Compres 034

FERRARICOMPETITIONRESULTS

CompRes

VON TRIPS Targa Florio 1961 FERRARI 246SP by DEXTER BROWN

ISSUE 034 MAY 2008

CompRes Chevy Chase, Leeds Road, Selby, North Yorkshire YO8 4JH T: +44 (0) 1757-702 053 F: +44 (0) 1757-290 547 E: cs.man@btinternet.com

CompRes is available by subscription and is published 10 times a year for the FERRARI OWNERS’ CLUB

FERRARICOMPETITIONRESULTS BUMPER ISSUE With so much competition going on in May, this edition of CompRes extends to many more pages than usual. Needless to say, its production has also involved many more hours of work at CompRes Towers and, since we spend just as much time competing at the circuits and hillclimbs as you do, the print date has slipped behind further than we would have liked.

As always we thank all those who have contributed to this issue, either by providing reports on events or supplying the enormous quantity of photographs of which, because of lack of space, we can only reproduce a tiny proportion.

circuit fell out with the FIA European Truck Championship over starting money and decided to pull the rug on their appearance. In consequence the programme of races has been curtailed and it has been decided to reduce the meeting to only ONE DAY, Sunday 27 July.

The revised draft timetable for this meeting, so far as the combined PFfc and PFO racing is concerned, is now as follows:

We are negotiating with BARC in regard to the revised race duration and the amount of the refund to competitors’ entry fees. Competitors will be circulated with further information just as soon as we have it.

OPEN STARTS

I was reflecting the other day on how good the new starting procedure in our Open series seems to be. The change from a rolling to a standing start procedure appears to be an Sign-on 09.25 – 09.40 unqualified success. So far this Scrutineering 09.40 – 10.40 season we have had five absolutely cracking races, with no Qualifying 10.55 – 11.10 first corner incidents of any sort.

Race 16.00 One of the main draw-backs to a rolling start – so far as PFO is concerned – is the inability PETER STUBBERFIELD WHAT’S ON of some of our drivers to On 26th June, PETER maintain grid formation STUBBERFIELD, our long immediately prior to the red JUNE 21/22 Doune Hillclimb time President and founding lights being extinguished. member of the Ferrari Time and time again Owners’ Club, celebrates his JULY 5/6 British GP someone dropped back so 98th birthday. Peter, despite that everyone behind them recent ill health, remains had to do likewise (they are 6 FOC National Meet & Concours hugely interested in the not permitted to pass until Walton Hall Club’s activities, particularly the start line). The result those involving Ferrari 6 Longleat Hillclimb was that those disadvantaged competition. It is through his in this way had a really tough stalwart efforts in the early struggle to get back into 11-13 Goodwood Festival of Speed days that we enjoy our contention in the short sprint current status as the premier races we run.

12/13 Le Mans Classic Ferrari club in the world.

Some have said that We hope that on the 26th rolling starts are easier on you will join with us in 12/13 Loton Park Hillclimb the transmissions. We don’t drinking a toast to this very seem to be having any special gentleman. particular difficulty in this 16 FOC Rockingham Track Day respect since F355s seem to DONINGTON PARK have more robust drivelines 20 Gurston Down Hillclimb than their successors, the The Donington Park race paddle-change 360 meeting scheduled for 26/27 27 Donington Park: Pirelli Ferrari Challenge.

July has been reformula classic and Pirelli You may not agree with programmed by the Ferrai Open combined race this thinking but it would be organisers, BARC. useful to hear other 26/27 Bonham’s Silverstone Classic It appears that the competitors’ views.

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NUTS AND BOLTS

Competitors running F355 Challenge should be aware that these cars are now over ten years old and require constant checks in certain respects, not least in those areas where stresses and strains are high.

One of these areas is wheel studs and bolts, which take a lot of stress with the severe loading exerted on them in racing conditions from those grippy Pirelli slicks. At Knockhill (to be reported in the next issue) Wayne Marrs suffered such a failure on his left-hand rear and lost the wheel. Happily the consequences weren’t disastrous – he was braking for the slowish hairpin – but it put him out of the race. Our friends at Scuderia Fotografia were on hand to capture the failure in graphic detail just as it happened, as you see.

We recommend that you check the wheel studs on your car without delay and replace them if necessary. The sheared studs on Wayne’s car showed signs of earlier fatigue so prudence should be your watchword.

One further point on nuts and bolts: it horrifies me to see some well-meaning people in the paddock tightening their friends’ wheel nuts with a non-adjustable wrench so tightly that it seems their very life depends on it. The result is that the bolt or stud stretches, leading to premature failure through metal fatigue. A torque of 80 lbf ft (109 Nm) is the absolute maximum you should use, and to achieve this you will, of course, need an accurate torque wrench in your tool bag.

SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS Although it is some time away – 17-19 October to be exact – our overseas sojourn to Spa-Francorchamps needs to be planned if you wish to take advantage of early booking discounts on the ferry.

The precise timetable has yet to be issued by ADAC, the meeting organisers, but we have arranged for pre-event testing on the Friday. We have also made sure that our second race, on the Sunday, is at an early time to ensure everyone is able to catch their ferry to the UK later in the day.

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The provisional timetable we have agreed is as follows: SATURDAY Qualifying 1

09.00 – 09.20

Qualifying 2

11.50 – 12.10

Race 1

16.40 – 17.05

SUNDAY Race 2

09.00 – 09.25

We have block booked a number of rooms at our usual hotel, the Hostellerie Le Roannay, which is handily situated just 300m from the circuit. On Friday evening we have taken over the

Roannay’s dining room for our traditional Ferrari Dinner.

If you wish to reserve your accommodation from the block booking, the telephone number of the Roannay is +32 (0)87 275 311. Make sure you mention Ferrari Owners’ Club when you contact them. The hotel’s website is at www.roannay.com

RA’s HILLCOMMENT A Fascinating Scenario and certainly an intriguing set of results have evolved over the first five rounds of 2008. A different class winner each time and notably a couple of the legendary Triples have been notched up – that’s a class win, a maximum pointer and the really big deal, a new Ferrari class record! Jon Goodwin did this at the second Prescott with his new F430, and then it was David Tomlin’s turn – he blitzed his own Shelsley mark on June 1, and pocketed twenty points plus inevitably a class win too. He really deserved this as you will read in the next issue of CompRes covering this meeting.

On the cumulative points front, Andrew Holman (348tb) holds a slim lead from David Tomlin (F355), pursued by Mike Spicer and Geoff Dark with their F355s.

These four have contested every round so far and obviously have an advantage at present. I am sure one or two of them will wind up near the front by end season, but the overall winner is still anyone’s guess.

The Big Attraction of the Ferrari class on the hills over nearly three decades has been the variety of tipos seen in action. In the early days we had Daytonas, 275GTBs and even on one occasion a 212 Barchetta, besides the more mundane machinery if you can call any Ferrari that. The trend over the last year or two has been to more modern tipos, with the F355 becoming the most popular choice. Little wonder either, as next to no prep is needed, it is great to drive to and from the meetings, and looks terrific as a bonus. Now as nice as these cars

are - and also, of course, the later 360 and 430 variants - it will be a shame if the 308/328 series cars fade. They have been out on the hills for a long time now and in many people’s eyes are truly representative of Ferrari’s more recent history. I got to thinking about this, and after some discussion with Richard Prior can let you know that we are considering the possibility of a Classic Class next year for pre-348 tipos. The idea is to keep the existing points and PEP structure, but say you are driving a 308GTB and finish seventh overall at year end, but are first of these older cars, you will have won the Classic Class.

Let us know what you think!

Tyres have often featured in these columns, and are inevitably a favourite topic – little wonder as they are your only contact with the real world when rounding a corner at some impossible speed. With the normal high performance road

tyres we use, a newish set are great for a wet meeting but less than optimum for ultimate dry grip. A new tyre has seven or eight millimetres of tread depth and the tread blocks will have some movement when being fully corner loaded. When down to two or three millimetres there is more grip, but the problem for most of us is the tyre will then be two or three years old and the rubber past best condition. The answer (if you are wealthy enough) is to have your new set buffed down as some competitors have done and maybe still do.

Incidentally when you do have new road tyres fitted immediately in advance of a meeting do not expect anything like optimum performance.

Nick Taylor as many of you know, has a motor sport curriculum way in excess of what we see of him out in Formula Classic and PFHC. His latest serious experience has been racing in the Grand Prix Masters

Matchbox Man. Nick Taylor driving the Surtees TS16 at Brands Hatch.

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Series driving a Surtees TS16.

This 1974 F1 car was originally campaigned by John Watson.

Brave as he is to drive the thing, Nick has been sensible enough not to buy it. He is doing a renta-drive arrangement and had his first competitive outings at Brands Hatch GP circuit on 24/25 May. In race one he qualified tenth and finished tenth, and in the second, which was very wet, he finished seventh – though he did say that some of the others went home early because of the weather! Apparently the TS16, like most cars of that era, has very questionable safety and Nick reckons a couple of broken legs would not be a bad result in a serious off!

Adrian Wilson like Geoff Dark bought one of those exSilverstone School F355s. These were all left-hand drive and had some intriguing features, some of which brought them in to contravention with PFHC regs.

Both Adrian and Geoff now have their cars in compliance, and one of the most difficult aspects was finding standard road wheels.

Adrian tracked down a really nice set in the USA, sent the money over and the seller none too handily absconded with Adrian’s funds. After locating one or two other questionable items he eventually struck lucky. He has now had his new wheels refinished in the F430 Scuderia wheel colour – a darker silver than normal and very handsome they look too. There has also been much care and attention lavished on what was originally a tired example and his F355 now looks really great.

Philip Whitehead another F355 pilot has never to me looked much of a mechanic, unlike those ace spanner swingers, Geoff Dark or Barrie Wood. Imagine how impressed I was when he gently let slip that he had recently fitted a new clutch to his F355, with not a dirty finger nail in sight either!

Philip is full of surprises as you will know, like at Harewood where he pulled out a great run

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for second overall in the Ferrari class in May. Geoffrey Rollason not so long back was a regular Ferrari class contestant with F355 and 360 Modena variants, though he used to limit his activities to Shelsley and Loton Park. Often a class winner and sometimes even a record holder, he often struggled with the F1 shift that he regretted ordering on his cars, which were usually just about brand new. He went on to drive a single-seater on the hills for a season or two. I bumped into him at Shelsley, and he is not now competing at all. Having recently turned 70, he would like a 360 Challenge Scuderia but apparently his wife is not ecstatic about the idea.

Martin Groves current British Hillclimb Champion, recently acquired a 308GT4 and whilst he was at Shelsley on June 1st lowering the outright hill record yet again to an incredible 22.71 sec with his Gould GR55B, he took time out to talk to our competitor Sean Doyle whose 308GT4 he was admiring. As you can imagine, Sean, who is over the moon about taking part in the PFHC this season, was

considerably impressed. I spoke briefly with Martin in the paddock and hope he will soon join our Club.

That new Ferrari California looks great, and even though they say it is less extreme than the F430, that would not put me off – to my eye it looks a lot nicer and is front engined, which should ensure terrific handling.

Pauline Goodwin obviously agrees and has placed an order – not for any hillclimbing, just to have a very nice road car – makes me envious!

Calendar Girls Suzie Cowling and her friend Chris Hesketh, sometime PFHC groupies, were at Harewood recently with one of those Dave Clark calendars (see pic).

