Stats - 2008 formula classic - Club Racing Series'

PIRELLI FERRARI formula classic

2008 SEASON STATISTICAL REVIEW
by Graham Easter

Unlike the hillclimbing, neither of the Club's circuit racing formulae is a championship, nor even a series. This is for a number of sound reasons to do with the way the sport is administered, but it does make things a bit tricky for the would-be statistician and paddock pundit as no points are awarded.

Just for fun, we cut and pasted the race results into our hillclimb points calculating engine and bingo - instant stats (totally unofficial of course). The PFHC system awards 20 points for a win, 17 for second, 15 for third, 13 for fourth with all subsequent places dropping back one point at a time to a minimum score of one point. Unlike the hillclimb championship we counted all 12 of the races - no dropped scores. For Race 8 at Donington Park places were based on results with the 'Open' cars omitted.

This system measures only outright speed and so inevitably favours the more modified Group 3 cars. It does not pretend to be a championship or name a champion, hence there is no attempt to equate performance across classes, which is probably a bit unfair on the Group 2 drivers, but there you go.

Entrants were up from 35 last year to 38 this and, perhaps more important, the average grid size up from a fraction under 16 to 19. Strangely enough, the first weekend's racing of the year attracted the largest number of entrants - 27. The fact that it was central at Donington Park must of helped, but also folk weren't quite so affected (or worried) back then by the economic downturn; however Race 10 at Oulton Park in September had 22 entrants. The finales at Spa in October attracted the smallest entry at 12 and 11. All who have raced there swear it's something all racers should do at least once and the move to the summer next year should help.

The average number of starts per competitor was down slightly to 6, exactly half of the races on the schedule. Only two heroes started all of the races - Ben Cartwright and Swifty (again), so well done them.

The Outright "Top Ten"

Pilota	Class	"Points"	No. Races	Mean Score	Std. Deviation
Gary Culver Nicky Paul-Barron David Tomlin Marco Pullen Richard Moseley Chris Butler Fred Honnor Nigel Jenkins Ben Cartwright Peter Moseley	3 2 2 3 3 2 3 3 2 2	174 162 142 112 103 96 87 83 80 75	9 10 10 7 10 9 9 8 12 10	19.33 16.20 14.20 16.00 10.30 10.67 9.67 10.38 6.67 7.50	1.25 2.18 1.78 3.30 4.98 2.94 3.97 3.71 3.12 4.92

"Official" Superlatives

Pilota	Class	O/A Wins	Class wins	Pole	Fastest Class Lap
Gary Culver N P-B Marco Pullen Richard Moseley Dave Tomlin Peter Moseley Grahame Bryant Oliver Bryant Fred Honnor Steve Tandy Stuart Anderson Nigel Jenkins John Shirley William Jenkins	3 2 3 3 2 2 1 1 3 1 1 3 3 3	7 2 2 1 - - - - - - - - - -	7 7 2 2 4 1 1 1 1 1 1 - - -	7 2 1 - - - - 1 - 1 - - - -	6 7 2 - 5 1 - 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

Once again Gary Culver took the most outright wins. He was only beaten twice, both times by Marco Pullen in another Group 3 car.

Nicky Paul-Barron also took 7 class wins and two outright in his Group 2 car.

Richard Moseley was the final other outright winner, at Spa.

Dave Tomlin was the only other multiple winner, taking Group 2 honours four times, beating NP-B twice.

Peter Moseley and Fred Honnor took the class once. Graham & Oliver Bryant and Steve Tandy all won once and all in the same car! The performance of this Comp. Daytona showing what could be achieved in a Group 1 car. Stuart Anderson also "won" the class and took fastest lap at Oulton Park, where he was the only entrant.

Nigel Jenkins, John Shirley and William Jenkins make it into the table by dint of having set fastest class laps.

Tipi

Entries	Overall		Class 3		Class 2		Class 1
Entries	No.	Wins	No	Wins	No	Wins	No	Wins
328 308 GT4 Mondial t 365/4 Mondial QV 250 (rep)	19 6 4 4 3 1 1	11 1 - - - - -	5 6 2 1 - 1 -	9 3 - - - - -	14 - 2 3 - - -	12 - - - - - -	- - - - 3 - 1	- - - - 3 - 1

These figures confirm that classic has effectively become a one tipo series - at least if you want to win, the 328 winnning outright all but once this year. The 308 took one outright and three class wins. This Pininfarina shape makes up two thirds of the entrants, the main reason being simply power to weight ratio.

The Series is thriving at the moment, but long term one has to be concerned about a club racing formula based on such a limited and declining resource - production of the 328 ceased 20 years ago! As cars gets older, parts become increasingly scarce and it becomes less desirable to convert one into a racer. This makes it more difficult both to maintain the existing pool and to add to it.

With the old "Group 1" effectively moribund, we've heard that there will be a new class structure for 2009 - up to and over 3 litres, both subdivided into "(mostly) standard" and "modified". This should give GT4 owners some encouragement, but the much heavier Mondis will still struggle. There is still no word on when/if the 348 will be allowed in, which interestingly, my "Coccinella libro della Ferrari" tells me has the same power-to-weight ratio as the 328.

And that's it - make of it what you will. Both on the track and in various of the "points" permutations it's the same people who floated towards the top. As always in racing, class shows.

Click here to go to the 2008 Pirelli Ferrari formula classic index page.

Click here to go to the 2009 Pirelli Ferrari formula classic index page.