FERRARICOMPETITIONRESULTS
CompRes
50th ANNIVERSARY OF THE 250 SHORT WHEELBASE
ISSUE 043 APRIL 2009
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 DONINGTON PARK SAGA Most of you will have read the news stories concerning Donington Park with increasing incredulity. Ferrari competitors will be aware that the circuit failed to obtain a track licence from the MSA and therefore cancelled a number of race meetings due to be held there, including the AMOC event on 4 May at which we should have had the first races in our 2009 programme. Now it appears that the circuit not only hasn’t a licence to hold race meetings but also has serious funding problems for the necessary upgrade to enable the British Grand Prix to be held there next year. On top of all that, we hear that circuit owner Tom Wheatcroft is suing the leaseholders for alleged outstanding millions of pounds. MAY With all this increasing uncertainty, with more alarming problems being revealed on an almost daily basis, I considered it imprudent to attempt to rearrange anything at this circuit in 2009. I have therefore contracted to race at SILVERSTONE on the long JUNE (2.249 miles) International circuit on SUNDAY 18 OCTOBER. The International course embraces the best bits (Bridge, etc) of the various available layouts at Silverstone. This is a One-Day meeting and we shall be running separate races for PFfc and PFO. The Classics will have a 20-min
qualifying session and 20-min race. The Open series will have a longer half-hour race with a 20min qualy. Since it is the last race of our season, I shall try to arrange something special in the way of hospitality in the Silverstone paddock if funds permit. Further details and entry forms will be sent out nearer the time.
German GP and the day before RMA’s 2-day Spa event, Spa being just one-and-a-half hours drive away. RMA have been promised exclusive use of the whole of the circuit. There will be no parked coaches, no pedestrians, and unlimited lappery. The track rental fee is substantially more than a ‘normal’ full day; RMA have therefore set the price at £495 which they hope to be able to NÜRBURGRING TRACK reduce subject to sufficient DAY entries. If you intend to join this A note from Graham Clarke event you need to submit your of track day specialists RMA tells entry as soon as possible us that they have secured the together with a non-refundable Nordschliefe for Sunday, 12 July deposit of £100. RMA will collect between the hours of 13.30 and the balance on the 1st June, being 19.30. This is the Sunday of the six weeks prior to the event at which time they would hope that they have sufficient WHAT’S ON numbers to enable them to reduce the cost. 21 FOC Snetterton Track Day To book, please visit www.RMAtrackdays.com and 23 Prescott Hillclimb select the Events Diary, clicking ‘Book Now’ next to the event listing.. 29/31 Spa-Francorchamps: Pirelli Any entries received Ferrari formula classic; after May 31st will be Pirelli Ferrari Open surcharged and will not 30/31 Shelsley Walsh Hillclimb benefit from the hopefully lower price. 10
FOC Oulton Park Track Day
13/14 Brands Hatch (Indy): Pirelli Ferrari formula classic; Pirelli Ferrari Open 20/21 Doune Hillclimb 21
British Grand Prix
27/28 Prescott Hillclimb 27/28 Evening event (Saturday) & FOC National Concours Boughton House
GROUP E-MAILS Registered competitors are automatically included in our Group email system, which enables us to send out urgent information without the delay and expense of surface postage. Recently we had a number of communications ‘bounce back’ to us with the message that the email hadn’t been received by the recipients.
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On checking, all these emails were sent to addresses involving aol. If your provider is aol we suggest you investigate as to why certain emails are being rejected.
SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS As this piece is written, entries for our Spa race meeting have closed (although if you missed the date we can accept late entries up to 18 May). The final Ferrari timetable for the event is as follows: FRIDAY 29 May 09.00 – 09.20
Free Practice
10.30
Compulsory Briefing
11.25 – 11.45
Q1
12.35 – 12.55
Q2
On the Friday evening we have our Grand Ferrari Pre-Race Dinner at the Hôtel du Wayai and tickets for this have virtually sold out.
One of these little squirty jobs has just been delivered to Dave Clark, our photographic ace who from time to time provides us with brilliant images for CompRes. He tells me that an ‘SS’ kit has arrived for him at the dealers, which will take the power from 135bhp to 160. “It’s fun already,” he says. “Now it’s going to be mad fun with all that power under my toes!” Take care, young Clarky. You know what they say: Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely!
SEXY ITALIAN
‘ONE JAG’ DIDIER
SATURDAY 30 May 10.15 SUNDAY 31 May
Race 1
10.00
Race 2
Ferrari competitors don’t, it seems, always use our favourite car in events. Didier Benaroya, who drives a soft-top Mondial t at indecent speeds in our Classic series, recently took part in the 2009 Tour Auto with his Jaguar XK 120. He sent me this pic of himself at the wheel of his car – looking for all the world like Ian Appleyard – alongside his codriver, Philippe Dischamp. He didn’t tell me how they got on but they certainly look the part. Why oh why did leather helmets go out of Clarky’s Italian Hot Wheels
If you were asked ‘What’s Italian, cute, and a bit of a goer?’ you might easily reply ‘Gina Lollobrigida’. Wrong. The answer I was looking for was ‘A Fiat Abarth 500’. Photo: Scuderia Fotografia
Hell for Leather. Didier Benaroya on the 2009 Tour Auto.
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vogue!
BRANDS HATCH Following our raid on Belgium at the end of May, the next race meeting in our PFfc and PFO series is at Brands Hatch on Saturday/Sunday, 13/14 June. This is a two-day meeting on the Indy course with double header races for both series, together with two separate qualifying sessions for each. Entry forms and SRs have now been posted out to all registered competitors, the closing date for entries being 29 May.