Without too much persuasion they have collected drivers’ signatures over most the pictures, and maybe this highly collectable item will turn up in a charity auction soon. Incidentally Suzie has for some years very kindly brought me a huge Yorkshire cake called a Fat Rascal to the Harewood meetings, and I note she has taken to feeding the same cake to Geoff Dark, which is worrying! 

Calendar Girls.

Photo: www.simonpics.co.uk

Rounds 3 & 4: SNETTERTON 4/5 MAY 2008

I

Sizzling Snetterton

N COMPLETE CONTRAST to the frigid conditions at Donington Park two weeks earlier, the Pirelli Ferrari formula classic assembled at Snetterton in glorious sunshine. It was warm and very pleasant, and the weather prophets said it would remain so for the whole of the Bank Holiday weekend.

The race meeting was organised by BRSCC, with whom we have excellent working relations. I was able to choose what time we would race - a rare occurrence - and everything was set fair for a brilliant two days of racing, with a qualifier and 20minute race on both Sunday and the Bank Holiday Monday.

The paddock had a strong Ferrari presence, with our PFO series having a similar programme of racing to the

Classics. Jim and Janet, of Snetterton Picnic fame, had set up their hospitality marquee on a grassy bank and were serving bacon sarnies to any hungry Ferrari folk who had arrived early.

An encouraging total of 23 Ferraris were listed in the programme – 10 in Gp2 and 13 in Gp3. Disappointingly there were no Gp1 cars this time and one can only presume that the current escalating values of the older V12s has had some dampening effect on owners’ enthusiasm to take their cars to the tracks.

Of these 23 entries, Chris Wilson was only able to run on Day 2 since he was officiating at a sprint meeting at Debden on the Sunday, whilst Nick Taylor had other commitments which prevented him racing on the Monday.

Qualifier One Each day had its own qualifier and Sunday’s midmorning 15-minute session saw only 21 cars in action as Nigel Jenkins’s 328GTB failed scrutineering due to a fire extinguisher actuation problem.

Both Richard Allen and Chris Goddard were noted by the timekeepers as having transponders that were not sending any meaningful signal.

David Hathaway was running-in his 328’s engine at a maximum of 6,000rpm, the unit having been finally re-installed after David had missed the previous Donington Park meeting. Marco Pullen, who was using his ‘Classic’ car in both series, fortunately remembered to change from slicks to road tyres for this PFfc session.

Some were in trouble with the zealous Noise Judge. For

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Photo: Mary Harvey

Photo: www.simonpics.co.uk

Photo: Mary Harvey

reasons best known to himself, he was taking meter readings to one place of decimals which, as most people could have told him, is meaningless when noise measurement is such an inexact science when carried out at the circuit. “104.1 dB(A)” he announced brightly after putting his stick up my 308’s exhaust pipe. “Anything more and you wouldn’t be racing.” Grrh!

We had no reports of anyone in trouble during qualifying and there were no surprises when we checked the timesheets at the end. Gary Culver had comfortably secured pole on a 1:21.321 lap (the Gp3 lap record here is 1:23.329 set by William Jenkins last year) whilst Nicky Paul-Barron was a second behind Marco (1:22.483) with a Gp2 leading time of 1:23.495, fractionally slower than Culver’s class record set in 2005.

Other noteworthy times were set by Fred Honnor (308GTB), which claimed a row 2 position on the grid, while David Mountain, who has acquired Chris Rea’s 308GT4, was ninth fastest. John Watts, also in a GT4 and having his first race with us, just edged out the two other similar cars of Fenny and Moorwood.

Prior to the lunch break, when the Picnic got into top gear, the unfortunate Nigel Jenkins, having mended his extinguisher switchgear, was hard at work trying to make his ignition system work. It transpired that some contacts had fallen off the flywheel and it was proving impossible to rectify the problem despite many willing hands offering assistance. Also in trouble was Chris Goddard, who had a cracked front brake disc.

Neither driver was able to make the afternoon’s 20-minute race.

Race One

Top: Race 1 was a race-long duel between Marco Pullen and Gary Culver Centre: There was nothing between them for most of the race.

Bottom: The battle of the GT4s, with William Moorwood and Richard Fenny shown here at Russell.

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Twenty cars assembled just after 2.30pm. It was a clean start although your scribe had to brake hard as Richard Moseley chopped across his bows in a slightly alarming manoeuvre when the lights went out.

Photo: Mary Harvey

“On the last lap, Richard Moseley, his eyes no doubt glued to his mirrors, spun at Russell and handed over 7th spot to the old blue car.”

The two cars were almost welded Richard Moseley and your together and one wished they reporter, continued unabated could have bottled it up for their until the very last corner. grandchildren to Richard, his eyes no doubt glued enjoy in the to his mirrors, spun at Russell future. and generously handed over 7th Of the spot to the old blue car, some 10 others, Fenny seconds ahead of Nick Taylor, retired his GT4 who had been hampered by a on lap 10 while slipping clutch towards the end.

Fisk was driving It had been a sensational the wheels off his contest and one felt the PFfc race Mondial QV, alone had been well worth the taking lots of crowd’s admission fee. Nicky rumble strip and Paul-Barron took third, some 45 creating clouds seconds in arrears as well as a of dust as he did first in Gp2. David Mountain so. Despite his impressed with his 4th position Peter Fisk was driving the wheels off his Mondial. energetic driving and we have him marked as a he couldn’t quite future podium winner. three, out-braked himself into the keep up with Benaroya in his Gary Culver set the fastest Esses, spun and stalled. He slightly later Mondial t lap of the race (1:22.089 – a new churned the engine over on the convertible.

Gp3 lap record) and Nicky Paulstarter but, in the devilish way of On the 308s, it infuriatingly refused to last lap, fire up. when it By mid-race Pullen had mattered, edged ahead for a lap while Marco Pullen Tomlin caught the spinning bug was a car’s and pirouetted from 3rd to 5th. length He did the same thing on the ahead of following lap, this time ending up Gary and to in 7th, just ahead of the usual his great joy jousting pair of Moseley (R) and he took the Swift in their well matched chequered 308GTBs. flag. The The lead was now changing desperate constantly to the delight of the struggle of large crowd of spectators. Culver the led for two laps, then it was 308GTBs, Vive la France! Didier Benaroya (Mondial t cabriolet) had Pullen, then back to Culver . . . between a battle royal with John Watts (308GT4). France won.

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Photo: Mary Harvey

Photo: www.simonpics.co.uk

Pullen was the quickest away and led Culver into Riches for the first time. Hot on their heels were a fast starting Tomlin and Nicky P-B, who in turn were being hounded by Honnor and a threesome consisting of Mountain, Taylor (Mondial t) and Whitman.

On lap 3 Richard Allen, sensing something strange in the wheel department, pulled into the pits to discover loose bolts. He was impressively quick in tightening his nuts and he continued, albeit at the tail of the field.

On lap 5 Culver took over the lead from Pullen, while scrapping fiercely over third place was the hot quartet of Tomlin, N P-B, Honnor and Mountain. A lap later, Honnor, having pushed his 308’s nose in front of the other

Barron was the quickest Gp2 driver in 1:24.975. Trophies for the first three drivers in each class were presented at the Picnic marquee by the indefatigable Series Co-ordinator, Anne Swift.

Qualifier Two

Photo: Jonathan Tremlett

Bank Holiday Monday dawned fine and warm once again, and the paddock rumbled into life for a second helping of

Race Two

A feature of Race 2 was the exciting tussle between Nicky Paul-Barron and Gary Culver. Nicky held the lead for the first eight laps but at the end it was Gary who took the chequered flag. Stirring stuff!

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Due to an accident in an earlier race, R2 of PFfc started some 15 minutes late. Sadly Pullen’s car had to be withdrawn – a leaking seal on the crankshaft was found to be getting more serious.

It was hot and sunny, and the crowds even bigger than Sunday’s. When the lights were extinguished it was Paul-Barron who got into Riches first, with Honnor in second and then pole man Culver. Then it was Whitman, Tomlin, Richard

Photo: www.simonpics.co.uk

Photo: www.simonpics.co.uk

The spoils of victory. Marco Pullen on the podium for Race 1.

Ferrari racing. problem while David Hathaway Chris Goddard, who had had to be towed in when a missed the previous day’s coolant hose came adrift, his contest, had borrowed some vital 328GTB enveloped in steam. bits – discs, callipers, etc – to get Peter Fisk’s Mondial was his 308GTB ready for qualifying. vibrating so much the previous Nicky Paul-Barron, whose 328 day that a fuel line mounting had had been losing water in R1 due broken (perhaps those rumble to an insecure header tank cap, strips?), but he seemed to have checked everything was ticketyfixed the problem. He confided boo. Although Nick Taylor was that some ten years before, when an absentee, we were joined by racing motorcycles, he had had a Chris Wilson and the famous exRobbie Stirling 308GTB, having their first race in the UK. Twenty-one cars again emerged from the collecting area, this time for an extra 5 minutes of qualifying time.

We were warned there was oil on the track just before the Esses.

There were Sam Whitman, his 328GTB’s wheel in the air, drove several cars well all weekend to score a 4th and a 6th. performing below par. Mountain, who had gone so bad accident at Sear Corner. It well the day before, found his was good to have laid this ghost GT4 had developed a persistent in his Ferrari this weekend. misfire. Richard Fenny pulled in The timesheets were again after 5 laps with an unidentified headed by Gary Culver with a best lap in 1:22.087, a time almost identical to his new lap record set in R1. Pullen shared the front row spot with 1:23.139, and 3rd and 4th fastest were Nicky P-B and the flying Fred Honnor.

Photo: www.simonpics.co.uk

R2 podium. Winner Gary Culver flanked by Nicky Paul-Barron (2nd) and Fred Honnor (3rd).

some 6 seconds ahead of Gp2 winner Nicky Paul-Barron.

Honnor took a fine podium finish with his 308GTB while Whitman was a deserving fourth just behind.

Culver’s quickest Gp3 lap was 1:23.473 whilst Paul-Barron clocked the fastest Gp2 time in 1:24.230.

this the glorious weather and you had all the ingredients of a perfect weekend.

Photo: www.simonpics.co.uk

Photo: Jonathan Tremlett

Moseley, Swift and Peter Moseley. Your reporter had never been in a Moseley sandwich before and it promised to be interesting. Mountain completed one misfiring lap and then pulled into the pits to retire.

N P-B valiantly held on to the lead for the next eight laps.

Culver had demoted Honnor to third and there was rarely more than a foot or two between Nicky’s rear bumper and Gary’s front spoiler. By lap 7, new Club chairman Richard Allen exercised his authority ahead of his Comp director, and yours truly had also been passed by Moseley Snr. On lap 10, Culver found a way past N P-B and, once ahead, began to put some space between the two cars. Whitman was having a good race in 4th, a couple of seconds behind 3rd placed Honnor, and was keeping

Chris Compton Goddard had a fraught weekend.

Here he is rescued by marshals after a spin.

the thrusting Tomlin at bay.

Hathaway fancied his chances at getting past Swift at the entry to the Esses, went in too fast, and bounced onto the grass, the attempt having failed.

However his tribulations were not over as on the last lap he ran out of fuel but just managed to stutter over the line to complete the race.

Goddard spun twice at Russell – once onto the grass and then a 360º revolution on the black stuff. As a result he dropped to the rear of the pack.

Also spinning here was Ben Cartwright, who had ambitions of taking Swift before the end.

