PIRELLI MARANELLO FERRARI CHALLENGE

These two rounds at Brands had to be combined with the inaugural TAG Heuer GT250 events for GT sportscars because we were unable to produce a viable number of cars to allow an exclusively Ferrari grid.

It was the first time in the 20-year history of the Championship that we had two back-to-back races of 45 minutes duration, which is about the limit possible without refueling for our Ferraris. And also a first was the introduction of a compulsory pit stop within each race.

This still only produced just eight PMFC cars – four ‘S’ class 360 Challenge cars and the same number of ‘C’ category F355 Challenges ; however, our eight cars represented 25% of the 31-car field. Apart from the usual suspects this race saw the first appearance this season of David Back, in his 360 which he mostly races in BritCar events. Damax had a 360GT for another ex-PMFC driver, Rod Carman, to try along with co-driver Aaron Scott.

Qualifying
On Friday morning the cars went out for a 40-minute free practice session immediately following the Ferrari formula classic qualifying period, this was followed by Q1 in the middle of the afternoon. The timesheets showed that Culver was easily the quickest of the ‘S’ class PMFC runners, his time of 1.34.837 being almost four seconds ahead of the next placed Dove and a full second quicker than the Carman/Scott 360GT Ferrari. Riley and Back were almost level pegging on 1.39.390 and 1.39.524 respectively.

In category C, championship leader Witt Gamski had the legs of the opposition. His time of 1.40.995 compared well with the slower 360s and was some 5 seconds quicker than the ever enthusiastic Charlie White. Charlie was delighted to be a couple of seconds ahead of current C champion, Ted Reddick, and Mike Furness. The second TAG Heuer qualifying session was timed for 9.40am on Saturday, again it was Culver who headed the PMFC times.

Race One
The first of the two races came towards the end of an extremely busy Saturday, with the weather cloudy but dry. Concentrating primarily on the Ferraris rather than the rest of the field, from the rolling start all eight cars got away cleanly despite the relatively big grid.

By the end of lap 1, Culver was out of sight, seemingly relishing the opportunity to stretch his 360’s legs in this heady company. Behind, Dove lead the rest of the S class, ahead of Riley and Back. Not far in arrears came the C brigade, with Gamski a few lengths ahead of a charging White, who in turn was keeping a decent cushion to Reddick and Furness.

By lap 3 Culver had demonstrated that the 360GT (with Carman doing the first stint) was no match for his Challenge car. Indeed, the British GT car was now being hounded by the Dove/Riley duo with Back dropping back. A lap later Riley slipped past Dove at Surtees only to be promptly re-passed.

By lap 7 Reddick had moved up to the tailcoats of White’s 355 but at the same time the race leaders were looming large in their mirrors and looking to get past. In the excitement Charlie executed a neat spin, dropping down the PMFC order to dead last and promoting Furness to a class 3rd.

Lap 10 saw Riley have another joust at Dove, making it stick this time and claiming second place. Then, on lap 13, Reddick pulled into the pits with strange messages on his dashboard. The oil gauge was showing max pressure but the low pressure warning light was on. Not wishing to risk ruining his engine, Ted wisely decided to park up for the rest of the race.

At about this time the cars were coming into the pits for their compulsory pitstops, changed to 45 seconds duration from the original prescription of one minute to align with British GT rules. The PMFC cars all completed their stops without any apparent snags and for a brief and glorious moment Gamski was leading the rest of the Ferraris.

When the order had shaken out again the redoubtable Culver had a huge lead of virtually a lap from the well matched pair of Riley and Back; Dove seemed to have lost out at the pitstop and was trailing a further 10 seconds behind in 4th place. In C division, Gamski continued in the lead from Furness, with White desperately trying to make up for his earlier contretemps. And that was the finishing order, with the interloper GT car, now driven by Scott, about half a minute behind Culver.

Race Two
Race 2 was on Sunday and began in bizarre fashion when a Corvette spun off on the green flag lap. From the rolling start it was again Culver who dashed off in the lead of PMFC with the GT car, now driven by Aaron Scott, latched to his rear quarters. The order behind was Dove – Back – Riley (all in class S) followed by the C category 355s of Gamski – Reddick – White – Furness. We all hoped that Charlie would last the distance despite his wounded hand (see Paddock Stories), the dressings of which were stained bright red even at the start.

Lap 2 saw the GT car slip past Culver although no doubt Gary saw no real point in resisting, while Back was being challenged for 3rd by Riley. A lap later, Culver was now well clear of his PMFC pursuers with Riley relegating Back to fourth and Furness displacing White for a podium position in C.

On lap 5 Dove got it all wrong at Stirlings and ended up backwards in the tyre barrier. David was okay but the rear of his 360 looked very much the worse for wear. The car was in a dangerous position and the safety car was deployed for the first time.

As soon as the race recommenced, the GT Ferrari promptly came to halt in a cloud of smoke with a seized engine. The safety car then came out again to make its second appearance in the race and no sooner had it gone back in then it had to be deployed for the third time!. Its driver seemed to be doing almost as many laps as the competitors in the race and it stayed almost to the finish with just one lap of proper racing sandwiched in between.

All this kerfuffle resulted in Gamski being demoted from an almost assured class first to a desultory third behind Furness, with Reddick gleefully seizing the category C baton. At the head of the Ferrari line, Culver continued unchallenged in front of a hand-to-hand duel between Riley and Back. These two touched at Druids on the last lap, and a few corners later Riley pulled off, his damaged car unable to continue. Gamski moved ahead of Furness but was unable to do anything about Reddick by the time the chequered flag was hung out.

Culver set the fastest PMFC lap in 1:35.510 (slightly slower than in the first race) while Gamski was again the quickest F355 in 1:41.864.

With thanks to Anne & John Swift for the info.

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Race One

Charlie charged, but had a spin

Mike Furness took 2nd in 'C' class...

...which was won by Witt Gamski - he led all the Fazzas during the pit stop window

David Dove plays with a Bimmer

The Damax duo of Back & Riley were well matched...

...but Riley came home second...

...from Culver, here fighting the old enemy

Race Two

Culver leads Riley - pretty well sums up PMFC this year

Dove's race ended with a spin and contact with the barrier

Charlie gritted his teeth and raced on through his injury

Furness was third in class this time

Gamski was second, here racing long-term rival Ted Reddick...

...who took the class win

Riley & Back's second ding-dong ended up with Riley having to retire

Back took 2nd place...

...from the peerless Culver

pics by Simon Cooke