SILVERSTONE TRACK DAY The Club’s Silverstone Track Day on the prestigious Grand Prix circuit is always one of the most popular on our calendar. This year’s event proved to be even more so than usual, with a huge number of Ferraris at the track and a waiting list of over twenty. This took us a bit by surprise in view of the current doom and gloom in the economic world. Unfortunately, after many days of superb weather, things turned nasty on the Monday morning and track conditions proved to be decidedly testing. Despite Peter Everingham’s usual detailed briefing and exhortations to take particular care because of the poor visibility and standing
Photos: Scuderia Fotografia
water in some areas, we saw a number of off-course excursions and a few damaged Ferraris at the end of the day. After attending hundreds of briefings in my time, I can’t help feeling that some people who attend never imagine that they need any guidance. When you watch their faces, you can see their eyes glaze over and the words of wisdom and experience go in one ear and out the other. They seem to think that the briefing is directed to the others, never themselves! Despite the problems for the few, most of the drivers participating were probably a little more skilled at coping with a slippery track at the end of the day than they had been at the beginning. This is the goal we aim for, and it is good to hear some of the positive comments from those who have benefited and enjoyed their day.
HAREWOOD DINNER It is some years since we held a Dinner in conjunction with a Harewood Hillclimb event and in September we aim to rectify this. We have reserved a private dining room at the Parsonage Country House Hotel for the evening of Saturday, 19th September. We have also blockbooked a number of rooms at the Parsonage at the special rate of £99.00 per double including breakfast. The cost of the 3course Dinner will be £30.00 per head. The Parsonage is set in six acres of beautiful formal gardens and woodland and is situated just outside York in the village of Escrick. On the Sunday morning there will be the option of visiting the National Railway Museum in York, which is undoubtedly the finest of its kind in the world. Full details and booking forms will be available a little nearer the time. Scenes from the horribly wet Silverstone Track Day from the camera of Dave Clark
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RA’s HILLCOMMENT The 2009 PFHC Season now well underway has so far shown no signs of being affected by the ongoing economic gloom. Registration levels and entries for the opening rounds have held up remarkably, with 22 at Harewood this coming weekend. Shelsley Walsh too has done well with sixteen Ferrari runners, despite the date clash with our circuit racers at Spa taking away several of the regulars. It seems inevitable that we shall feel a draft somewhere, but such is the enthusiasm of our members and particularly the competitors, that we look set for another good season with the usual close and exciting competition all through. Bouley Bay reported in this issue will, I am sure, be comprehensively covered by our Editor in Chief John Swift. For those of us who went on this Channel Islands jaunt, it was a most enjoyable mini holiday and way beyond just a hillclimb. Miraculously, we always seem to get good weather over there at Easter, and this year was no exception. The Bouley Bay course is not to be trifled with and I am sure most of us, whilst not being scared competing there, will admit to being a bit worried when it is your turn to head for the start line. As a closed public road it is much wider that the usual hills we compete on, with the opportunity to take more pronounced lines through the corners. I have seen many pictures taken of our cars at Bouley, and you can see that it is in this aspect that the winner Richard Prior excelled. Silverstone Track Day on Monday of the AGM weekend also bucked the economic down turn. The day was fully booked with reserves – something we have not seen for quite a few years
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now. Maranello Sales Ltd sponsored the event and put on a most impressive display that added immensely to the atmosphere of what turned out to be a very wet day - so wet that the track had to be closed at one point. Inevitably there were incidents as conditions were often exceedingly difficult, with standing water ready to catch out the unwary. Although there were inevitably delays, it turned out to be a very good opportunity to learn the finer points of car control. The London Ferrari Store opened in Regent Street on May 6th with Kimi Raikonnen doing the honours - he looked quite happy to be out of a Formula 1 car for a change, especially the latest F1 variant. The store is opposite Hamleys and looks very impressive in full Ferrari livery as you would expect. These Ferrari stores are kitted out and staffed as if they were Ferrari owned, but I understand that an Italian company operates them under licence. The London store looks
likely to have a £1m annual overhead, and even though Regent Street has a good footfall, they will have to get through a lot of baseball caps. I went along to the opening, bumping into quite a few members, plus Tony and Jane Willis and also Richard Gordon, who heads up the recently formed Ferrari North Europe. He introduced me to Kimi who actually smiled and appeared to be enjoying himself – maybe he is finally getting to like these PR chores. Andrew Holman is as you can imagine in the market for another Ferrari and has set his sights a little higher this time. Some sort of F355 seems to be favourite, though there are one or two 360s now coming within his budget. His 348 has been recovered from Jersey to somewhere in Wiltshire, and Andrew was able to go down there and recover his personal effects from the car – you know, Challenge wheels, comp seats and his sponge bag.
The new London Ferrari Store in Regent Street.
acumen, has pulled a really clever stroke with the recently announced ‘£2000 off a new car’ scrappage scheme. Definitely in contravention of the Trades Description Act, it is only really £1000 as the manufacturer/ dealer has to contribute £1000, and this obviously restricts their scope for any further negotiation. But the clever bit is that the figures include VAT, so the government is only really chipping in £870. When you buy that new car, even if it is as little as say £8000, HM Revenue & Customs collect £1044 VAT, making for a net profit to the Exchequer of £174 to the nearest shilling or two. Even Bernie Ecclestone would be impressed! One thing is for sure: you do not have to be Einstein to know this hastily botched scheme will not do much for the new car registrations! Dany Bahar, Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Percassi opening the Ferrari Store in Regent Street.
PFHC Comp Door Panels are presently in short supply and we need to eke out the present stocks. Besides this there is also the need to make sure your panels and numbers look good on the car and not untidy. I do not profess to be that much of an expert, but thought some of you might be interested in the methods I use so as you can avoid them – especially as I am a cheapskate and get quite a few goes out of my numbers. The door panels soon get dirty looking with left over adhesive, and the only effective way to remove this is with petrol. Take care though around the yellow part of the panel as the colour can rub off. I use a hair dryer for removal of numbers – heating the number and panel. This way you can get them off without tearing and put them somewhere handy (like the fridge) for future use. Some numbers will really last, whilst the ones that stretch, like an ‘8’, can only be used a couple of times. Finally, I still believe fixing the panels on with Magic tape is best, though if you have red car then the red insulating tape makes a reasonable job.
