PIRELLI FERRARI HILLCLIMB CHAMPIONSHIP

ROUND 1 : NORTH WEALD: 15 MARCH 2009
by Barrie Wood & Fellow Competitors

North Weald Airfield on the M11 just north of the M25 is traditionally the venue of the first event of the season for the PFHC crew. Amazingly it was dry and bright for once and by noon quite a hot sun was warming people and cars. This was not expected as every visit prior to this one had been wet or freezing or both. Barrie Wood's scheme to prepare his 308 for a wet event to take advantage of the more generous PEP, leaving his 355 for later, had been scuppered and the realisation that he had brought the wrong tipo soon set in.

Twelve Ferraris arrived in the paddock with most of the usual suspects in evidence, Chris Butler and Richard Allen being notable absentees. Two new recruits had stepped into their shoes, although only one had come with a car. Joe Billingham had brought along his 360F1 in Scuderia colours, but Julian Playford was a last minute non-starter as the clutch had gone on his 355; he did make an appearance to watch proceedings though - a warm welcome to both.

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Former Champion Nick Taylor had brought along his Mondial t, which had not been seen for a while. Allegedly, his 348GTC is still in the race shop at Damax, so he'd popped down to the South of France and brought back the trusty Mondi the day before. Andrew Holman had had his 348tb straightened out and it was looking very smart, sporting a largely new front end.

Taylor and Tomlin were at the head of the lineup for practice and were first away, the back end of David's 355 bucking on the start straight due to the uneven surface. He reported "The track was amazingly bumpy which meant it was difficult to use all the power. You had to brake much earlier than normal because of the bumps and I grounded the front of the car a few times". Mike Spicer (355) had a clean start, was well on it and was rewarded with a sub 80 second run, two seconds behind Tomlin.

Next up, Holman went quickest with a very smooth and fast 76.86. He was delighted to go quickest, but felt there was more to be had. Richard Prior in his faithful 348ts was the only other driver to get under 80 seconds in first practice, a second or so ahead of Geoff Dark, out again in his 355. Nick Taylor lay behind Geoff by a third of a second and all the rest were strung out through the 80s headed up by Pauline Goodwin in her 328, which for once behaved itself here.

During the interval a few participants checked out the Scuderia colours of the Billingham 360 parked next to the 355 of David Tomlin - the latter's car not likely to win the Paddock Cup as it was covered in road film and some wag had written "clean me" in the dirt. No photos of this are known to exist as David whipped out a bucket of water and Ferrari pride was restored!

Second practice then started and right away DT knocked a second off Andrew's previous leading time down to get down to 75.85. Andrew himself managed a half second off, Mike took 1.5 seconds off his previous, Geoff Dark 1.3 seconds from his - everyone was going faster as the track warmed up, except Nick Taylor and Peter Wilson in his immaculate 348, who dropped back 0.8 second thanks to a sticky throttle linkage. Apparently this is a common 348 problem, usually attributable to old grease sticking on the link from the pedal to the cable.

During lunch Nick was observed making some adjustments to his Mondial - in anticipation of the bumpy track he had set the shocks too soft and this had resulted in the Mondi bouncing exaggeratedly down the track and had cost him some time. A technically untroubled Mike Spicer reported that the North Weald bacon and egg rolls were excellent.

Lunch over, the Ferraris were called for the first of the competitive runs. Tomlin and Spicer both went slightly slower than practice but still recorded good times especially as Holman had a 5 second penalty for hitting a cone and Taylor had a massive spin - he had chosen the pin closest to the chicane to do it and with DT approaching fast, he managed to recover and continued, but at the end they were only 8 seconds apart and no red flags!

Further down the pack Barrie Wood went the wrong side of a cone and was awarded a "WR" or wrong route. Sean Doyle in his customarily shiny 308 GT4 spun. Sean said "After the disappointment of having to leave [a sprint at] Honington due to overheating problems, I replaced the rad, fans and wiring only to have the starter motor pack up. The joys of owning a classic! To be able to speak to Geoff Dark and Barrie Wood on the phone is for me fantastic as they can talk me though just about any job on the car, the most amazing talking workshop manual". Pete Wilson had recovered from the fright caused by his sticky throttle and knocked 4½ seconds off his best practice time to record an 86.07 and looked very pleased with himself.

So as usual, all to play for on the last run. David Tomlin pressed on to a 75.63, easily the fastest Ferrari time of the day and a comfortable class win. Mike Spicer, last year's winner, put in a tidy run to take second, nine-tenths behind the flying Tomlin. He was followed by Holman and Bob Holmes was doing a "Smedley" and urgently relayed times to him before he set off. In the end he was one-hundredth of a second adrift of Spicer, despite claiming his start was "a disaster". Most commented that Andrew was very focused and determined and this was rewarded by the max. 20 points once the PEPs had been applied. Geoff Dark managed to lose a second. He ended up in fourth place overall and said "I appear to have recovered most of my missing 50+ hp. the RH cylinder bank was down to approx 120 lbs compared to the LH bank at 200 lbs. The rest of the time lost was down to me".

Richard Prior was a half second off his best practice time to take fifth. Further back and really going for it was Pauline who was "absolutely determined to get into the 70 second bracket" and kept her 328 flat through the fast left hander, very nearly losing it as the back came around - but with skill holding the car to achieve her objective with a 79.60. If it were not for the slide Pauline could well have pipped Nick for sixth place. He commented "I am not a fan of any venues featuring cones to mark the track". Nevertheless it was a very good achievement for PG and most considered her to be the joint Driver of the Day with Holman.

Jeffrey Cooper in his beautiful metallic sky blue car and Joe Billingham had a bit of a 360 battle with Jeff coming out in front, but only by a tenth or so, a very good result for the new boy. Being in receipt of Barrie Wood's technical support didn't stop the irrepressible Sean Doyle from trying hard to beat him but in the end Barrie prevailed by a tenth - perhaps next time Sean. Pete Wilson eventually got his time down to 84.70 seconds - a good result for him. So the trophy winners were Tomlin, Spicer and Holman - three worthy recipients of the glassware.

It was a good day and with good weather for a change, enabling North Weald to be tested to the limit by cars and drivers. It was nice for all to meet a good turnout of local FOC supporters including old-time 246 hillclimber Stuart Bailey. Essex AGO Antony Shine was there with family, together with fellow Essex members and a few from London - the more the merrier! The hillclimbers will certainly be meeting up with Channel Island members when the PFHC visits Bouley Bay in Jersey at Easter for its very own version of the Monaco GP.