Paddock News

Snetterton hosted rounds 3 & 4 of the Ferrari Challenge UK last week-end. Jason Baker repeated his Brands successes with overall wins in both races. The Coppa Shell class was won by Richard Guy in race 1 and Gary Redman in race 2.

Once again the racing was clean with very few incidents of any kind. The pace at the front is fast and several drivers are improving at quite a rate as they gain experience in the cars. The next meeting at Croft could be closer and should be a lot of fun.

Report & photos in the Race Reports section.

The report of the first race meeting of 2019 is now on the website for all to read. Sorry about the delay but hopefully it is worth the wait as there are some terrific photographs. There were three excellent races and the winner of the first race of the season was Tris Simpson and the next two went to Wayne Marrs.

A beautiful sunny day at Prescott Hillclimb saw Mike Spicer in his 328GTB take maximum Championship points although Dave Snelson won the event on scratch.  The full report and results are now posted.

The Ferrari Challenge UK kicked off at Brands Hatch last week-end with Jason Baker winning both races overall and the Trofeo Pirelli class. The Coppa Shell class was won by Mark McAllister in race 1 and Stuart Wilson in race 2.

Any fears related to the tightness of the course coupled to the very powerful cars and a field of mixed experience and ability proved unfounded, with excellent driving being demonstrated by all and very entertaining racing. Report & photos in the Race Reports section.

A fine mix of racing Ferraris enjoyed/endured miserable conditions at Spa last week-end with all 3 races being affected by rain or at least a wet track. I’m sure we will publish the full story soon with photos, but if you really can’t wait then results can be found via this link www.results.dataware.fr

Once everyone dries off our formula classic racers will be out on May 18/19th at Brands Hatch supporting the first round of the Ferrari Challenge UK. Expect some really close racing from all.

On Thursday 25 April 2019, twenty clients took delivery of their Ferrari Challenge UK 2019 race cars at the Prologue test event at Brands Hatch. Using the Indy circuit, the drivers had two, ninety minute sessions on the iconic track to familiarise themselves with their cars before they return to Brands Hatch for the opening rounds of the 2019 season on 18 and 19 May.

The new Ferrari Challenge UK Series is the only National Championship operated by Ferrari, and completes the impressive family of Ferrari Challenge Championships, which is made up of the European series, North American series, Asia Pacific series.

At the first round of the Club’s hillclimb championship at Bouley Bay in Jersey Dave Snelson (430 – centre) took the win ahead of Nick Taylor (430 – left) and Mike Spicer (328). Once the PEP factors had been applied, however, it was Spicer who took the maximum points ahead of Snelson and Taylor. Full report soon.

Our Ferrari season truly kicked off to an excellent start at Silverstone on Monday. The track day – test / media day format worked exceptionally well and the weather was kind. Some 40 members’ road cars enjoyed the day in separate Touring & Sports sessions running to normal track day rules. The 36 Competition cars however were given the freedom of the National circuit running to test day rules. The competition sessions were particularly entertaining but all behaved admirably and there were no incidents. It was particularly good to see new or returning drivers plus new cars and new liveries.

Our photo shows Chris Butler’s newly black 328 which this year is enjoying the support of Barkaways. Originally red and raced well by Jeff Simpson it then became silver with Richard Allen before passing to Chris. It will be at Spa next week for the FCRS event on a grid of some 37 cars, possibly the 2nd largest grid seen next to the 40 cars that raced at the Coys Classic meeting years ago. We wish all a safe and happy week-end.

The Club’s AGM was held this year at Graypaul’s Birmingham facility and was well attended. From our racing and hill climb family there were awards for several. The most popular possibly being our own Pauline Goodwin who was awarded the Richard Allen Memorial Trophy for the competitor who best exemplifies the spirit of our hill climb series, and also the Godfrey Eaton Trophy for the spirit of the formula classic series. Husband Jon was presented with The Bumbles Trophy for the highest number of house points driving a V12 Ferrari.

Other competitors present to collect awards were Peter Everingham (Mario Andretti Trophy), Chris Butler (Gilles Villeneuve Trophy), and Dave Snelson (Stephen Langton Award). The biggest cup of the day went to Gary Culver who was presented with the Anthony Bamford Trophy achieving the highest number of house points gained in a maximum of 10 competitive qualifying events.

The Easter weekend sees the beginning of the Club’s racing season, as the hillclimbers start their treck to Bouley Bay in the Channel Islands for the first round of their championship on Monday 22nd April. The mysterious Tipster has again stuck his neck on the line with his predictions of what might happen – click here to read his improbable musings.

The regulations for both formula classic and Ferrari Club Racing have now been published, and regular racers will have received them.  Our classic regs. have evolved over the years, as indeed they should. For 2019 there have been a few minor tweeks – these include a weight reduction for all but 355s and a success ballast for cars finishing in podium positions. Both changes are designed of course to even things up a little.

So that’s dates set, regulations published, get Xmas and New Year out the way, MSA medical and license renewal and there you go, Silverstone test, then Spa is next!

The regulations for both series will be available on this site shortly under the “For Competitors” heading.

The 2018 PFfc season formally came to an end with a lunch in the historic Brooklands clubhouse on November 24th.The highlight of the awards was the presentation of the ‘Driver of the Century’ to John Swift. This was given to acknowledge a fantastic achievement,  32  years of continuous racing with the F.O.C. starting from the inaugural race at Mallory Park in 1986. Series Sponsors, Simon Ford from Pirelli and Richard Wilkins from Indespension were welcome guests and handed out trophies to cover the achievements of the racers over the 2018 season.

Ivan Bishop Trophy – Nigel Jenkins
The Big Swifty – Chris Butler
Trofeo Italia – Gary Culver
Stubberfield Trophy – William Moorwood
Stirling Cup – Chris Compton-Goddard
Godfrey Eaton Trophy – Pauline Goodwin
Hard Charger Award – Chris Butler
Bad Luck Award – Pete Fisk

Before our dedicated Ferrari Club Racing web site all Club circuit and hillclimb competitions were documented via printed media. Competition News, as it was named originally, formed a small part of the Club’s Ferrari News magazine before being printed as a separate item. This much later became CompRes which was designed as a lightweight version. Over the years the paper and printing improved and colour was introduced. These publications were distributed to all registered competitors and sponsors etc. However any member could obtain the magazines if they wished. A few of us are fortunate enough to hold complete collections of Competition News and CompRes, and the Club office library also has a set which is available to view by members. These magazines form a quite remarkable archive of Club racing activities from the mid 1980s to 2014.

It is amazing to consider that this was all the work of John and Anne Swift. One can only imagine the time and effort involved over so many years, and we all owe them a great debt of gratitude. Now John has gone even further and has been working on making these publications available on-line. To date we have CompRes issues 001 (Feb. 2005) to issue 099 (Dec. 2014). John is working on previous issues too, but this may take a little longer as they were not held digitally. There will be a separate tab on the site in due course but for now you can see the archive via this link: www.issuu.com/compresults

I can’t imagine that there are many clubs with such a complete and accessible archive and we should be proud of it. For serious research, or just a wander down memory lane it’s quite compelling.

Some of you may have seen our Club’s promotional video for the formula classic series at the NEC or at our RAC prize-giving event. This excellent video is now posted on this site in the video section and is available by clicking here.