Sticking decals/signage on your Ferrari in addition to the competition number panels and Pirelli number plates is not permissible under the Championship regulations – see Sporting Regulations: General 1.8. We have been running the series now for well over 20 years according to this doctrine. It is a genuine road car series and that is why we have these regulations in place PFHC Keep-Fit Video will be out soon as a number of our more competitive drivers work at giving their knees more negative camber. Chris Butler, already with F1 power to weight ratio, goes off to the gym three times a week, and Nick Taylor is on a serious exercise regime programme ensuring he will be fit for all that circuit racing, never mind a few hills. Meanwhile Sean Doyle has just competed in a Triathlon, and you can bet that Jon and Pauline Goodwin have been up to something more extreme than that - separately of course.
Electronic Entries or semi electronic are the latest trend this season, with all entry forms now having to be downloaded from the internet. One wonders how people fortunate enough not to own a computer are supposed to cope. I entered Shelsley electronically and have to admit had no confidence that this had gone through ok. Unlike Amazon, they do not acknowledge your order but I suppose this is progress and why we are gradually losing our post offices. Bookings Forms for the Doune and Loton Park Dinners and hotel details have been emailed to you, and from bookings received so far I guess did not attract quite the attention that those old fashioned sheets of paper received. It is important that you give these details your early attention now if our arrangements are to work properly. Just to make sure you are on the case, Anne will email them out again soon after you receive this issue of CompRes.
Our Government not normally recognised for business
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Photo: SwiftyPix
PIRELLI FERRARI HILLCLIMB CHAMPIONSHIP: ROUND 2 BOULEY BAY HILLCLIMB 13th April 2009
HE ISLAND of Jersey, combined with the challenging Bouley Bay hillclimb, remains a firm Easter holiday favourite with the Ferrari hillclimbing fraternity writes JOHN SWIFT. It gives the rare opportunity to sail off from the shores of England and spend a few relaxing days in the company of likeminded Ferraristi as well as focusing, for one whole day, on the art of getting from the Water’s Edge Hotel to the summit of the ribbon of twisting tarmac in the shortest possible time. Because the date of Easter varies each year, it isn’t practical
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to arrange this overseas trip every season. In 2008, Easter fell very early – in March – and the weather was apparently atrocious. This year, Easter Monday was much later and promised far better conditions, so the PFHC committee included the event in the season’s calendar. All but one (the exception was the class record holder, Jon Goodwin) of the twelve contracted Ferrari drivers set sail from Poole on Good Friday morning on the Condor fast ferry which takes its cargo of cars and passengers at high speed to the island, calling at Guernsey on the way. The ferry this year didn’t seem to be quite as rapid as we remembered from past journeys,
its engines no doubt on part throttle to save on fuel costs. The Ferraris were given special treatment by allowing them to board first, and were shoe-horned together on the cramped car deck. There was a good deal of cooperation necessary between us to allow everyone to squeeze out of our wide-doored Ferraris and into the comfortable passenger area on the upper deck. Apart from the competitors, whom we shall mention in detail later on, we enjoyed the company of ace professional photographer and arch Ferrari enthusiast Martin McGlone, Sue and Paul Skinner (who missed the 2007 event when their
Photos: Martin McGlone
Top: Wendy Ann Marshall accelerates out of Café Corner; Middle: Pauline Goodwin negotiates Radio Corner Bottom: Jon Goodwin takes a tight line in the big 550 Maranello through the same corner.
308GTB threw a fit of the sulks on the quayside), Suzanne and Peter Everingham, and a number of Andrew Holman’s supporters from the FOC Anglia area group. The hotel we used on previous trips to Jersey was the Highfield, just a few minutes from Bouley Bay. Sadly this hotel closed its doors to guests last year and is in the process of being converted to holiday flats, so a replacement was needed. Jon Goodwin leapt to the task and, with the help of the Highfield’s previous owner, David Lord, found an excellent alternative at the opposite side of the island: the Pontac House Hotel, just a couple of miles from St Helier and overlooking St Clements Bay. The Pontac House proved to be a good choice. The staff were keen and eager to please, the food was more than adequate in both quantity and quality, and the room prices, inclusive of breakfast and dinner, were agreeably modest. On Saturday most of us did our own thing. Some chose to hit the duty free shops in St Helier, others the special attractions on the island such as the Durell Wildlife Park, Mont Orgueil Castle at Gorey, the Pallot Museum (yes, a family connection with Pirelli’s Martin Pallot), and the Jersey War Tunnels. Martin McGlone hired a bicycle and toned up his legs by riding briskly round the island. Some keen types did a familiarisation recce of Bouley Bay hill, although trying it out at speed was strictly verboten. On Sunday, we all gathered for an Easter Day lunch at the Water’s Edge Hotel, which had just opened for the season. The staff were still getting into their stride so there were a few glitches in service. However, they redeemed themselves somewhat by finding a nest of chocolate Easter eggs with which to finish the meal. Easter Monday, the day of the hillclimb, had been forecast in advance as probably wet. Happily, as is often the case
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Photo: Martin McGlone
these days, the prophets proved to be wrong and the weather was brilliantly sunny throughout the day. Because the hillclimb involves the closure of a public road, competitors have to sign-on at an ungodly early hour. Scrutineering took place at Café Corner, the sharp left-hander just after the start which we affectionately know as ‘Spicer’s Shed’ (following Mike’s determined efforts in previous years to demolish the wooden structure which is supposed to provide safe shelter for the marshals) and is now locally known more politely as the ‘Ferrari Shed’ for the same reason. This year, the Ferraris were held at the top of the hill between runs, which is a great advantage
because it (a) gives more space to the parked cars and (b) allows a great spectator view of the upper reaches of the hill. The Ferrari class consisted of twelve cars ranging from the 328GTBs of lady drivers Pauline Goodwin and Wendy Ann Marshall, to the sparkling new 430 Scuderia of John Marshall, Mr Toad, the Swifty F355, emerges from Café having his first outing of the season with this sighting run (she was the only potentially fastest Ferrari we Ferrari competitor without have ever seen on the hills. In previous Bouley Bay experience) between and steadily improved from then these two on. extremes Marshall braked very late for there was a Top Bend but avoided a multipair of rare thousand pound incident by 348 GTCs about twelve inches, reversing (Nick the Scuderia out of trouble and Taylor and back on the track. Richard Prior’s Richard P1 time of 51.43 gave an early Preece), indication that he wasn’t here the more just for the Jersey pearls and usual but seafood fritters. rapid 348s P2 times, now with hot of Richard machinery, all showed an Prior and improvement, with Prior again Andrew the quickest at 50.12, a fifth of a second under Jon Goodwin’s Between a Rock and a Hard Place. John Marshall uses all Holman, a quartet of record established in 2004. the road at Radio Corner in his 430 Scuderia.