The chequered flag greeted Gary Culver who crossed the line

Club President Jack Sears, fresh from watching the fortunes of his son’s team in A1 GP at Brands Hatch on Sunday, was on hand to congratulate the winners and present them with their silverware.

Reflecting on this race meeting, it had been one of the best in the short history of the PFfc series. There had been no damage to the machinery and the sporting spirit - fiercely competitive but without any dangerous aggression – was exactly what we want. Add to

Jack Sears presents Gary Culver with the winner’s trophy.

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Round 3 SNETTERTON Sunday 4th May 2008 Pos

No

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

13 34 17 8 6 10 11 57 16 72 15 14 4 19 30 47 29 45

DNF DNF NS

Driver Marco Pullen Gary Culver Nicky Paul-Barron David Mountain David Tomlin Sam Whitman John Swift Nick Taylor Richard Moseley Ben Cartwright Peter Moseley John Watts Didier Benaroya David Hathaway Peter Fisk Geoff Neal William Moorwood Richard Allen

Tipo

Group

Laps

328GTB 328GTB 328GTB 308GT4 308GTB 328GTB 308GTB Mondial t 308GTB 328GTB 328GTB 308GT4 Mondial t Cab 328GTB Mondial QV 328GTB 308GT4 328GTB

3 3 2 3 2 3 3 3 3 2 2 3 2 2 3 2 2 2

15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 13 12

20:51.475 20:51.997 21:36.249 21:44.109 22:04.515 22:05.261 22:17.412 22:22.735 22:38.077 21:03.237 21:08.294 21:11.317 21:27.542 21:46.512 22:02.223 22:15.323 21:46.078 21:39.945

1:22.579 1:22.089 1:24.975 1:25.260 1:25.305 1:26.380 1:27.061 1:26.373 1:27.005 1:28.471 1:27.986 1:28.404 1:29.996 1:30.431 1:32.490 1:31.855 1:38.252 1:26.833

1:22.483 1:21.321 1:23.495 1:26.442 1:24.555 1:26.714 1:27.685 1:24.985 1:26.480 1:27.791 1:28.556 1:32.423 1:31.027 1:29.081 1:32.621 1:37.719 1:37.228 1:26.124

2 1 3 9 5 11 12 6 10 13 14 17 16 15 18 21 20 8

308GT4 308GTB 308GTB

2 3 3

9 6

16:11.623 8:41.830

1:35.861 1:24.538

1:33.529 1:24.063 1:25.020

19 4 7

25 Richard Fenny 20 Fred Honnor 44 Christopher Compton Goddard

Fastest Laps: Gary Culver Nicky Paul-Barron

Gp 3

1:22.089 (85.60 mph)

Gp 2

1:24.975 (82.69 mph)

Time

Best Lap

Qualify

Pos

Lap Record

Round 4 SNETTERTON Monday 5th May 2008 Pos

No

Driver

Tipo

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 DNF NS NS

34 17 20 10 6 16 45 15 11 72 19 4 14 47 55 30 44 29 8 13 25

Gary Culver Nicky Paul-Barron Fred Honnor Sam Whitman David Tomlin Richard Moseley Richard Allen Peter Moseley John Swift Ben Cartwright David Hathaway Didier Benaroya John Watts Geoff Neal Chris Wilson Peter Fisk Christopher Compton Goddard William Moorwood David Mountain Marco Pullen Richard Fenny

328GTB 328GTB 308GTB 328GTB 308GTB 308GTB 328GTB 328GTB 308GTB 328GTB 328GTB Mondial t Cab 308GT4 328GTB 308GTB Mondial QV 308GTB 308GT4 308GT4 328GTB 308GT4

Fastest Laps:

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Gary Culver Nicky Paul-Barron

Gp 3 Gp 2

Group Laps 3 2 3 3 2 3 2 2 3 2 2 2 3 2 3 3 3 2 3 3 2

15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 14 14 14 14 14 13 1

1:23.473 (84.18 mph) 1:24.230 (83.42 mph)

Time 21:14.147 21:20.693 21:30.599 21:33.575 21:35.395 22:00.627 22:02.488 22:03.198 22:20.333 22:21.921 22:24.230 22:37.090 21:17.523 21:29.589 21:30.711 21:42.846 21:44.404 21:47.396 5:07.874

Best Lap 1:23.473 1:24.230 1:24.471 1:24.326 1:24.757 1:25.871 1:25.877 1:26.270 1:28.078 1:27.255 1:27.229 1:28.310 1:29.434 1:29.085 1:28.661 1:30.122 1:25.190 1:39.077

Qualify 1:22.087 1:23.715 1:24.385 1:24.754 1:25.269 1:26.922 1:27.062 1:28.443 1:27.502 1:28.839 1:27.707 1:29.121 1:29.660 1:30.686 1:31.816 1:28.985 1:24.552 1:37.871 1:30.725 1:22.139 1:39.614

Pos 1 3 4 6 7 8 9 12 10 13 11 15 16 17 19 14 5 20 18 2 21

Photo: Mary Harvey

Rounds 1 & 2 SNETTERTON Sunday/Monday 4/5 May 2008

Drama galore at sunny Snetterton despite being under lots of pressure. He dispensed a large number of tyres which is always good news for our friends at Burton on Trent.

Although, as we have said, this first outing of PFO was slightly later in the season than usual, purposely to give Photo: Jonathan Tremlett

OLLOWING a long winter rest, with more than enough time, you would think, to get the cars into apple-pie order, the 2008 Pirelli Ferrari Open series sprang into action at Snetterton on the Bank Holiday weekend of 4th/5th May. This BRSCC-organised race meeting had a substantial Ferrari content. Not only was the PFO performing on both the Sunday and Monday but the sister series, the PFfc, had a similar programme. Sunday’s schedule gave a 15-minute qualifying session together with a 20minute race. The following day a longer qualy of 20 minutes was followed in the afternoon by a second 20-min race.

The weather throughout the weekend was perfect: sunny, dry,

and warm. To add to the summery feel, we had organised the traditional Snetterton Picnic through the good offices of Jim and Janet Race. Their marquee was set up on the grass bank in the paddock and provided an excellent watering hole for the many Ferrari competitors and their friends.

This was the first meeting at which Pirelli’s new tyre engineer, Shaun Marriott (replacing the retired Pete Hopkinson), would be in charge of the familiar bright yellow truck.

Shaun and his colleague did a David Edge’s F40 splendid job

remained forlornly in the paddock.

CompRes 11

Photo: www.simonpics.co.uk

competitors more than adequate time to get their cars ready, we heard that Alan Cosby was already in trouble with a blownup engine in his big F512M, sustained at an AMOC meeting at Mallory Park the previous month.

The programme listed 16 Ferraris, 13 of them in Challenge Class C and a mere three in Class S. The latter included Rory Fordyce who continues to remain an enigma as both he and his car have yet to make an appearance.

Marco Pullen’s 328GTB was a potential winner while the late entry from Tris Simpson gave promise that his ex-Barker car might at last demonstrate its latent speed.

The well supported C division included some drivers new to PFO. David Hathaway has added a 355/Ch to his collection of Ferraris whilst the crowned King of Classics, Gary Culver, had

joined the Challenge brigade with an ex-Club Fiorano car. John Shirley had brought his essentially roadcar-based 355 all the way from the Scottish Highlands. Other new names on the list were Phillipe Evrard, from Belgium, with his black F355/Ch, and Jeff Lester with his similar and immaculate rosso corsa Ferrari.

Pre-event testing brought its usual crop of mechanical John Shirley and David Edge vying for track space. problems. The most serious befell Marco Pullen’s 328GTB lived. Alternator maladies in (which he whimsically likes to testing (he tried a second spare label as a to no avail) saw him loading the ‘388GTO’. car for home early on Sunday Since Ferrari morning. Another driver who never made was unable to race was Mike such a tipo, if Reeder, who was single-handedly it really was a helping in the paddock where he 388GTO it could, and looking for all the wouldn’t be world like Nelson with his arm in eligible for the a sling (but without the eye series . . .). patch). Mike hopes that a painful The car muscle ailment will heal soon to digested a enable him to rejoin the fray. couple of its Peter Rowley also added his valves, name to the list of drivers with making this problems. His F355 had clear by fractured an oil line in testing so Gary Culver made no mistakes at the re-start, taking spewing them preparers Brookspeed, unable to victory as well as the fastest lap. out of the air effect a repair on site, isolated

12 CompRes

Photo: www.simonpics.co.uk

Photo: www.simonpics.co.uk

I’Anson’s superb start in Race 1 ended in disaster after just one lap when he hit the barriers at Riches Corner.

intakes for all to see. This was a major disaster for Marco – clearly it would take a week or two to rebuild the engine – but resiliently he opted to race his Classic 328GTB, albeit strapping a set of slicks on to the car for the PFO races.

Not for the first time Mark I’Anson demonstrated his unwillingness to part unnecessarily with his cash. He turned up at the Pirelli truck asking for replacements with his rear tyres down to the canvas.

Also needful of fresh tyres was Tim Mogridge, who had the misfortune of a blow out at that earlier Mallory race meeting.

Our acquaintance with new recruit Phillipe Evrard was short

Q1 Just after 9 o’clock the cars were assembled in the collection area after being first tested for

Bird fancier. Ed Bourn found himself with an extra pair of wings on his F355.

Photo: www.simonpics.co.uk

Photo: www.simonpics.co.uk Photo: www.simonpics.co.uk

noise by the aforesaid judge. He pronounced Graham Reeder’s Challenge car over the limit but allowed him to do three laps in order to qualify. Graham was also in trouble with the timekeepers since, according to the results sheets, he persistently failed to have a working transponder - a problem that Graham Reeder keeps his customers happy. continued throughout the weekend. the circuit and the car ran with There were no dramas in just one of its two coolers. Peter practice although the 328s of had another scare when a safety Pullen and Simpson were puffing out trails of oil smoke from time to time. The timesheets showed that Culver, on his debut appearance in PFO, had lost none of his celerity, registering a pole position time of 1:16.408. This compares with the current Class C lap record of 1:17.992 set by Edward Bourn last year. About a second in arrears were I’Anson and White.

Of the two Class S cars, Pullen Jim and Janet with their helpers at the was surprisingly the famous Snetterton Picnic. quicker in his Classic scrutineer spotted his harness 328, his time of 1:20.026 being was out of date, although this only a second shy of Cosby’s was quickly rectified by existing lap record with the 512 borrowing someone else’s. of 1:19.028, a quite incredible David Edge had brought performance. Simpson brought along his F40 with the intention his 328GTB in after only six laps, of running it in Class S as a deciding the car’s gearing was change from using his familiar unsuited to the circuit.

Class C 355 Challenge car. It would have been an ideal weapon for Snetterton, with its long straight, but his best intentions were scotched by the pernickety noise judge, who pronounced it far too loud for the Norfolk countryside. It remained forlornly in the paddock for the whole weekend.

Edward Bourn was the winner of the OMG Driver of the Day award, presented by Tania Pullen.

Sunday’s PFO race was the second event after the lunch break, during which the Picnic was in full swing. With the sun shining brightly it was possible to sit outside and enjoy Jim and Janet’s fare of hot soup, savoury snacks and a vast selection of cakes and tarts.

R1 There were some last minute snags before all the cars – 12 Challenge and 2 Speciale - lined up on the grid. Bourn’s car refused to start due to the fuel pump not working (no electrical supply) which his preparer, Steve Moody, rectified by some tricky short circuitry.

