PIRELLI MARANELLO FERRARI CHALLENGE

• Castle Combe is notoriously plagued by noise protestors, despite the fact that (as per usual) many of them moved in to the neighbourhood after the circuit opened. Over lunch, someone said that they thought the circuit, then an airfield, had been bombed twice in the war. "And I bet the neighbours complained about that noise as well" someone quipped.

• Talking of noise, Ted Reddick's 355/Ch failed the noise checks. He declined to fit any exhaust tips, fearing they might fall off, and even expressed concern that other's supplementary bean-cans might do the same. One or two words were interchanged with the scrutineers - and Ted became a non-starter.....

• The hot weather bought out an interesting variety of headgear. Unanimously voted Best was Su Newns' cowboy hat which seems to have a number of roles, including keeping out the rain, the sun, and no doubt thrashing Ted with when he doesn't go quick enough. Lucky boy.

• Kevin Riley really had to do some jet-setting to get to this meeting. He was racing at Oschersleben at the same weekend in the European 360 Challenge series and made a mad dash, with various means of transport including a helicopter, to get to Combe in time. His 360 was also transported overnight and then had to be convereted from European to PMFC specs. He really was a deserved winner of the Wilkinson 'Driver of the Meeting' award.

• Charlie White is so enjoying his circuit racing that he's decided to give up the Club's hillclimb championship, which is a shame because everyone there has enjoyed his bubbly company. It also begs the question, just what Series is he going to race in next year?

• Was it only last year when professional teams with huge transporters were a feature of the PMFC paddock? At Combe, even the Damax outfit were back to a Transit and trailer.

• Gary Culver got his own back on the website gobsh*tes. Getting them to push the 360/Ch back from the finishing paddock after its clutch had failed left them speechless (for once). Wonder if it was just a ruse?

• Speaking of Scuderia Culver, as Gary battled with Kevin Riley in R2, mother-in-law Yvonne shouted to Gary "If you win you can sleep with my daughter!". "Does that go for all of us?" asked a "resting" racer. Yvonne was suitably chastised by the smallest Culver for being an embarrassing Granny.
  

   

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Jet setting Kevin Riley took his first PMFC win

"I wanted to be a vet actually"

Charlie loves his racing - but where's he gonna play next year?

Evers tells Derek he would have stuffed 'em

Graham Reeder was resting

Gary and Dave fixed the website team

pics by Simon Cooke & CMdigicams