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Photo: Martin McGlone
Photo: Martin McGlone
Richard Allen (F355) rockets up to the final corner to take 4th place
F355s (Richard Allen, Mike Spicer, Geoff Dark and your scribe) and the solitary 550 Maranello of record holder Jon Goodwin. It was an eclectic mix of Ferrari tipos and it was anybody’s guess which one would prove the most effective although the smart money must have been on John Marshall’s £140,000’s worth of Maranello’s finest. We were given two practice runs, the second immediately after the first which kept the tyres handily up to temperature. On P1, both the 348 Competizione drivers complained of clutch slip although Nick Taylor later thought it could have been wheelspin! Wendy Ann was sensibly circumspect on her first
Photo: Martin McGlone
his wallet moves from side to side,” adds Darryl. “Look at the car twitching under power, James. It could be the caviar and bottles of Bollinger sliding around in the boot.” They were quite merciless but it was all great fun. Following the completion of the practice runs we enjoyed beefburgers The Goodwin 550 Maranello needed some and hot dogs (and, attention to its exhaust system. Mike Spicer for those who know a gives a helping hand to its pilot. good dish when they see it, delicious rhubarb crumble) break. Preece made a useful at the catering van at the top of improvement despite his fears – the hill. The lady in charge confirmed, he thought, by an explained she normally works at ominous puddle of oil underneath the zoo. “If you like I could do his 348GTC – that clutch slip still you a gorilla sandwich . . .” she prevailed. All the drivers who said helpfully. immediately followed also Richard Prior and Anne Swift reduced their practice times, with went into secret session to decide Allen moving into an impressive handicap targets. And all the second place with 50.93, only time, the warm sun was climbing half a second or so shy of the in the sky and the track was class record. coming nicely up to temperature, Marshall (51.37) was clearly although no one thought it getting the hang of his Scud particularly grippy. although still in 4th place overall. The first of our promised Nick Taylor closed to within a three competitive runs got tenth of Allen but Prior remained underway after the longish lunch top dog on 50.39 - frustratingly not quite quick enough (by just 0.08 of a second) to capture the record. The second officials seemed to be the time when the leaders would have to make their bids for victory since it wasn’t guaranteed that, given quite a few interruptions, we would have time for a third run. Wendy Ann lifted her game to go quicker but despite trying their best, the next few runners were slower than before. Then Holman demonstrated it could be done by posting an excellent 51.02 to vanquish Spicer and Jon Goodwin. That left Allen, Taylor, Marshall and Prior to fight for victory. Allen went slower and was outpaced by Taylor, who broke the record with a storming time “Prior clearly had the 348 on fast freeze as he late braked for Radio and of 50.23. John Marshall, using slid round the 180° turn with the grace of an ice skater.” the superior power of the 430 on
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Photo: SwiftyPix
Taylor – his thought of clutch slip forgotten – was second fastest (50.85), just a soupçon ahead of Marshall (50.88). Richard Allen was the best of the F355 pilots, in fourth on 51.52 although Mike Spicer, no doubt warming to his notoriety here, was not far behind. Jon Goodwin cast aside any doubts he may have had about the 550’s bulk making it less appropriate for a narrow twisting course by almost matching Spicer’s time with a 51.61. Of the others, veterans Dark and Swift kept each on their toes, recording almost identical times, and Pauline G kept ahead of the 348GTC of Preece. One of the features of Bouley Bay is the commentary by two local young men housed in a box at the summit: James Ollivro and Darryl Morris. Someone had given them Jon Goodwin’s CV, with details of his planned flight into space with Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic project. This story, combined with having the biggest Ferrari on the hill, provided info which kept them and the spectators amused all day. “Here comes Jon Goodwin in the big Ferrari” says James. “I think it might be a bit unstable as
BOULEY BAY HILLCLIMB 13 APRIL 2009 Pirelli Ferrari Hillclimb Championship – Round 2 Scr
Driver
Tipo
P1
P2
H/ cap
Run 1
Run 2
64 ft
Radio
PEP %
PEP time
Pts
1
Richard Prior
348ts
51.43
50.12
49.62
50.39
49.84
2.51
35.50
-2.0
48.84
20
2
John Marshall
430 Scud
60.33
50.88
48.00
51.37
49.84
2.62
35.99
+4.5
52.08
10
3
Nick Taylor
348GTC
52.61
50.85
50.00
51.04
50.23
2.64
35.80
-1.0
49.73
17
4
Richard Allen
F355
52.14
51.52
51.02
50.93
51.71
2.50
36.22
0.0
50.93
13
5
Andrew Holman
348tb
52.36
52.34
51.84
51.54
51.02
2.59
36.26
-2.0
50.00
15
6
Mike Spicer
F355
54.03
51.56
51.06
51.06
51.45
2.55
36.22
0.0
51.06
12
7
Jon Goodwin
550
52.32
51.61
49.81
51.92
52.02
2.97
36.77
0.0
51.92
11
8
Geoff Dark
F355
54.52
53.64
51.50
52.61
53.37
2.62
38.14
0.0
52.61
7
9
John Swift
F355
54.20
53.74
53.24
52.98
53.27
2.94
38.50
0.0
52.98
6
10
Richard Preece
348GTC
54.42
54.36
53.86
53.03
53.60
2.89
38.12
-1.0
52.50
8
11
Pauline Goodwin
328GTB
54.60
54.15
53.39
53.73
53.91
2.64
38.31
-3.0
52.12
9
12
Wendy A Marshall
328GTB
63.56
60.51
57.00
61.70
60.76
2.93
44.54
-3.0
58.94
5
Times for 64ft and Radio corner are taken from the fastest run
FOC Handicap
1st Richard Preece
2nd Andrew Holman
CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS AFTER ROUND 2 Andrew Holman
35
John Marshall
Richard Prior
35
Barrie Wood
9
Nick Taylor
27
Sean Doyle
8
Mike Spicer
25
Richard Preece
8
Pauline Goodwin
21
Peter Wilson
7
Geoff Dark
18
Jeffrey Cooper
6
David Tomlin
17
John Swift
6
Richard Allen
13
Wendy Ann Marshall
5
Jon Goodwin
11
Joe Billingham
5
