PIRELLI MARANELLO FERRARI CHALLENGE
RACE REPORT : ROUND 5 : ROCKINGHAM : 25/26 MAY 2002

• What is wrong with Rockingham as a venue? For the Club's track day we had a woefully small entry and now for the PMFC race we could again only muster ten starters. The place seems to have just no atmosphere right now. Perhaps when the CART or IRL boys have had a few more races the venue will accumulate some sort of mystique. In the meantime it is quite possible that the event may be dropped from the PMFC calendar if our competitors don't want it. Would be a shame.....
  
  
• Even David Grace, Rockingham supremo and part-time 355 racer, did not enter the race. Wonder if he had the same excuse as Oliver Morley who was reportedly seen at Nice airport, which is close to a certain other race taking part the same weekend.....in Monte Carlo.
  
  
• Given the need by Rockingham to attract as many "friends" as possible the saga concerning the PMFC hospitality marquee is therefore inexplicable. The best the circuit could do was to offer a place behind the grandstands, outside of the circuit, well out of the reach of the competitors in the infield, and on top of that they wanted a £30 per head corkage charge! Inevitably the whole thing was cancelled and everyone became the loser - the circuit, the competitors and the Club members who turn out to support the meetings.
  
  
• Unusual for the PMFC was the rolling start. Is this the first time that it has ever happened? The organising club (MG) felt that this took up less time than a normal grid. Also, the race duration was not defined by the number of laps but gave everybody fifteen minutes plus one lap.
  
  
• Richard Allen was a happy bunny at last. His 328, following attention from the Damax boys, ran faultlessly and seems to have lost its desire to stop after three laps. Inevitably it was a fault in the wiring loom but everyone and his dog seemed to have had a go at trying to rectify it, without success until now.
  
  
• The Wilkinson Driver of the Day award went deservedly to Richard Stevens, who had a difficult job in keeping Alan Newton behind him all race long. Given the track conditions and the pressure, which would have seduced anyone into a spin or two, he did well to keep his 355/Ch on the track and ahead.
  

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