The field surged off when the lights went out, with Culver making a tardy getaway. I’Anson took the lead and looked as if he might just keep it if all went well for him. Sadly for him, it didn’t.

When he attempted to change down from 5th to 4th for Riches Corner as he started his second lap, he was unable to select the gear. At high speed - in neutral he spun out of control and hit the tyre barrier a hefty thump.

The race was immediately red flagged and it took a quarter of an hour to extricate the

CompRes 13

Photo: SwiftyPix

The removal and subsequent reinstallation of the engine in Tris Simpson’s 328GTB occupied most of the weekend.

14 CompRes

slightly slower machine, was impressively consistent. Reeder’s Challenge car began to handle oddly, causing him to slow, while Simpson lost all his useful gears right at the end but managed to finish.

At the flag it was Culver who took his first PFO victory, some five seconds ahead of 2nd place man Bourn, with Mogridge, another 4 seconds in arrears, taking the third podium position.

Gary set the fastest lap time of the race in 1:17.210, a new Class

Q2 Bank Holiday Monday’s weather was just as nice as the previous day’s had been. It was sunny and pleasantly warm, and the 20-minute Open series qualifying was the first item on the programme. The cars went out on track promptly at 9.00am – 13 Ferraris but without Tris Photo: www.simonpics.co.uk

damaged car and reassemble the grid. Because of the time lost, the restarted race was reduced to 15 minutes.

This time Culver made no errors and made an excellent start. From row 3, Reeder made an even better one but was adjudged to have jumped the lights and penalised 10 seconds.

Charlie White latched on to Culver’s tail with Ed Bourn in third. Then it was the penalised Reeder, with Mogridge in an adjusted 4th pursued by Pullen, with Tris Simpson and Wayne Marrs almost in his engine bay.

White dropped back to 5th place on lap 4, his alternator playing up, and finally called it a day one lap later when he completely ran out of the electrical power needed for the ABS and other important facilities. Peter Rowley retired at about the same time when he lost his engine’s coolant, spinning on the proceeds.

With Charlie gone, it was Bourn who took up the chase, with Reeder right up with him in third on the road but in reality ten seconds behind. Then, some way back, came Mogridge and Marrs. Towards the end of the race, Edge, who seems to have got the hang of this racing business, closed on Pullen for 6th place while behind him there was a desperate struggle between David Hathaway and Jeff Lester.

John Shirley, in an obviously

C lap record. Despite his gearbox difficulties, Tris Simpson had recorded the quickest Class S in 1:18.624, which again was a new Class record.

Following the end of the subsequent Classic race, we all assembled in the Picnic marquee for the prize giving. This season OMG have come up with an ‘Open Driver of the Day’ award. A small committee of uninvolved drivers decided that Ed Bourn had won this honour for his tenacious drive to second place and the handsome silver charger was presented to him by Tania Pullen.

Edward was delighted, especially as his mother and father were there to watch the race. Tania also handed bottles of Veuve Cliquot to the two thirsty class winners.

Charlie White (76) resisted extreme pressure from Gary Culver for most of Race 2. Sadly for him electrical bothers intervened on the last lap.

R2

David Hathaway leads Jeff Lester and Tim Mogridge into Russell in R2.

scheduled as the first event after lunch, which we hoped would give sufficient time for Mike Sweeney, Tris Simpson’s preparer, to reinstall the engine in the 328GTB. With just seconds to go Tris pulled into the collection area and was greeted with an impromptu round of applause for an heroic effort.

The race started just after 2 o’clock and from the lights it was Charlie White who zoomed into the lead, hotly pursued by Gary Culver. Then it was Mogridge, I’Anson (with the tank tape special), Bourn and Reeder.

Pullen, with the ‘Classic’ 328, was

Photo: www.simonpics.co.uk

The 20-minute race was

Photo: www.simonpics.co.uk

Simpson, whose 328 was holed up in the paddock with its engine dangling from a crane. It had ingested some vital bits the day before and the only way to remove them was to take out the unit.

Amazingly, I’Anson’s battlescarred car had been repaired sufficiently overnight to take part. Although it looked seriously disfigured, with swathes of black tank tape holding the body together, at least it was a goer – a testament to the sheer enthusiasm we see so often in this series.

Bourn’s electrical problems seemed to have been cured but Hathaway soon headed for the pits with steam coming from the engine bay due to a faulty water hose. Also visiting the pit lane for assorted reasons were Pullen (leaking crankshaft oil seal), Edge and Marrs.

Bourn executed a hairy 360˚ spin on Revett Straight when he came across some oil or antifreeze in the braking area, while Culver complained of locking brakes.

Jack Sears leads the applause for Mike Sweeney and Tris Simpson for their heroic rebuilding efforts in the paddock.

mid-field, in 7th, but the leaking crankshaft oil seal was getting worse and he retired on lap 10.

The chicane at Russell saw a number of spinners, including Jeff Lester and David Hathaway, both of whom continued at unabated speed. Tim Mogridge made a brief visit to the pits on lap 3 with a misfiring engine. He switched off, it automatically reset its management system, he fired it up again, and rejoined the race.

The wonders of modern electronics!

Tris Simpson’s 328 seemed to be going well in 7th spot although he had to be careful: every time he negotiated a corner the engine moved (they hadn’t had time to fit all the holding-down bolts) which made it difficult to select the correct gear.

Meanwhile up at the front, White was still in charge of the race despite being under intense pressure from Culver. It was a hugely entertaining dice to watch and as the laps rolled by we wondered if Charlie could actually keep the lead and score a notable win.

But it wasn’t to be. On the very last lap the F355’s alternator belt detached itself and he lost most of his services as well as the water pump. With sky high readings on his thermometer he made it to the finish albeit in second rather than first place.

Gary Culver took the chequered flag, some 12 seconds ahead of White, with Mark I’Anson crossing

CompRes 15

Photo: www.simonpics.co.uk

all his efforts to make the race.

Right on I’Anson’s exhaust pipes was Reeder, in 4th, followed by Bourn, Marrs and Simpson. David Edge won his mid-field battle with Hathaway, Shirley and Lester.

Charlie White had the consolation of setting the fastest lap of the race (1:17.370, which was marginally slower than Culver had clocked the previous day) while Tris Simpson had the satisfaction of setting the quickest ‘S’ class lap time in 1:19.351.

Jack Sears, in his new role of Club President,

Mark I’Anson was voted the Driver of the Day in Monday’s race.

arrived in the morning to watch the fun and was able to present the trophies to Monday’s successful drivers.

There was another OMG Open Driver of the Day award to make and this time the winner was Mark I’Anson, who had overcome almost impossible adversity following his crash on Sunday, to take a podium position the following day – a remarkable achievement.

Mark received a very nice silver salver together with a well earned bottle of Veuve Cliquot.

SNETTERTON 4th May 2008 Round 1 Pos

No

Driver

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 DNF DNF DNF

34 6 70 60 23 13 85 19 55 4 46 40 76 30

Gary Culver Edward Bourn Tim Mogridge Wayne Marrs Graham Reeder Marco Pullen David Edge David Hathaway Jeff Lester John Shirley Tris Simpson Peter Rowley Charlie White Mark I’Anson

Fastest Laps;

Gary Culver Tris Simpson

Tipo

Class

Laps

Time

F355/Ch F355/Ch F355/Ch F355/Ch F355/Ch 328GTB F355/Ch F355/Ch F355/Ch F355 328GTB F355/Ch F355/Ch F355/Ch

C C C C C S C C C C S C C C

12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 5 5 0

15:45.356 15:50.587 15:54.663 16:15.540 16:26.833 16:37.075 16:39.463 16:45.373 16:45.807 16:53.054 17:04.971 9:19.555 11:21.532

Best Lap 1:17.210 1:17.883 1:18.083 1:19.004 1:17.879 1:20.470 1:20.698 1:21.998 1:22.003 1:22.819 1:18.624 1:23.394 1:17.965

Qualify 1:16.408 1:17.987 1:18.488 1:19.442 1:19.185 1:19.874 1:20.366 1:20.083 1:20.104 1:22.973 1:20.026 1:22.576 1:17.581 1:17.366

Pos 1 4 5 7 6 8 12 10 11 14 9 13 3 2

1:17 210 (91.01 mph) Lap Record 1:18.624 (89.37 mph) Lap Record

C S

SNETTERTON 5th May 2008 Round 2 Pos 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 DNF

No

Tipo

Class

Laps

Time

34 Gary Culver 76 Charlie White 30 Mark I’Anson

Driver

F355/Ch F355/Ch F355/Ch

C C C

16 16 16

20:56.532 21:09.276 21:18.890

1:17.383 1:17.370 1:18.431

1:17.171 1:18.187 1:18.843

1 2 4

23 6 60 46 85 19 4 55 70 40 13

F355/Ch F355/Ch F355/Ch 328GTB F355/Ch F355/Ch F355 F355/Ch F355/Ch F355/Ch 328GTB

C C C S C C C C C C S

16 16 16 16 16 15 15 15 15 15 10

21:19.297 21:20.511 21:25.576 21:49.647 22:07.428 21:11.032 21:16.558 21:25.142 21:46.566 22:04.464 14:43.832

1:18.646 1:18.408 1:18.621 1:19.351 1:20.087 1:21.413 1;23.408 1:21.082 1:18.399 1:26.014 1:21.156

1:19.574 1:18.967 1:19.557

7 5 6 14 11 9 12 10 3 13 8

Graham Reeder Edward Bourn Wayne Marrs Tris Simpson David Edge David Hathaway John Shirley Jeff Lester Tim Mogridge Peter Rowley Marco Pullen

Fastest Laps:

16 CompRes

Charlie White Tris Simpson

C S

1:17.370 (90.82 mph) 1:19.351 (88.55 mph)

Best Lap

Qualify

1:22.053 120.713 1:23.057 1:20.959 1:18.748 1:26.974 1:20.232

Pos

Chris Butler (F355) effectively demolished the opposition with two blistering sub-67 second runs

was still a bit slippery. Paying little attention to whether it was slippery or not was Chris Butler with a tremendous, smooth, first practice run of 68.07s. Chris was followed by David Tomlin (F355), Richard Allen (F355) who was quickest of all in the final sector, and Richard Prior (348ts), all within half a second of each other.

Andrew Grier turned in a very commendable sub-73s run in the 328GTS after almost a 2year absence from competition.

John Marshall, trying out his F430

Photo: Scuderia Fotografia

HE THIRD ROUND of the Pirelli Ferrari Hillclimb Championship was at the ever popular Harewood hill in Yorkshire, writes ace photographer DAVE CLARK. And even in the early morning, with the mist clearing, the temperature gauge in the car was already reading 14°C, so all was good.

Your reporter spent a couple of hours getting to the track, the second half of the journey accompanied by Chris Butler in his well prepared F355. Upon our arrival, the line-up of 19 Ferraris glinting in the paddock was a sight to behold and included no less than three husband and wife ‘teams’: Scuderias Marshall, Goodwin and Haynes, each ‘team member’ with their own car. The wives were notably all in 328GTBs with the husbands in larger-engined tipi. Brian Jackson was the only driver with a 308 and there were no fewer than seven F355s. Nick Taylor and Barrie Wood were notable absentees from the large field of Ferraris.