the upper reaches of the hill, stopped the clock at 49.84, another new record! Then it was Prior’s turn. He clearly had the 348 on fast freeze as he late braked for Radio and slid round the 180° turn with the grace of an ice skater. Charging up to Top Bend, again braking desperately late but accurately negotiating the corner, he was super quick on the power again. This was indeed an exciting and memorable run and we waited with bated breath for the commentary team to announce
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the time: 49.84, identical to Marshall’s! Both drivers deserved their victory. John Marshall had done an excellent job of work by quickly becoming acquainted with the complex workings of the Scuderia to tap most of its latent prodigious performance. And Richard Prior had driven his socks off to extract every last ounce out of his well-used 348, a category 11/10ths performance that was a delight to watch. However, there wasn’t much time to celebrate since the Clerk
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of the Course arrived at the top of the hill to say there was just time for a third run if there were no hold-ups. Now the air temperature was a little cooler and it seemed that the best track conditions may have gone. The first runners’ times confirmed this was so, all being slower than their earlier ones. Andrew Holman set off in typically boisterous and sonorous fashion, perhaps not expecting a scratch win but having a tilt at the 20 Championship points. Sadly he came unstuck at
Slemens, a blind high speed kink, at almost exactly the same spot as Jon Goodwin had come to grief in 2003 in his 360 Spider. The 348 was deflected by a tree, slid off course, and careered up the bank, landing upside down with the unfortunate Andrew suspended by his harness. To the great relief of everyone, Andrew was unharmed apart from some minor bruising. The car fared less well, and it took the recovery crew a long time to extricate it. Obviously this nasty accident brought further proceedings to an end and we all returned to our hotel in sombre mood. Imagine our delight when Andrew breezed into the bar looking just as perky as he had been at the start of the day. He was cheered and clapped, and it is unsure whether he had to buy a drink for the rest of the evening. The following day was goinghome time. The return crossing to Portsmouth was overnight by normal ferry, involving a cabin and an early disembarkation at dawn. However, before we needed to board the ferry there was time for a leisurely and extravagant lunch which Anne and your reporter enjoyed at a super little fish restaurant overlooking Rozel harbour in the company of Jon and Pauline Goodwin, Martin McGlone and our leader, Richard Allen. It was another memorable Bouley Bay excursion full of excitement and drama (and lobster and Jersey Royals!). The Ferrari class record had been broken – twice, and at identical times! What are the odds of this happening? And Richard Prior must have been walking on air, with a well deserved 20 Championship points in his locker to bring him into a tied position at the top of the leader board with Andrew Holman. The next time we repeat this will be 2011 since next year we have the usual problem of an early Easter and possible bad weather. For me, can’t wait!
ust before we set sail for Jersey I was talking to my old friend, Bill Blyth. Bill, as many of you know, was Ken Wharton’s mechanic back in the fifties, when the fastest car to have on the hills was a 1,000cc Cooper JAP, a Steyr-engined Allard or, if you were Joe Fry, a Freikaiserwagen. “Dangerous place, Bouley Bay,” growled Bill. “Lots of trees and if you hit one they don’t move a lot.” He continued in this melancholy vein. “I remember Bill Slemen, an Australian driver, being killed there. Got it all wrong at Radio Corner and his Cooper just reared up on its nose for what seemed like an age before it crashed. I used to hate the place!” Now Bill is not usually this gloomy and with only days to go before departure I tried to make our conversation more upbeat. “Surely,” I said, “you must have enjoyed something about Bouley Bay.” “Well,” he replied, “Ken was rather good there, and he would fly over from France for the event while I took the car in the transporter from England. He broke the record in 1950 with the Cooper. But I can honestly say the only nice thing I remember about Bouley is the beer in the bar of the Black Dog at the bottom of the hill.” Going back in time had me thinking. Bouley Bay, like Shelsley Walsh, is essentially the same now as it was sixty years ago apart, maybe, from some resurfacing. Just as it is today, it was organised by the Jersey Motorcycle & Light car Club. So it seemed we might be able to compare our Ferrari times with those of the stars of the fifties, when Ken Wharton, Sydney Allard, Dennis Poore, and Joe Fry were the ones to beat. I checked my old record books. In 1949 the Bouley Bay International Hillclimb was won by Allard, the top six being as follows: 1
Syd Allard
3.7 Allard
55.60
2
Joe Fry
1100 Freikaiserwagen
55.80
3
Stirling Moss
996 Cooper
56.20
4
Dennis Poore
3.8 Alfa Romeo
56.20
5
Raymond Mays
2.0 ERA
56.80
6
S Logan
996 Cooper
57.60
The following year, when Ken Wharton took the record, the finishing order looked like this: 1
Ken Wharton
998 Cooper
55.40
2
Dennis Poore
3.8 Alfa Romeo
55.80
3
S Logan
1100 Cooper
56.40
4
Syd Allard
3.7 Allard
56.60
5=
F Le Gallais
3.4 LG
58.20
5=
Peter Collins
750 Cooper
58.20
So what does all this tell us? You could say that the first 11 Ferraris this year all beat the old 1950 racing car record, that their drivers are faster than Stirling Moss and Peter Collins, or that our competitors driving road-going sports cars are experiencing speeds unknown to the stars of yesteryear. But perhaps a fairer conclusion would be to marvel at just how quick those cars and drivers, in their fairly primitive machinery and running on old technology rubber, were sixty years ago!
