PIRELLI FERRARI OPEN

• As the PFO is new it’s worth a brief re-cap of the rules. It is for standard 355 Challenge cars and modified Ferraris tipos up to and including the 355. The 355/Chs must be factory standard, but there’s considerable freedom to interfere with the older cars and some very exotic tipos are eligible as NP-B’s introductory article showed. There must be the odd F40 lurking about somewhere (cue 'Jaws' music).

• Most of the 355/Chs have been around for a bit and are therefore familiar to us. Mike Reeder was a regular competitor in PMFC with his bright yellow car and Witt Gamski has already been out this year in Britcars, Tim Mogridge was in his ex-David Dove car which had been savaged by an errant Aston Martin at the earlier AMOC Brands Hatch meeting.

• Tim Mogridge’s car was on treaded Yokohama tyres which he had used in the Intermarque championship. He was quickly introduced to Pirelli, and a set of their slicks replaced the treaded tyres for the race. However, there was a problem. When the 355’s bodywork was repaired after its assault by that Aston at the May Brands Hatch meeting, its right rear wheel arch had not been correctly shaped. There was now insufficient clearance for the new Pirelli and clearly some metal bashing was needed. Derek Seymour is used to making things fit in his plumbing work and, armed with a hammer from the Swift toolkit, was pressed into service to make sure the bodywork and tyre didn’t come into conflict.

• Charlie White is a staunch and mega-enthusiastic supporter of FOC competition series'. New this season is the exotic livery on his 355; you can now easily pick out his car from the others, even at several hundred paces [or even miles - Ed].

• The final 355/Ch is owned by newcomer Mark I’Anson, whose immaculate black machine was once owned by the big fan of Ferraris and bizarre head gear - Jay Kay of popular beat combo Jamiroquai and latterly by Nigel Chiltern-Hunt. Mark is new to us and new to circuit racing, but has lots of previous form in rallying, so welcome on-board Mark, we hope you didn't miss your "sack of spuds" too much.

• Even before qualifying Mark had discovered that going racing can throw up a few unexpected difficulties with officialdom. A pernickety chief scrutineer spotted that the seat harness validity expiry date was marked December 2005. Mark managed to hunt around and locate a valid harness but in so doing incurred the wrath of the Clerk of the Course by missing the new drivers’ briefing. He was told that he should have missed qualifying rather than miss the briefing, but managed to get off this hook with an apology.

• Class ‘S’ brought together some motley machinery from the not-so-recent past of the PMFC. All the cars were V8-engined from the ‘70s or ‘80s, and generally had interesting racing provenance. Nicky Paul-Barron’s 308GT4 was raced by rock star Chris Rea and achieved notable success at this same circuit in May 1992 when, at achieving his very first win, Chris burst uncontrollably into tears. Now there was la passione for you! It is great to see this old warhorse back on the track [and the GT4 too - Ed.] and we're sure that Nick will make it go very quickly once the engine is persuaded to run on all eight.

• The other Nick - Chester – had brought along his 308GTB that had started off life as a GTS but was later stiffened up by conversion to closed berlinetta format. Although sporting standard brakes, the car has had some useful lightness added and the big "camel’s hump" on the engine deck gives a hint that there are some go-faster improvements to the engine. Nick, who was the youngest driver in PMFC when he started racing in 1989, is an engineer with Renault F1 and it makes one wonder just what the hump conceals …

• Tris Simpson acquired his ex-David Barker 328GTB on eBay, which is novel, and the car looks exactly as it did in its heyday, down to its tasteful blue and silver colour scheme. This Ferrari used to be seriously quick and I have no doubt that Tris will be a force to be reckoned with once he has got the hang of it and ironed out one or two little teething troubles with the mechanicals.

• The third 308 was the car most recently seen competing in PMFC: John Taylor’s 308GT4. This nicely presented Ferrari is also seriously rapid and its driver is very much at home with it. Our old pal, Mike Sweeney, was seen to be in charge of the car’s paddock operations.

• It is interesting to note that Witt Gamskis’s fastest lap of 1:19.215 was some 5.6 seconds quicker than Gary Culver’s new classic record and only 1.659 seconds off David Back’s “C” class record (for 355/Ch.s) set in 2004. John Taylor’s “S” class best lap of 1:21.107 was perfectly respectable, though Peter Lowe’s GT4 time of 1:19.987 from the PMFC race 5 years before to the week shows what might be achieved as the older cars get back into the swim.
  

  With thanks to Anne & John Swift for the info.

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Where are all the trick F40s when you really need one?

Tim Mogridge's 355/Ch is the ex-David Dove car

Charlie's idea of "stealth" colours

Newcomer Mark I'Anson - an experienced rallyist

Nick Chester's 308GTB started off as a GTS, will probably end up as (mostly) an R26!

It's no good trying to psych them after the race Charlie

The Magnificent, er, Nine

pics by Simon Cooke