The first practice saw four drivers breaking 70 seconds in the clear, dry conditions, although a few drivers thought it

Photo: Scuderia Fotografia

PIRELLI FERRARI HILL CLIMB CHAMPIONSHIP: ROUND 3 HAREWOOD 10th May 2008

Jon Goodwin (250GT Lusso) took home the maximum Championship points.

(with F1 transmission), was struggling a little to find the best settings on his manettino and managed 72.24s, which was the best of the husband and wife teams. Pauline Goodwin was the fastest of the ladies, out for the first time in the ex-John Dobson 328GTB which she had only driven for the first time two days earlier. Pauline managed a 75.96s, on a ragged run which included a fluffed gear change at Clark’s, costing her over a second.

Andrew Holman (348tb), with limited Harewood experience, got off to a sub-2.4s start but was pedalling too hard and forgot to use his brakes before Country Corner, an incident which he would repeat in Run 3. No damage done though. Jon Goodwin was frustrated not to have his F430 (manual ’box), as he was hoping to see what it/he could do; however, he came armed with the 250GT Lusso instead and it didn’t disappoint him, producing its fastest ever Harewood time with 74.45s (previous best 74.86s).

With five drivers residing in the 72s bracket, there was going to be strong competition in the middle of the pack. Drivers in this group included Geoff Dark and Mike Spicer with their F355s,

CompRes 17

Photo: Scuderia Fotografia

who both produced the fastest start times and retained good consistency at the start throughout the day. Mike recorded a spectacular 2.28s start on Run 2.

Richard Preece was pleased with a steady 74.41s run in his 348GTC, with which he was still getting to grips, and 2007 champion, Richard Prior, came home only a second behind Butler.

Practice run 2 began with a huge improvement of 8s by Peter Wilson in his 348tb and WendyAnn Marshall made a 2 second improvement to go sub-80s.

Richard Preece knocked almost 2 seconds of his first sector,

producing his fastest Harewood time of 70.78s, which was nearly 3 seconds under his 308GT4 best. In the first official run, Richard managed to shave 0.05s off this time, but couldn’t continue the trend in R2 and R3. He was very pleased with his overall performance though and says he’s working on overcoming his desire to overbrake into Andrew Holman the corners.

Andrew Holman came in neck and neck with Richard in P2, but he continued to chip away in the first two official runs, but couldn’t quite manage to break the 70s barrier, although he was only 7/100ths off his best. In a last ditch attempt to pull out all the stops in R3, Andrew again outbraked himself going into Country with the consequence of taking to the grass.

As usual, David Tomlin had an argument with the most drivers took off bollards. The bollards won.

18 CompRes

Photo: Scuderia Fotografia

Photo: Scuderia Fotografia

“Philip Whitehead (F355) showed he was still on top form, producing his Harewood best.” He was the second quickest on scratch.

a couple or seconds or so from P1 to P2. Exceptions to this were Pauline Goodwin, who pulled off a tremendous 4.4s improvement to give her a Harewood PB of 71.54s (previously 71.69s). Tracey Haynes also came close to her best, knocking over 3 seconds off. The top three did not change, with Butler producing a brilliant 66.89s, including all of the fastest sector times, and Richard Prior with 67.68s, only 0.19s off his best, with the car he had only just got back from the workshop a few days earlier. Jon Goodwin was the final driver up the hill and coaxed the Lusso to take a full second off the P1 time - another best for Lucy with 73.43s.

After a long, relaxing lunch break in the lovely Yorkshire sun,

consults the hillclimbers’ manual.

the first proper run saw Peter Wilson and Wendy-Ann Marshall chip small amounts off their practice times. Wendy was followed by husband John in the F430. With a better start of 2.61s, John remained good all the way up the hill giving him a time of 68.34s. Despite his efforts and consistent starts, he couldn’t beat this in the next two runs (mainly lost at the first corner). In his final run, John recorded the fastest speed of the day at 83mph, and also the quickest final sector, just beating Chris Butler on this part of the course.

Andy Grier took over a second off his practice times to break his PB, and yet more time off in Run 2, giving him 70.11s

Photo: SwiftyPix

Richard Prior takes his 348tb sideways over the line to claim a well deserved third place.

(previously 71.45s) - a fabulous absolutely delighted at getting all The slow times were all a bit of a achievement after such a long the apexes correct and recording mystery to him, although he absence on the hills, although he this excellent time. maintained an extremely was desperately trying to break Richard Allen repeated his consistent and very good 69 70s. We hope to see Andy at a practice run time, but with great seconds for all five runs and his few more events this year, frustration he couldn’t improve final sector times and trap speeds hopefully smashing a few more anymore throughout the day. were as good as the best. Chris personal records too.

Butler repeated his P2 time Tracey Haynes was exactly (66.89s) putting him another driver to break her firmly in top spot in front of PB in run 1 with a time of Richard Prior’s also 74.75s (previously 74.94s). consistent 67.79s. Jon She came close again in R2 Goodwin nibbled a further and was going very well in R3 5/100ths off his best, until a moment at Country putting him in the 20 point Corner cost her valuable position after PEP time. Despite a slipping correction. clutch, David Tomlin found On Run 2, Wendybetter form in Run 1. Poor Ann Marshall pulled out the David was still recovering stops to take 2 seconds off from a nasty cycling accident her R1 time, with a very and flu but a nice drive of good 77.33s on her first 68.34s put him on level competitive visit to the pegging with John Marshall, formidable Harewood hill. the position only being This was an achievement decided by taking the next which she would better by a fastest run into account, further 0.3s in the final run, where John had pipped him beating her handicap time by 68.81s to David’s 68.82s. of 78s by nearly a full Philip Whitehead (F355), second. Well done! Peter after a great 4th place at Wilson also took nearly 2s Prescott, showed he was still off his time, showing a on top form, producing his continuous improvement in Harewood best of 67.56s, times throughout the day. well over a second off his Geoff Dark, always previous record. Phil knows eager to do well, just this hill well and has driven it couldn’t make his F355 do Doing a fair imitation of the Angel of the North, Chris Butler celebrates his victory. lots of times, so he was what his well sorted 308

CompRes 19

could do, but given time we are sure Geoff will be back at the top in the future. Geoff produced three close timed runs with a best of 71.7s. Charles Haynes (348GTC) admitted to be just out of practice. He said that his first run felt like the first time he had been in the car! He started off with an 85 second run and eventually ended up 10 seconds quicker, but not quite as quick as his wife, Tracey. After being red flagged due to Andrew Holman’s incident, Charles managed to squeeze in an extra practice run.

Peter Rogerson (F355) began the day with his best ever first practice including a hairy moment around Quarry, which he repeated on the first timed run by going sideways through the line. Peter improved in the mid sections of the course on Run 2 to knock 0.75s off his R1 time and come within 0.8s of his best with 72.50s. After her PB

performance in P2 (71.54s), Pauline Goodwin proved it wasn’t a fluke by getting an almost identical time in R2 with 71.56s and a faster time and speed in the final sector.

Run 2 also saw 69s times from Mike Spicer, Brian Jackson, Dave Tomlin, Phil Whitehead and Richard Allen. Prior and Butler produced slower times in Run 2, but Jon Goodwin had recorded another superb run in the Lusso.

At the start of Run 3, everything was still up for grabs.

Most drivers couldn’t capitalise on this; however, Pauline was on a roll and once again broke her personal best and was ecstatic with 70.94s, breaking her handicap of 71s too. Mike Spicer also pulled his best time out of the bag with 69.08s which would give him 6th place (his best Harewood time in a 355). Out of the top three, only Chris Butler could better his time and he did

so with a super smooth 66.75s run. This was the only climb under 67s all day and a well deserved first place to Chris for consistent and error-free driving.

The climax of the day for the Ferraris was the final run of Jon Goodwin. Having already set some astonishing times in the 44 year old car, he set off up the hill again with an amazing sector between Orchard and Quarry to take yet more time off his best with a stunning 72.79s, with which he was absolutely delighted and which gave him the 20 points on PEP. So, a deserving top spot to Chris Butler (17 points), an excellent second and PB from Phil Whitehead (12 points), and third to the 2007 champ Richard Prior (15 points). Several personal best times were broken at the meeting and a lot of the drivers went home very content with their performances. 

HAREWOOD HILLCLIMB 10 MAY 2008 Pirelli Ferrari Hillclimb Championship Round 3

PEP time

Points

66.25

66.89

67.04

66.75

7

2.40

40.07

80

2.25

68.25

17

70.11

68.50

67.56

69.26

68.13

2

2.50

40.78

78

2.25

69.08

12

Richard Prior

348ts

69.02

67.68

67.25

67.79

68.18

68.02

10

2.40

40.34

75

1.00

68.47

15

John Marshall

430F1

72.24

71.28

69.00

68.34

69.06

68.81

4

2.61

40.97

74

3.50

70.73

6

David Tomlin

F355

68.85

69.47

68.25

68.34

68.87

68.82

6

2.34

41.28

76

2.25

69.88

10

Mike Spicer

F355

72.32

69.25

68.50

70.44

69.89

69.08

9

2.42

41.50

73

2.25

70.63

7

Richard Allen

F355

69.29

69.18

68.25

69.19

69.73

69.36

13

2.47

41.86

81

2.25

70.75

5

Brian Jackson

308GTB

72.45

71.24

69.00

70.19

69.91

70.57

12

2.50

41.89

71

-2.00

68.51

13

Tipo

Andrew Holman

speed

PEP %

split mid way

66.89

70.42

64ft

Run 3

Handicap pos

Run 2

68.07

F355

H/cap

Run 1

Pract 2

Pract 1

F355

Philip Whitehead

Driver Chris Butler

348tb

98.92

70.73

69.00

70.38

70.03

97.79

16

2.37

42.14

74

0.00

70.03

9

Andy Grier

328GTS

72.92

71.77

71.00

70.75

70.11

70.21

3

2.39

42.12

75

-0.50

69.76

11

Richard Preece

348GTC

74.41

70.78

68.50

70.73

71.40

71.11

18

2.45

42.84

77

1.50

71.79

4

Pauline Goodwin

328GTB

75.96

71.54

71.00

72.44

71.56

70.94

5

2.38

43.14

73

-0.50

70.59

8

Geoff Dark

F355

72.22

74.48

69.00

72.44

71.70

72.19

19

2.33

43.11

76

2.25

73.31

3

Peter Rogerson

F355

74.21

75.95

71.50

73.21

72.50

73.96

15

2.44

59.98

71

2.25

74.13

2

*Lusso

74.47

73.43

72.25

73.38

73.73

72.79

8

2.68

43.53

68

7.00

67.69

20

Tracey Haynes

328GTB

78.51

75.32

74.00

74.75

74.79

75.28

11

2.59

44.93

70

-0.50

74.38

1

Charles Haynes

348GTC

84.96

78.41

74.00

76.43

74.97

75.73

14

2.71

45.42

67

1.50

76.09

1

Wendy A Marshall

*328GTB

81.22

79.34

78.00

79.33

77.33

77.03

1

3.36

47.33

-

0.50

77.42

1

348tb

90.91

82.66

77.00

81.01

80.01

78.34

17

2.59

46.88

64

0.00

78.34

1

Jon Goodwin

Peter Wilson

BARC Class Awards FOC Handicap

20 CompRes

1st Chris Butler 1

st

Wendy Ann Marshall

2nd Philip Whitehead 2

nd

Andy Grier

3rd Richard Prior

4th John Marshall

Photo: Mary Harvey

Round 5: BRANDS HATCH 17 MAY 2008

O Photo: Mary Harvey

UR HOSTS for the fifth round of the 2008 PFfc, at the one-day meeting of Saturday, 17th May, were the Aston Martin Owners Club, who also included our sister series, the PFO, in their invitation. The venue was Brands Hatch and the Indy circuit.