CompRes 11
Galleria Bouley Bay 2009
12 CompRes
Photos by Martin McGlone, Pauline Goodwin, SwiftyPix
CompRes 13
PETER MOSELEY has vivid memories of his very first race, at Brands Hatch in May 2006. He writes: For someone who still seems to be finding his feet in the club racing business, it is not an easy call to name my favourite circuit. At Brands I lined up on the grid alongside (or should I say behind) many seasoned competitors, having just completed my ARDS course and about to launch myself off in my first race. Intent on keeping out of everyone’s way . . . adrenalin pumping . . . and thinking ‘what the hell am I doing here’ . . . and then all those doubts disappearing as soon as the lights went out! So Brands has great memories for me. But perhaps predictably my favourite is Spa. The heady mixture of a demanding four mile circuit, with almost all the track features and combinations you could wish for, the unparalleled setting in the most beautiful countryside, and the unpredictability of the weather, makes it an easy choice for me. I find that it is a circuit whose length gives me the chance to really get to grips with the car and attack the course in a way I find less easy on shorter circuits.
14 CompRes
We asked you to name your favourite venue, whether a circuit, a hillclimb or a sprint. Here is what some of you told us. Strange, as I would expect the opposite, where rhythm over a shorter circuit would yield better results.
Admittedly an additional factor is the sense of occasion which accompanies a few days away with fellow competitors, whether racing or socialising and, of course, the memory of last
year’s race chasing young Richard around, managing to keep up with him and then standing on a podium. Unforgettable! ALAN COSBY is another Spa fan. Alan explains: It’s got to be SpaFrancorchamps. There is not another track that we have competed at that can compare with this circuit. 6.98km (or 4.33 miles) of power packed adrenalin RUSH! It can only be described as the finest track in the world to give a driver the best racing experience and ambience. I have been lucky to have raced Spa around ten times over the years, firstly in my 308 GTB (S), the current F512M (S) and an Aston Martin DB2/4. The circuit has everything: awesome bends (Eau Rouge is mind blowing) straights (Radillion/Kemmel up to Les Combes) is flat out touching 190mph, and braking to 40mph; hills (Pouhon), and sweeping, gut wrenching curves (Blanchimont) which instills sheer fear (flat out) approaching the Bus Stop chicane. La Source is the tightest, maddest hairpin ever, followed by
the steepest downhill straight to Eau Rouge akin to a rollercoaster! Your stomach hits the floor of the car as you thump down into Eau Rouge, and then instantly shoots back into your chest as you climb up Radillon (which is a blind right/left); the car screaming for top gear, and the flat out run to a chicane! Repeat this experience for 10 laps, and you climb out of the car with a HUGE smile on your face, (possibly collapse with exhaustion, not being F1 fit), and wonder why you put yourself through this exhilarating “terror”. Spa also has the most extraordinary climate conditions. It can be HOT hot, or bloody cold, wet and windy……all on the same day! Rain can come in torrents on one side of the circuit ( normally, mid-race, having started on slicks) and brilliant sunshine on the other. Driving on a flooded track with slicks is akin to driving on marbles and ice. The trackside facilities were appalling for years, but since Bernie E. F1 demands, things have improved, but the Belgium Officialdom never ceases to amaze with respect to stubborn attitudes. Ambience and hotel facilities are excellent, and the overall atmosphere of Spa never falters; it’s a magical ride, and an experience NOT to be missed.
GARY CULVER is quite clear about his favourite venue. He says: It has to be Zandvoort. Although the track is challenging and great fun to drive – and it gets my vote because of the excellent restaurants in the town!
My favourite eatery is the Italian we normally use, run by a most eccentric chef sporting a magnificent moustache. Ferrari drivers are welcomed as if we were all his long-lost cousins from Sicily!
A sprinkling of hillclimbers put forward their choices. BARRIE WOOD favours Gurston Down. He reasons: For me Gurston isn’t a day’s drive away, has excellent facilities, the track is fast and not too dangerous. But I still haven’t mastered it!
For ANDREW HOLMAN the idiosyncrasies and foibles of Doune make it a firm favourite, and he cites the minutiae at some length: Walking up the track at Doune quickly imprinted on my mind that this was something special. Well, special and scary. It’s long, it’s tight and it has a unique range of corners - I have in my head a series of 19 bends,
16 blind on both exit and apex. This may or may not be true, I’ve only been there once, but that was enough to elevate it into my top spot.
