way of going racing than exposing a nice road car to dings and dents and kerbs.
It was nice to see the Christophers in the paddock again but their old "M" class 308 racer really looked out of place amidst the current crop of Challenge machinery. The car lasted barely a lap in the race. It would be terrific to see George and brother Andy in competitive 360s because with their talents they would be up with the front runners.
One of the other support races had a vast field of Alfas. It was good racing but heaven knows where some of them were sourced from and what was holding them together. There was a sharp intake of breath as one had to be towed out of the gravel. We feared we might be looking at one Alfa being turned into two.
We welcomed two newcomers to the series: Kevin Riley in the ex-Mark Cale 360/Ch and David Dove in the ex-Newton/Nuttall 355/Ch. Both went home with a good handful of championship points from both races and will no doubt soon be moving up the order.
Peering out from the voluminous canopy of the JMH transporter was Erik Oktner's 360/Ch. Erik is certainly not one to luxuriate, however, as after every race he tows his own race car back to the wilds of Scandinavia or somewhere. It'll only live with Jason during the actual race weekends as Erik also intends using it for racing back on his home patch.