GOODYEAR MARANELLO FERRARI CHALLENGE
RACE REPORT : ROUND 2 : OULTON PARK

PADDOCK STORIES

• The entire race day was billed as "Good Friday Ferraris" and the course car was Ian Hetherington's stunning F50. Rumour has it that he will race it at Spa and that Martin Shaw will drive Ian's 355/Ch there. Should keep Pogson on his toes.

• Gary Culver's outstanding feat of putting an 'O' class car third on the grid sent us back to our history books to see if that had ever happened before. The answer was more than yes, because in 1989 Peter Collard actually put Hew Dundas's 'O' class 328 on pole at a wet Castle Combe. The highest-ever finish by an 'O' class car? Lawrence Benson (328) finished second at an attrition-packed race at Snetterton in July 1994.

• Explain this if you can : The F40s went five and eight seconds a lap quicker in the race than in practice but Gary Culver went six seconds slower, whereas Pogson and Christopher put in almost identical times.

• There were some bleary eyes in the Paddock on race morning but this was not from the usual excesses. The awful weather and traffic conditions meant that some people had 9-hour journeys from London and did not arrive at their hotels until 4.00 a.m. on race day.

• Thought of the day : If a 355/Ch cannot beat the F40s at a wet Oulton, what chance will it have for the rest of the season, particularly with some of the faster tracks like Spa and Silverstone coming up?

• New boys (to our Series, that is) Fred Moss and Marc Gachoud finished well up the order. Gachoud only saw his 355/Ch for the first time on the Thursday test day and Moss felt his 348 was now handling better and took the fastest lap in 'O' class.

• Amidst the rain, sleet and mud of the Paddock the most perfect haven was John Christopher's enormous barbecue which provided hot food and warming Greek wine to all Ferraristi who passed.