The first half of the track is between rock wall and Armco, used to protect you from the arboretum – god knows what it used to be like when it was just trees! It is down in a gully that makes for great spectating, but also makes the driver feel even more enclosed in a narrow channel. Most of this part has a canopy of trees, making it a nightmare when wet or even worse just damp, and quite impossible to know where the slippy bits are. The majority of corners on this first half are fast, forgot the two that need hard braking at your peril! To see a top 12 run-off here in the wet is to be gob smacked at just how fast those guys can go up such a road. And then its your turn! This is an adrenalin pump like no other. The sharp top corner opens out into the meadow, the two corners here can be seen and driven normally, but that feeling doesn’t last long, the meadow road ends with a 4 in1 uphill section that has a flat right hand bend at the top. Your turn-in point can only be guessed at when all you can see is sky. The course doesn’t finish there and has a final sting in the tail with the esses. Funnily enough the course of the track running between Armco on both sides of the road isn’t the hardest part; there is a tempting stretch of rumble strip on the entry to the corners, yet this has edges the size of the Eiger, not so much the
CompRes 15
entry point you thought, more a manufactured suspension destroyer for the unwary that will catapult you over into the battle stained Armco on the opposite side if you hit it an inch or two too high. The mother of all tracks. No wonder we measured our times in how long it took to stop the hand shaking after a run. When it came to SERGIO RANSFORD’S pick of his top venue, you might have guessed that Opera would be combined with speed hillclimbing. Sit tight! Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy- it's the greatest hillclimb ever.
You start with a co-driver called Virgil (not Earp) going through a dark forest where 'It is an easy descent unto hell'. Then under an arch proclaiming 'abandon hope all ye who enter here',on down through rocky canyons and over roaring rivers and past lakes of fire and
other insalubrious substances. Then up you climb a seemingly endless winding road past unworldly crowds of spectators and bystanders through twisting gorges, past bottomless precipices and over rocky crags until you reach Purgatory where you change co-drivers. The new one, the embodiment of all female virtues (Beatrice) guides you upwards through First Heaven, full of smiling faces, on to Seventh Heaven and even further up to Tenth Heaven, where if you have kept to the right track you receive the ultimate reward. Oh sorry . . . with four tyres firmly planted on Mother Tarmac and size 9 leather shoe pushed flat to the floor (and for all the reasons others will, no doubt, proffer) it has to be Prescott! And to conclude this small selection of contributions, your scribe felt it would be churlish not to join in. So, JOHN SWIFT’S top venue is a circuit (of the hills, it would be Shelsley Walsh) which always brings back happy memories: Zandvoort
the longest around, the pits were primitive, there were no noise restrictions, and spectators came in their droves from nearby Amsterdam. In those days our RAC MSA governing body made life difficult for the club racer to compete abroad. All sorts of bureaucratic regulations existed and to get round them it seemed easiest to change Nationality. So, I suddenly became Hans van der Drift and all the problems seemed to disappear. When I raced in Holland (and a bit more competitively than I do now) the Dutch spectators thought I was one of them and cheered me on enthusiastically! Anne and I made many friends there and we always felt at home whenever we returned to this wonderful seaside venue. Like Gary, we also enjoy the restaurants in the town and look forward to going back this year when our two series race there in September.
Some of us, me included, cut our motor racing teeth in Holland, at the Zandvoort circuit. In the early eighties it was still a Formula One venue and rather different in layout to the track it is today. The straight was one of
MAY 3 Chris Niarchos Simon Bartholomew Mike Haigh Hillary Tomlin 5 Dudley Mason-Styrron Phillipe Evrard 6 Eve Eaton 10 Stuart Anderson 13 Tony Jones 19 Chris Compton Goddard 20 Tristan Simpson 21 Martin McGlone Ray Stewart 23 Jo Spicer 27 Mark Cale Duncan McKay 28 David Barker Pauline Goodwin 30 Wayne Marrs 16 CompRes
JUNE 04 Nathan Kinch 07 Joe Billingham 09 Edward Bourn Tracey Haynes 10 Ray Hanson 15 Sally Mason-Styrron 16 Jon Goodwin Leon Bachelier Peter Hitchman 19 Wendy Ann Marshall 22 Geraldina Nickless Dave Clark 23 Ray Ferguson 25 Grahame Bryant Len Watson 27 John Marshall 30 Ross Warburton
THE 2008 ANNUAL CLUB COMPETITION AWARDS
7 Nick Taylor
1053 48 Peter Everingham
375
8 Peter Moseley
1046 49 Jeffrey Cooper
370
It would be fun to report that the production of the Club’s House Points results for last season was accompanied by the clanking of pistons and the whirring of wheels, rather like an episode of Wallace and Gromit. The reality is that the computers and printers at Chevy Chase are near silent and the procedure occupies a couple of days of deathly hush apart from the occasional curse and clink of an empty glass or two. As usual we list every competitor who has taken part in competition in 2008 together with their points tally. The events from which the scores are derived include every hillclimb, sprint and circuit race organised by the Club during the season. The total number of competitors last year was 71, an encouraging increase of 7.6% on the previous year. Of these, ten were new to Ferrari motorsport. All the silverware was dispensed at the Club’s AGM and Prizegiving Luncheon which took place on Sunday, 26 April at Whittlebury Hall. As always we were delighted to see so many of you at this function, regardless of whether or not you were due to be presented with an award. We have taken great care to make sure the results are correct but if you feel there is an error please contact us.