Now there may be many

who like the Indy course at Brands. It offers great viewing facilities for spectators who enjoy seeing the cars coming round every minute or so, like watching Scalextric on their dining room table. It is also close to the metropolis which for London boys cuts down on the travelling.

Despite all these attributes and its long illustrious history, for your reporter the Indy circuit has

William Jenkins’s race ended in the gravel at Druids.

a fairly lowly rating in a ‘My Best Tracks’ list. In fact I would go so far as to say that it is in next to bottom place, with only Silverstone National being less appealing. The Indy, for me, is a fiddly track, lacking any glorious high speed curves and twists.

And Druids Bend has been a consistent graveyard for damaged Ferraris over the many years I have been racing there.

Add to this a severely cramped upper paddock which is quite remote from the much larger area at the other side of the twin tunnels, making communications difficult, and you have a fairly convincing collection of reasons why Team Swift doesn’t really relish the long journey south to race at the short Brands circuit.

The entry for the Classic race was pretty good at 22 cars, although sadly there were no Gp1 Ferraris this time. This number of cars is probably enough for the Indy’s ultra-short 1.199 mile lap length.

All the usual suspects were

CompRes 21

22 CompRes

Photos: Mary Harvey

on parade, with a last minute entry from Peter Fisk with his Mondial. The cars were split into 12 Gp2 standard Ferraris and 10 Gp3 ‘lightly modified’ ones. It is interesting that this season there has been very little difference in performance between the two groups.

After a couple of weeks of beautiful warm and sunny weather, it was Sod’s Law that things would change for this weekend. The day started off overcast and unpromising, and by the time the PFfc qualifying came round, just after 9 o’clock, rain started to fall making the track averagely slippery.

Due to a recurrence of his troubles at Snetterton, when some elements of the flywheel ignition system became detached, Nigel Jenkins (328GTB) was unable to join the 15-minute session, so just 21 cars set off into the spray.

Chris Compton Goddard, in the ex-Whitman 308GTB, outbraked himself into Druids while Fred Honnor in his similar car fell off onto the grassy outfield coming out of Graham Hill bend.

Slightly confusingly, Ben Cartwright’s 328 was circulating with number 55 on its flanks rather than his permanent number 72 – all apparently due to an error on the part of the organisers when preparing the programme.

William Jenkins set off at modest pace with his Gulf Oilliveried 308GTB in order to bed in some new brake pads but by the end of the session was up to his normal speed. However, at less than modest pace was your scribe who was not only nursing a painful back strain but also a sick car. The oil pressure gauge was displaying a sagging reading despite the cool temperature of the early morning and so with prudence in mind the blue 308 was circulated at modest revs in order to qualify but avoid any possible disaster to the engine.

No such problems affected the leading Ferraris and as usual the pace setter was Gary Culver (328GTB), who set a pole

Top: Chris Butler (328GTB) took a fine 4th place. Middle: William Moorwood (GT4) and Geoff Neal (328GTB) had a hard scrap. Bottom: Marco Pullen just pipped Peter Everingham for 5th spot in their 328s.

Photo: Mary Harvey

David Hathaway (19) and John Day had an entertaining battle.

the Ferraris were due in the collection area the Jenkins 328GTB was ready to roll.

The weather showed no sign of improving. The rain continued to pour down and the track conditions remained decidedly wet. Although he hadn’t formally qualified, the Clerk of the Course smiled on Nigel Jenkins and he was allowed to start from the back of the grid without a time penalty. Sharing this ignominious position on the back row was your reporter, who, thanks to some assistance from QV’s Shaun Powell, had got a few

Photo: Mary Harvey

position time of 58.595 sec.

Marco Pullen was 0.4 seconds behind to take the other front row spot with Nicky Paul-Barron, in third, recording an almost identical time. Hillclimb specialist Chris Butler, who the evening before had revealed it was his and Ali’s first wedding anniversary, was right on the money and just a soupçon behind David Tomlin’s similar Gp2 328GTB. The 20-minute PFfc race was the second event on the afternoon programme. Before this we attended a special Ferrari briefing by the Clerk of the Course. In our endeavours to promote safety we feel these briefings are valuable in focussing competitors’ attention on potential hazards and drawing attention to any of the circuit’s peculiarities that they need to be alerted to. However, the effectiveness of the briefing rests to a large extent on the skill of the Clerk who is giving it, and this tends to be a bit patchy.

Unfortunately the Brands briefing fell somewhat short of the standard we are aiming for, but we shall continue with the scheme and hope for better things in future.

Back in the pit garages, work continued on Nigel Jenkins’s electrics with QV’s Mike Lester putting in a noteworthy shift underneath the car (“And I thought this was my day off!”).

He succeeded, and by the time

more pounds of oil pressure by adjustment of the pressure relief valve.

Because qualifying had been in the wet, and therefore deemed to have been no change in conditions, an extra green flag lap wasn’t given. It was difficult to get any heat into the tyres before the start lights were extinguished and the 22 car grid surged into Paddock Hill Bend for the first time. The order at the front was Culver – Pullen – PaulBarron – Butler – Tomlin, with Gary perceptibly moving ahead of his pursuers.

Then the inevitable happened. First Fisk went straight on at Druids, embedding his Mondial in the gravel, closely followed by Honnor, who careered off the track on the exit to Paddock Hill, well and truly beaching his 308GTB. Both cars were in dangerous positions and on lap 4 out came the red flags to stop the race.

The remainder of the field toured round at slow speed for a couple of laps before being brought to a halt in the start/ finish area. The cars were assembled in roughly the positions they were in prior to the stoppage and we waited for some

Brands Management. Gary Culver once again stroked his 328GTB home to victory.

CompRes 23

17 minutes while the two stricken Ferraris were recovered.

The restart, following another green flag lap, once again saw Culver maintain his pole position although now it was Tomlin who was in second and N P-B just behind. Pullen’s 328 had a recurrence of gear selection problems at the start and was down in 8th place.

Further down the field a hugely entertaining struggle between the GT4s of John Watts, Richard Fenny and William Morwood was taking place. Watts was the quickest of the bunch but managed to understeer off the course – but then continued – as he exited Clark Curve.

Pullen got into his stride and by lap 6 had caught up with Nicky P-B. However, as they

approached the dreaded Druids, Pullen made a bid on the inside, locked up under braking on the wet track, and the two cars made fairly heavy contact. Despite their cars’ disfigured bodywork, both drivers continued. On the same lap William Jenkins’s race ended as he skidded into the gravel trap at the same place.

Chris Goddard and Richard Allen also had a close call here, with the latter managing to avoid contact by taking to the grass.

It was non-stop action all the way, with the race reduced to just 11 minutes - or 10 laps - in view of the earlier stoppage.

At the end it was Gary Culver who took the chequered flag, some 7 seconds ahead of Gp2 winner David Tomlin. In third was Nicky, a couple of seconds

ahead of Chris Butler. Pullen’s Gp3 car beat Peter Everingham’s Gp2 328GTS by less than a car’s length to snap up 5th overall.

Anniversary girl Ali Butler was dragged kicking to the OMG garage to present the Maranello Concessionaires Classic Parts prizes. She did this exceedingly well, handing over the Gp2 trophies to winner David Tomlin (to his great relief I didn’t have to announce “and in second place is . . .”) and runners-up Nicky Paul-Barron and her husband of just twelve months, Chris. The overall winner, Gary Culver, received the Gp3 trophy with place men Marco Pullen and Sam Whitman collecting their awards as well.

ROUND 5 BRANDS HATCH Saturday 17 May 2008 Pos 1 2 3

No

Driver

34 Gary Culver 6 David Tomlin 17 Nicky Paul-Barron

Tipo

Group Laps

Time

Best Lap

Qualify

Pos

328GTB

3

10

10:20.140

1:01.092

58.595

1

328GTB

2

10

10:27.222

1:01.529

1:00.010

4

328GTB

2

10

10:34.317

1:02.116

59.017

3

4

5 Chris Butler

328GTB

2

10

10:36.915

1:02.203

1:00.868

5

5

13 Marco Pullen

328GTB

3

10

10:37.315

1:00.730

59.014

2

6

12 Peter Everingham

328GTB

2

10

10:37.529

1:02.096

1:01.622

8

7

45 Richard Allen

328GTB

2

10

10:51.876

1:03.385

1:02.175

9

8

10 Sam Whitman

328GTB

3

10

10:55.369

1:03.075

1:02.393

11

9

44 Chris Compton Goddard

308GTB

3

10

10:58.096

1:04.215

1:01.377

7

10

72 Ben Cartwright

11

4 Didier Benaroya

328GTB

2

10

11:05.701

1:03.521

1:02.336

10

Mondial t Cab

2

10

11:12.966

1:03.872

1:02.610

14

12

54 Nigel Jenkins

328GTB

3

10

11:09.096

1:04.235

13 14

19 David Hathaway 24 John Day

328GTB 328GTB

2 2

10 10

11:25.352 11:29.009

1:04.979 1:05.104

1:02.534 1:02.592

12 13

15

11 John Swift

308GTB

3

9

10:24.184

1:06.797

1:07.698

21

16

47 Geoff Neal

328GTB

2

9

10:24.961

1:06.571

1:06.276

19

17

14 John Watts

308GT4

3

9

10:25.162

1:04.988

1:05.430

17

18

25 Richard Fenny

308GT4

2

9

10:37.143

1:08.431

1:06.262

18

19

29 William Moorwood

308GT4

2

9

10:44.983

1:09.594

1:06.799

20

38 William Jenkins

308GTB

3

5

5:27.087

1:03.522

1:00.976

6

Mondial QV

3

1:02.702

15

328GTB

3

1:03.823

16

DNF NS

30 Peter Fisk

NS

20 Fred Honnor Fastest Laps:

24 CompRes

Marco Pullen

Gp 3

1:00.730 (71.05 mph)

David Tomlin

Gp 2

1:01.529 (70.13 mph)

---

Photo: Mary Harvey

Round 3 BRANDS HATCH Saturday 17 May 2008

Charlie White (damaged gearbox in testing) and Rory Fordyce, whose modified 328GTB is inexplicably still not race-ready.

As we have seen before, even though the numbers are low, this series gives a good account of itself in the excitement

stakes and we looked forward to some close racing despite the inhospitable weather.

Since the previous races, Marco Pullen’s 328GTB, with its rear bodywork owing a lot to the shape of a 288GTO, had had a complete engine rebuild. At Photo: Mary Harvey

T

HE PIRELLI FERRARI Open series had its third outing of the season at the AMOC Brands Hatch meeting on Saturday, 17th May. Brands was in complete contrast to the previous doubleheader at Snetterton. Exchange brilliant sunny weather for depressingly dull rain, and the wide open spaces of Snett with the claustrophobic Indy course, and you have it.

The advantage of having the Aston Martin Owners Club as hosts is that there is usually the possibility of fitting in a second race along with the PFO event.

AMOC run the Intermarque championship as well as the newly devised Super GT series, for both of which our Ferraris are eligible.

