PIRELLI MARANELLO FERRARI CHALLENGE
RACE REPORT : ROUND 9 : OULTON PARK : 13 JULY 2002

• The two invalids returned from their various medical escapades and it was good to see Gary Culver and Richard Stevens back in action, although both confessed to feeling a little race-rusty. Unfortunately Dave Preston was also still sore from a recent operation and when, during Friday free practice, a bunch of tyres needed changing to cope with a sudden rain shower, there was no-one fit enough to do it. They missed the session.
  
  
• The sizes of PMFC grids this season remains a little disappointing and yet there are many cars and drivers out there who seem to be doing just the occasional race. Indeed, registrations are still coming in at this late stage of the season and if things materialise there could be more than ten 360/Chs out next year. Perhaps one or two economic uncertainties are keeping drivers off the grids this year.
  
  
• Oliver Morley had a sweaty moment in front of the Clerk of the Course when he got reported for doing two practice starts on the warm-up lap. It could have cost him the race but he got away with an admonishment. Graham Reeder was not so lucky. For a jumped start he was penalised the inevitable ten seconds but also got a licence endorsement, which seems quite unreasonable. By the time the results were issued, however, they seemed to have forgotten about the ten seconds, although it would have made no difference to his placing.
  
  
• Some of the PMFC chaps took part in an earlier AutoItalia round. Even on the warm-up lap occasional PMFC racer Graham Scott, this time driving a Stratos replica, managed to hit John Avery's 355. We were treated to the sight of a 15-minute paddock discussion, complete with the usual gesticulations and finger pointing, as the finer points of the incident were discussed.
  
  
• The Club's Chairman, Jack Sears, and his wife Diana were guests at the race. Jack was presented with an Autosport magazine from 1965 which showed him on the front cover slipping ahead of Jim Clark in their Lotus-Cortinas. Amazingly Dave Preston seemed to remember the occasion and sure enough in a race report inside there was one David Preston driving a sportscar in a supporting race.
  
  
• The hillclimbers are a hardy bunch. Immediately after finishing the Oulton race Richard Allen rushed back to Essex to pick up his 355 and then drive all the way to the West Country to take part in Sunday's round of the Ferrari Hill Climb Championship at Gurston Down. There he also went well and finished a close second behind this year's serial winner, Jon Goodwin.
  
  
• Robin Ward (ex-hillclimber of course) was another who disappeared immediately after the race. He had to prepare no less than six cars to take part in a GT race at Brno the following weekend.
  
  
• Red Bull seems to be catching on. You can always tell the drivers who are at it because they're the ones with the shakes and pupils the size of pinheads. Does it actually make anyone go faster? Answers please, anonymous if necessary.
  

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