9 Mark I’Anson
1035 50 Adrian Wilson
364
10 Richard Allen
1025 51 Colin Campbell
348
11 Tim Mogridge
1007 52 Stuart Anderson
324
ANTHONY BAMFORD and KEN WHARTON/BILL BLYTH TROPHIES Victor Ludorum competition 1 Gary Culver
1907
(Anthony Bamford Trophy) 2 Nicky Paul-Barron
1760
(Ken Wharton/Bill Blyth Trophy)
12 Fred Honnor
972 53 Peter Fisk
319
13 Ben Cartwright
970 54 Sergio Ransford
275
14 Graham Reeder
957 55 Peter Wilson
260
15 Jon Goodwin
956 56 David Mountain
241
16 Chris Goddard
891 57 Brian Jackson
220
17 Wayne Marrs
883 58 John Watts
216
18 Nigel Jenkins
878 59 Jeff Lester
207
19 Mike Spicer
860 60 Edward Briscoe
165
20 Charlie White
846 61 Mike Reeder
142
21 Richard Prior
820 62 Richard Squire
132
22 John Swift
792 63 Alan Cosby
125
23 Andrew Holman
790 64 Grahame Bryant
110
24 David Hathaway
766 64 Steve Tandy
110
25 Philip Whitehead
760 66 Andy Grier 67 David Goodwin 733 684 68 Nick Whittaker
106
65
29 Edward Bourn
667 69 Phillipe Evrard 654 69 Robert Pulleyn
30 Sam Whitman
623 71 Andrew Duncan
52
30 John Shirley
622
32 Geoff Dark
603
33 John Day
602
34 Pauline Goodwin
595
35 William Jenkins
569
36 Didier Benaroya
565
37 Sean Doyle
550
38 Tracey Haynes
530
38 Charles Haynes
520
40 Barrie Wood
500
41 Wendy Ann Marshall
474
41 Peter Rogerson
468
43 Geoff Neal
462
44 Tris Simpson
457
45 Richard Preece
416
26 John Marshall 27 David Edge 28 William Moorwood
3 David Tomlin
1632
4 Marco Pullen
1461
5 Chris Butler
1390
46 Richard Fenny
382
6 Richard Moseley
1114
47 Peter Rowley
377
103 68 65
BARACCA TROPHY Flat 12-cylinder 1 Alan Cosby
125
No other competitors
BUMBLES TROPHY V12-cylinder Not awarded
MARANELLO TROPHY V6-cylinder 1 Colin Campbell
689
No other competitors
GODFREY EATON TROPHY 250 and 275 tipos 1 Stuart Anderson
324
No other competitors
CompRes 17
GILLES VILLENEUVE and MARIO ANDRETTI TROPHIES Unmodified V8 road-going cars (except 308GT4, Mondial, F355 and later tipos)
TARGA STRADALE MODIFICATO and MODENA ENGINEERING TROPHIES
STUBBERFIELD TROPHY Winner Gp1 Pirelli Ferrari formula classic Series
Modified road-going Dino, 308, 328, 348 (except 308GT4 and Mondial) 1 Gary Culver
1619
Targa Stradale Modificato Trophy 2 Richard Moseley
1114
Modena Engineering Trophy 3 Marco Pullen 1 Nicky Paul–Barron
1760
Gilles Villeneuve Trophy 2 David Tomlin
1049
FIORANO TROPHY
1 Stuart Anderson
Modified road-going 308GT4 and Mondial
2 Grahame Bryant
1610
Steve Tandy
Mario Andretti Trophy 3 Peter Moseley
STIRLING CUP
1046
Winner Gp2 Pirelli Ferrari formula classic Series
STEPHEN LANGTON AWARD Unmodified V8 road-going cars F355, 360 Modena and later tipos
1 Nicky Paul-Barron 2 David Tomlin 3 Ben Cartwright
1 Chris Butler
1148
2 David Tomlin
900
3 Mike Spicer
860
1 Nick Taylor
451
BIG SWIFTY CUP
2 Peter Fisk
319
3 David Mountain
241
Winner Gp3 Pirelli Ferrari formula classic
MARANELLO TROPHY Winner Class S of Pirelli Ferrari Open Series
DEREK COLLINS TROPHY Unmodified road-going 308GT4 and Mondial
1 Gary Culver 1 Marco Pullen
2 Richard Moseley
2 Tris Simpson
3 Nigel Jenkins
3 Alan Cosby
IVAN BISHOP TROPHY 1 William Moorwood
667
2 Didier Benaroya
565
3 Sean Doyle
550
Winner Class C of Pirelli Ferrari Open Series
Winner of the 2008 Pirelli Ferrari Hillclimb Championship 1 Jon Goodwin
152
1 Gary Culver
2 Chris Butler
140
2 Mark I’Anson
3 Andrew Holman
125
3 Tim Mogridge
18 CompRes
FRANK BOTT TROPHY
COTSWOLD TROPHY
COPPA FERRARI Club Nederland
CAVALLINO TROPHY
Any road-going Ferrari scoring the most points in the PFHC on scratch
Best performance by a pre-1975 Ferrari
A particularly meritorious result in Ferrari competition (not necessarily by a Club member and not necessarily awarded each year)
1 Chris Butler
1148
2 David Tomlin
900
3 Mike Spicer
860
Not awarded for 2008
HILLCLIMB TROPHY Driver scoring the most points in the PFHC on handicap
1 Wendy Ann Marshall
24
2 Philip Whitehead
24
3 John Marshall
22
Photo: www.simonpics.co.uk
Jon Goodwin
ELWYNNE OWEN-JONES BIATHLON CUP Most points gained in a mix of Circuit, Sprint and Hillclimb events
1 David Tomlin
62
2 Chris Butler
61
3 Nick Taylor
41
GUIDATORE NOVICIO DELL’ANNO TROPHY Most promising Newcomer to Ferrari competition
Ben Cartwright
Photo: www.simonpics.co.uk
Gary Culver receives the Anthony Bamford Trophy from the Club Chairman, Richard Allen.
Bill Blyth presents the Ken Wharton/Bill Blyth Trophy to Nicky Paul-Barron.
CompRes 19
20 CompRes
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CompRes 21