Just thirteen cars were listed in the programme for the PFO event: three Ferraris in Class S and ten F355 Challenge cars in Class C. This field was reduced to only11 with no-shows from

David Edge showed dogged determination in the inhospitable conditions.

CompRes 25

Photo: Mary Harvey

Gary Culver (F355/Ch) took the lead at the start and held on for the first nine laps, hotly pursued by Marco Pullen (328GTB) and the Challenge cars of Wayne Marrs and Mark I’Anson. It was wet.

Snetterton, in pre-event testing, battered wreck, its stove-in righthis debut was thwarted by valves had hit pistons with fairly hand side bodywork held alternator troubles. predictable results but such is the together with swathes of tank The remainder of the field enthusiasm and skill of everyone tape. Now, after some nifty were cars and drivers whom we in the OMG team that it arrived repairs by Prosport, its have seen earlier this season – at Brands all ready for action appearance was transformed and all competitive and exciting to although with barely a mile of for all the world looked like a watch. running-in. Shaun Powell, the potential entry for a concours.

Qualifying commenced at engine builder, convinced us that The only slight problem was an 10.00am on a wet and slippery generally running-in isn’t absence of a window on one side, track. The rain was fitful and the required and we believed him apparently due to there being lap times achieved were after we had seen the extraordinarily good car perform later in considering the practice. conditions.

Tris Simpson’s David Edge 328GTB, which you will complained of lack of recall was the subject of adhesion, afterwards some serious rebuilding discovering far too high work in the paddock at tyre pressures on his Snetterton, had been 355. Simpson, out on properly screwed slicks, was going well together again. In and expressed delight particular, preparer with the 328’s Mike Sweeney had had performance. Wayne time to anchor the Marrs got high marks engine to the chassis for his two wellmore securely so that controlled pirouettes at Phillipe Evrard made his first appearance Tris was able to find a McLaren bend, full set of gears in the ‘box. none in the country. apparently failing to notice the The talking point in Class C We welcomed for the first river of water flowing across the was the immaculate presentation time Phillipe Evrard from track. of Mark I’Anson’s F355/Ch. After Belgium, driving his Mafia black Marco Pullen’s time of its argument with the barriers at F355. Phillipe should have raced 55.046 not only captured pole Snetterton the car looked a with us at the previous event but position by a not insignificant one

26 CompRes

Photo: Mary Harvey

I’Anson (30) and Mogridge had a battle royal for 3rd place, with the positions reversed at the flag.

regulations and sadly Tris was not allowed to take his place on the grid.

From the start, Culver took the lead into the first corner and despite constant harrying from second-placed Pullen, he clung onto first place as if his life depended on it. Behind the two leaders it was Wayne Marrs who held on to third even though he was being hounded by I’Anson,

Photo: Mary Harvey

one-and-a-half seconds for the race but demonstrated that Shaun was right about running-in not being necessary. Gary Culver secured a front row position, beating I’Anson by half a second or so. Wayne Marrs, despite his spins, brought the ‘Fresh ‘N’ Fruity’ F355 into 4th spot just ahead of Simpson’s Class S car.

A couple of drivers – Tim Mogridge and David Edge – had elected to use Pirelli PZero Corsa road tyres in the mistaken belief that they might work as intermediates. It was also convenient, because in dry conditions this is the tyre they are obliged to use in the AMOC Intermarque championship. The choice was not a good one for two reasons: (a) in the conditions they were less good than both slicks and full wets and (b) the PFO Regulations do not allow them. To avoid any official penalty, both drivers agreed to voluntarily start the race from the back of the grid.

The lousy wet conditions were no better for the race itself, a 20-minute affair starting at 15.15. There was one absentee: Tris Simpson had switched from slicks to rain tyres, but the latter were mounted on rear wheels so wide that they stuck out inches beyond the car’s wheel arches.

An eagle-eyed scrutineer spotted the contravention of safety

was matched by Pullen’s youthful tenacity. It was a great battle to watch and most spectators were on tip-toe.

Then, at the start of lap 10, Pullen, who had been poking his nose up Culver’s inside for a lap or two as they braked for Druids, finally got his chance. Gary made a slight error by going wider than usual and that was all that Marco needed to slip by and take the lead. As soon as he got in front he pulled away from Culver’s chasing F355 by around a second a lap, the gap being about 5 seconds with five laps to go. Third placed Marrs’s lead over I’Anson was being gradually nibbled away until, on lap 8, the latter took over the position.

Elsewhere there were some great skirmishes taking place, one of the best being the three car battle between Hathaway, Lester and Edge. We were impressed by how much David Edge has blossomed as a circuit driver and here, in spite of the nasty conditions, he was showing really dogged determination as well as skill.

Three laps from the end, with the race seemingly sewn up,

Jeff Lester drove a solid race in his immaculate Challenge car.

Hathaway and the slow starting Mogridge from the back of the pack.

For the first nine laps there was rarely daylight between the two leaders. Culver’s experience

CompRes 27

situation well, and proceeded on his way without losing much time at all.

After 20 minutes and 22 laps the chequered flag brought the race to an end. Marco Pullen had scored another notable victory in a needle match with the formidable Gary Culver. Tim Mogridge picked up third after a gritty drive through the field.

And in that three car duel further down the order, it was David Edge who came out on top, in front of his well matched rivals Jeff Lester and David Hathaway.

In the shelter of the OMG garage, Didier Benaroya’s American wife, Carolyn, accepted our invitation to present the trophies to the worthy winners.

This year we have a Driver of the

Day award, a handsome silver salver donated by OMG together with a bottle of up-market fizz.

The three judges (I won’t mention their names for fear – or hope! – of bribery) were unanimous in selecting young Marco as the winner after his fine performance.

BRANDS HATCH 17th May 2008 Round 3

Pos

No

Driver

Tipo

Class

Laps

Time

Best Lap

Qualify

Pos

1

13 Marco Pullen

328GTB

S

22

20:32.901

54.873

55.046

1

2

34 Gary Culver

F355/Ch

C

22

20:37.768

54.979

56.515

2

3

70 Tim Mogridge

F355/Ch

C

22

21:02.796

55.760

59.560

8

4

30 Mark I’Anson

F355/Ch

C

22

21:07.114

56.046

56.913

3

5

60 Wayne Marrs

F355/Ch

C

22

21:25.304

57.315

57.736

4

6

85 David Edge

F355/Ch

C

21

20:45.487

58.001

1:01.515

9

7

55 Jeff Lester

F355/Ch

C

21

20:50.481

58.022

1:02.329

10

8

19 David Hathaway

F355/Ch

C

21

20:55.705

58.114

59.313

7

9

40 Peter Rowley

F355/Ch

C

19

20:54.540

1:03.222

1:03.353

11

DNF

77 Phillipe Evrard

F355/Ch

C

18

18:06.322

58.330

58.636

6

NS

46 Tris Simpson

328GTB

S

58.199

5

Fastest Laps:

28 CompRes

Marco Pullen

S

54.873 (78.63 mph)

Gary Culver

C

54.979 (78.48 mph)

Photo: SwiftyPix

PIRELLI FERRARI HILL CLIMB CHAMPIONSHIP: ROUND 4 PRESCOTT 24th May 2008

La vie en bleu

T

his was the second visit to Prescott of the 2008 season, but unlike the previous event four weeks before, this was to be a smaller one day meeting which meant a faster turn around for the Ferrari drivers reports RICHARD PRIOR. The class of 21 Ferraris were again situated in the upper paddock, which meant we felt disengaged from the main action down near the start line, but there was a good reason. The Bugatti Owners Club had assembled a fantastic display of Bugattis for the ‘La Vie en Bleu’ event, from the earliest models to the very latest 1000bhp Veyrons (no less than two of

them!) for the public to admire at close hand and witness at speed on the hill. Two other celebrity cars also in motion were Ayrton Senna's Lotus Renault 98T Formula One car and John Bolster’s legendary hill climb special known as ‘Bloody Mary’ (not French but still an amazing sight on the track).

The first practice run for the Ferraris produced comments from most of the drivers about much understeer (probably accounting for Pauline Goodwin’s excursion into the gravel trap at Pardon Hairpin).

Despite the dusty and slippery conditions, it was Jon Goodwin who recorded the fastest time in P1 with 51.04, clearly ahead of Andrew Holman who had in turn pipped fellow 348 driver Richard Prior by

hundredths of a second.

After further demonstration runs by the French contingent of blue chip cars, 2nd practice for the Ferraris was no less eventful than the first. Tracey Haynes left the track on the last corner (Semi Circle) but came to rest safely on the grass banking, while another moment for Pauline resulted in a slow time by her standards but nonetheless made it to the finish line this time. Colin Campbell reduced his previous run by almost 3 seconds, Wendy Marshall was gradually moving her time in the right direction, Sean Doyle was enjoying his return to this popular track and recorded his best time of the day on 55.92. Peter Rogerson in the F355 was consistent in the 54 second bracket, while John

CompRes 29

30 CompRes

Photo: SwiftyPix

Marshall hit the highest speed trap of the day with 67mph in the F430 F1.

After the lunch break, the official runs began with more serious rivalry. Campbell bettered his speed trap under the bridge with 49 mph in the first official but had a fractionally slower time than in practice, Wendy Marshall was the next driver on the hill and her first run of the afternoon was also her best, again a good speed at 61 mph and a respectable completion time of 58.83. Tracey Haynes reduced her time consistently, taking another 10th of a second off Run 1 to give her 57.16 in Run 2, Ed Briscoe also finished the day with a great improvement to 57.59, but the crown of the GT4s was stolen from him by enthusiastic newcomer, Sean Doyle, who recorded 56.26 in the first run of the afternoon. Maybe the extra polishing Sean does in the paddock really does make the car more aerodynamic.

Another personal best was produced by Peter Rogerson, taking almost half a second from his previous effort set in September last year, down to 53.90 today. Peter Wilson (348tb) beat his handicap target in Run 2, now stopping the clock on 57.67, while Barrie Wood followed him from the start line in the 308, gently nibbling down his time in every run to end the day on 55.22. Likewise Pauline Goodwin, having recovered from her early bouts of overenthusiasm to work her tally down to a healthy 53.60. John Swift (F355) kept his nerve through the bridge speed trap in the final run, with 63mph helping him on his way into the 51 second bracket and yet another personal record with this car in the class. Charles Haynes had peaked during the early afternoon run and got himself ahead of wife Tracey with a time of 56.68, while fellow 348 GTC pilot, Richard Preece, was courageously pushing his car towards it’s potential by clocking 65mph and a finish time of

‘BLOODY MARY’ graced the Prescott paddock at the ‘La vie en bleu’ meeting. Although hardly French, this car rightly took its place in the parade of historic hillclimb machinery at the event.

Originally built in 1929 by John Bolster and his brother, Richard, the chassis frame is made of ash and in its first form had no front springs. This was not a success and quarter-elliptic springs were fitted when it was decided to fit front brakes. The steering gives one full turn lock to lock. The driver sits five inches from the ground in a tiny seat, a detachable steering wheel allowing him to insinuate his torso.

The car’s first power unit was a 981cc side valve, four-cam JAP engine giving 31bhp, which was enough at the time to regularly win the 1100cc class—the car only weighed 4½ cwt.

This engine was replaced in 1933 by an overhead valve JAP unit for which Bolster paid £12 10s. At the end of the season, and thirsting for more power, Bolster considered supercharging the engine but decided the JAP wouldn’t stand the increased loading. Instead he lashed out another £12 10s and bought a second V-twin JAP, mounting the engines one behind the other.

