PIRELLI MARANELLO FERRARI CHALLENGE
RACE REPORT : ROUND 13 : DONINGTON : 1 SEPTEMBER 2002

• The Culvers had a couple of run-ins with officialdom. The first was when a scrutineer insisted on testing the ignition cut-out whilst the engine was running on the 360/Ch. Everyone knows this can seriously upset the Marelli Spaghetti management system and, sure enough, it did. Then, after the race, Gary was trying to manoeuvre into the scrutineering bay when some marshal started banging furiously on the tail of the car, feeling he was about to be run over. A flurry of verbals left Gary so angry that he went to see the Clerk of the Course to complain about the incident.

• Stewart Roden's flashy transporter was a delight and a credit to the Ferrari end of the paddock. He is confident of running two 360/Chs in the series next season so this very professionally turned out team should be around all year. That will spur some of the others on to improve their paintwork.
  

• Absent again was Richard Stevens, with a reoccurence of his leg problem. Before this race he was still tied at the top of the C-class championship with Robin Ward but Robin's win now means that he has clinched it with one more race to go. A shame for Richard who has put in a lot of effort and who was one of the most improved drivers this season.

• Sitting around at lunch the talk turned to who might win the Driver of the Year award. Various names were mentioned but then Chris, the SCS truckie, announced that he should have it as he had driven more miles than everybody else put together and in any case where did it say that the Driver of the Year had to be a race driver? Good point....
  

• Clearly unused to running race meetings, the BRSCC had no podium or prizes for the Ferrari race. Whilst they quickly made amends and promised to send trophies to our Championship Coordinator, there was very little they could do about re-enacting a podium ceremony. Martin Pallot from Pirelli was so looking forward to it that he went rushing around trying to find it but to no avail.
  
  
• The collection of Abarths for their World Meeting was lovely and ranged from little-modified Fiat 500s to Abarth Osellas and even the very rare 3-litre V8 Abarth. It brought back happy childhood memories of Toine Hezemans and Abt Godemans three-wheeling their 850TCs in convoy round the old Nurburgring in the Sixties. We didn't know at the time that Godemans only had one eye, the other was glass. Most of us couldn't get out the garage like that.
  
  
• Wilkinson Driver of the Day was Chris Catt. He must have got very close to winning it at the Brands Ferrari Festival and continued his recent run of form at Donington. In the race he had to work hard to stay ahead of Tony Jones and finished not far adrift of Robin Ward, which is no mean feat.
  
  
• Oliver Morley complained that your website reporter showed favouritism to Gary Culver in the last race report. This made a change as we have also been accused of favouring SCS (for whom Morley drives), Damax, Smeeton, Catt, etc, etc. To save further trouble, we thought we would list factors which inevitably lead to a good mention on the site:

• Ted Reddick was trying to get in some pre-PMFC practise and competed in one of the earlier races dicing furiously with a motley collection of Fiats and Alfas. He must have wished he hadn't because his 355/Ch then got stuck in fifth gear and he missed the Ferrari race.
  

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