Bolster ran ‘Bloody Mary’ in two-engined form until the end of the 1937 season after which he abandoned her in the corner of a barn. After the war he decided to restore the car to her former glory and to his delight she went better than ever before.

‘Bloody Mary’ was again highly successful, winning many sprints and hillclimbs.

In 1948, a racing accident brought about Bolster’s retirement and the car was loaned to the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu. John Bolster died in 1984 but ‘Bloody Mary’ has stayed in the family. With the permission of John Bolster’s widow, Sandy Skinner has returned the car to running order once again.

The photograph shows the single rear mudguard which protects the driver’s right arm from injury although there doesn’t appear to be much safeguard from the whirring chains in worryingly close proximity to his left leg.

JMS

Photo: SwiftyPix

Colin Campbell was rather shocked when he was ‘arrested’ by the gendarmes at this French flavoured event. He relaxed when they gave the game away with their Welsh accents.

52.23.

Philip Whitehead was on course to repeat his recent good form at Prescott, and took another 2 tenths from his previous best, which had given him a podium position back in April, but 51.34 left him in 6th place this time.

Brian Jackson in the 308GTB had whittled his time down steadily run by run using smooth lines to finish with 52.35 in the final attempt of the day, which was worthy of 15 points on PEP. Mike Spicer did extremely well to improve to 51.05, and at that point in the order of running put him into second position, but after all the drivers had completed the day it left him in 4th place overall - rewarding in itself but no trophy to show for all of the effort involved. John Marshall couldn’t quite match his practice time in the mighty 430, but Prior equalled Preece’s speed trap on 65mph and stopped the

clock on 51 seconds dead after much tyre squealing on the top

half of the course.

Geoff Dark was using all of the tarmac (and some of the grass) on various exits of corners to give him a best of 51.89 in the first official run, while David Tomlin followed him and pushed on with his F355, taking a tight line around Pardon Hairpin and a result of 51.22 seconds being enough to pip Philip Whitehead in the order but not quite enough to catch Mike Spicer.

Andrew Holman found he had battery trouble in the paddock before being called to the start line, and with the aid of a jump start pack and possibly extra adrenalin flowing, produced an excellent run which knocked over a second from his personal best and gave him second place on the day, just 11 hundredths of a second in front of Prior, but more importantly Andrew took 17 points away with him.

The highlight of the class was Jon Goodwin in the F430, at last managing to control the immense power (and discovering a good starting technique) to set a new class record and take first place on scratch with an incredible 48.87. He was also rewarded with the full 20 Championship points, a fantastic achievement.

Peter Wilson won the Club handicap award from runner-up John Swift.

What a wonderful place to view not only Ferraris at record breaking speed, but old and new supercars at close range. Oh to be a spectator on these special occasions at such an atmospheric venue as Prescott.

Prescott podium. Overall winner Jon Goodwin is flanked by runners-up Richard Prior and Andrew Holman.

CompRes 31

PRESCOTT Hillclimb 24 May 2008 Round 4 Pirelli Ferrari Hillclimb Championship Driver

Tipo

Pract 2 49.96

H/C

Run 1

F430

Pract 1 51.04

H/C pos 2

0/64

48.87

Run 2 48.96

2.52

Speed Trap 63

Jon Goodwin

49.00

Andrew Holman

348tb

52.33

51.35

50.50

52.03

50.89

11

2.38

Richard Prior

348ts

52.42

51.51

50.00

51.28

51.00

16

Mike Spicer

F355

David Tomlin

F355

52.75

51.30

50.50

52.62

51.04

50.00

51.69

51.05

51.66

51.22

Philip Whitehead

F355

53.77

54.32

51.00

52.51

Geoff Dark

F355

52.51

52.94

51.50

John Swift

F355

52.54

52.43

John Marshall

F430 F1

52.82

Richard Preece

348GTC

Brian Jackson Pauline Goodwin Peter Rogerson

split

PEP time 50.58

Pts

30.78

PEP % 3.50

64

31.94

0.00

50.89

17

2.61

65

32.17

1.00

51.51

13

13

2.42

62

32.05

2.25

52.20

12

17

2.50

61

32.55

2.25

52.37

11

51.34

8

2.59

63

32.45

2.25

52.50

10

51.89

52.32

10

2.42

62

32.14

2.25

53.06

8

52.00

53.24

51.95

3

2.55

63

32.80

2.25

53.12

7

51.98

50.50

52.20

53.06

20

2.80

59

33.11

3.50

54.03

5

53.61

52.79

52.00

52.23

55.32

6

2.60

65

33.15

1.50

53.01

9

308GTB

53.81

53.09

52.00

53.02

52.35

9

2.57

62

33.73

-2.00

51.30

15

328GTB

fail

62.18

53.50

53.76

53.60

4

2.61

61

33.29

-0.50

53.33

6

20

F355

54.05

54.50

53.75

55.97

53.90

5

2.67

59

33.89

2.25

55.11

3

Barrie Wood

308GTS

56.18

55.37

54.50

55.28

55.22

14

2.69

62

34.73

-2.00

54.12

4

Sean Doyle

308GT4

58.23

55.92

55.00

56.26

57.59

18

2.68

--

35.29

-2.00

55.13

2

Charles Haynes

348GTC

61.49

57.82

55.25

56.68

57.90

19

2.69

59

35.61

1.50

57.53

1

Tracey Haynes

328GTB

58.63

77.62

56.75

57.26

57.16

12

2.73

54

35.97

-0.50

56.87

1

Peter Wilson

348tb

62.02

59.14

58.00

58.55

57.67

1

2.69

51

36.06

0.00

57.67

1

Edward Briscoe

308GT4

59.99

60.06

56.00

61.75

57.87

21

2.55

60

36.48

-2.00

56.71

1

Wendy A Marshall

328GTB

59.59

59.51

58.50

58.83

59.14

7

2.71

61

37.36

0.50

59.12

1

246GT

70.61

67.89

67.00

67.93

71.07

15

2.99

49

42.57

-4.50

64.87

1

Colin Campbell

64ft, speed trap and split all for best run

BOC Class Awards: FOC Handicap Awards:

1st Jon Goodwin 1st Peter Wilson

PFHC Points after Round 4

32 CompRes

2nd Andrew Holman 2nd John Swift

3rd Richard Prior

Andrew Holman

56

Sean Doyle

14

Mike Spicer

50

John Swift

14

Chris Butler

46

Tracey Haynes

12

David Tomlin

46

Andy Grier

11

Jon Goodwin

40

Charles Haynes

11

Geoff Dark

37

Sergio Ransford

10

Philip Whitehead

35

Peter Wilson

8

Richard Prior

32

Peter Rogerson

6

Pauline Goodwin

30

Richard Allen

5

Brian Jackson

28

Jeffrey Cooper

5

Nick Taylor

20

Wendy Ann Marshall

3

Barrie Wood

19

Colin Campbell

2

Richard Preece

19

Edward Briscoe

1

John Marshall

16

Photo: Scuderia Fotografia

My Motor Sport In another age, David Tomlin might have been a knight errant, wandering the world in search of deeds of courage. Now, he is a fierce competitor in both Ferrari hillclimbing and circuit racing, having recently acquired a 328GTB with successful provenance. He served his motor racing apprenticeship in karts where he had much success, perhaps surprising in view of his towering loftiness. Quite often these days, David is the one to beat, whatever the competition. He is loyally supported by his wife Hilary and together they have entered into the Ferrari sporting scene with tremendous enthusiasm and gusto.

Earliest motor racing memory:

Worst personal racing moment:

Hednesford Raceway,1974. Hot Rod racing at its best with Barry Lee and George Polley in his Anglia(306) going head to head.

Polley went on to be World Champion in 1976 and I regularly went to see him if he was in the Midlands.

In 2003 I flipped my kart at the Gooseneck, Cadwell Park at 100mph. Luckily I was thrown clear and ended up 100 yards down the track and quickly put into the back of an ambulance.

This experience is why I like a lot of Ferrari metal around me these days.

Most memorable motor racing moment:

What do you enjoy most from being a competitor within the FOC: Tremendous camaraderie.

Everyone is competitive on the track but friendly, gracious and sociable off it.

What do like least from being a competitor within the FOC: The bills can be very expensive.

Favourite circuit:

Sporting motto:

As an employee of Cosworth in the ’80’s I got very involved in the continuing efforts to keep our DFV competitive against the growing threat of the Turbos.

Keke Rosberg’s win at Monaco in 1983 was with a DFY engine, parts of which were made by me!

No doubt - it has to be SpaFrancorchamps

To finish first you first have to finish.

Favourite hillclimb venue:

Personal favourite competition car:

First car:

George Polley, Martin Hines, Gilles Villeneuve, Ayrton Senna

Ford Anglia 105E with 185/70 Kleber mud and snow rally specials. I hand painted it with a brush.

Best personal racing moment: June 1st 2008. Breaking my own class record at Shelsley Walsh. I screamed as I went over the line and realised my achievement.

Shelsley Walsh Who were your motor racing heroes:

It’s got to be ‘Rosie’, my 328GTB classic racer Which do you enjoy the most – hillclimbs or circuits: Without doubt it’s the circuits.

What change(s) would you like to see in motor racing/ hillclimbing: Particularly in hillclimbing I would like to see more ‘tracktime’ and less hanging around abusing my fellow competitors! I am sure they would agree!

Current Ferrari(s) owned: F355 Berlinetta and 328 GTB. I also have a lot of 1:18 models!

CompRes 33

1974 308GT4 (ex-John Dobson) Rosso Corsa / Nero (interior still fitted) Eligible for Gp3 in PFfc (would need a rollover bar) or Group 2 in PFHC 16-in Compomotive split rims Strong standard engine F355 front brakes; AP rears Quick rack, long ownership, huge file

£12,995 m: 07864-072949 email: mark.buckland@tiscali.co.uk



5 9 10 11 13 14 17 18 19 21 24 26 28 30

34 CompRes

Nuno de Brito e Cunha Paul Jarmyn John Day Sue Taylor Jim McWhirter Melissa Culver Steve Farthing David Cottingham Erik Oktner Tony Willis Bruno Cappuccini Wayne Nickless Bob Smart Richard Chester Steve Young Debbie Culver Nigel Jenkins

        

Dover – Calais: P&O, Sea France Portsmouth – Le Havre: P&O Portsmouth – Bilbao: P&O Hull – Rotterdam & Zeebrugge: P&O Harwich – Hoek: Stena Channel Islands – St Malo: Condor Lines Ireland: Irish Ferries, Stena, P&O Isle of Man except TT and Manx GP DFDS Seaways from Newcastle & Harwich

Tel: 01759 301010 Email: motorsport-tvl@btconnect.com Web: www.motorsport-travel.com

CompRes 35

QV LONDON FERRARI SPECIALISTS

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Maranello Ferrari Challenge Champions 1998 and 2000 Fixed Price Servicing - Race Preparation and Track Support - Tyres Supplied and Fitted Electronic Wheel Balancing - Personal Service Guaranteed

The Garage North Newnton Pewsey Wiltshire SN9 6JU Tel 01980 630327 Fax 01980 630015 E-mail enquiries: gcreeder@aol.com

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Various Packages available

36 CompRes

WREN CLASSICS

‘The South’s Premier Preparers’ Contact: Steve Farthing Tel: 01747 852899 Fax: 01747 854988 enquiries@wrenclassics.com