The second round of the Superformance Ferrari Club Classic Series was held at Thruxton Circuit in Hampshire for the newly renamed and revamped Thruxton Retro event. Branded ‘Superfunk’ the weekend was a celebration of all things 1970s with races from the period, car displays and a variety of tribute acts performing on the main stage, headlined by the famous Abba tribute band, Bjorn Again.

The Ferrari Owners’ Club had pride of place in the Paddock with our Superformance Race Centre surrounded by the competing cars and a members display parking area located on the adjacent grass area. On track, a grid of 17 cars assembled for qualifying and a total of three 20 minute races over the weekend.

QUALIFYING

Saturday morning’s 20 minute qualifying session passed without incident with series returnee Nigel Jenkins initially topping the timesheets. However an unfortunate miscalculation of the ballast required to meet the Group 6 minimum weight requirements meant that the 355/Ch would subsequently fail the post-qualifying scrutineering checks, and Nigel would need to start Races 1 and 2 from the back of the grid with a 10-second time penalty. This left the Group 4 328 GTB of Gary Culver to take up pole position for the first two races, with Chris Butler (Group 2 328 GTB), Colin Sowter (Group 5 355 Spider) and Tim Mogridge (Group 5 355/Ch) filling the remaining slots on the front two rows of the grid. Behind them Robin Biesbroek was delighted with the pace of his 348 Challenge qualifying ahead of the Group 6 355/Ch of Chris Compton-Goddard. Myles Poulton (Group 4 328 GTS) was fastest of the quartet of drivers who all recorded times in the 1m34s bracket which included novices Philip Connell (Group 5 355/Ch) and Lewis Sharman (Group 4 348/Ch) together with Tony Claringbould in his Group 4 Mondial T.

Vance Kearney (Group 6 355/Ch) retired from the session early but still managed to post a time good enough for 11th on the grid. Jago Keen (Group 2 308 GTB) was another driver who headed to the pitlane mid-session, qualifying just behind the Group 3 328 GTB of series veteran Peter Everingham. Peter Fisk (Group 3 328 GTB), Ray Ferguson (Group 5 355) and Nick Whittaker (Group 2 308 GT4 Dino) completed the runners.

RACE 1

Saturday afternoon’s race got underway in warm and sunny conditions with Gary Culver pulling away at the front of the field. In Gary’s wake a good battle ensured for 2nd place between Chris Butler, Tim Mogridge and Colin Sowter. Colin dropped away towards the latter stages of the race having been caught and passed by the flying Nigel Jenkins who had quietly worked his way through the field from the back of the grid. Nigel had just got onto the back of the Chris Butler and begun to challenge for the final step of the podium when the 20 minutes elapsed and the chequered flag flew. A win for Gary Culver ahead of Tim Mogridge and Chris Butler.

Behind the leading group, Robin Biesbroek and Myles Poulton were initially exchanging places before Robin managed to open out a 2-second lead. Philip Connell managed to hold off Lewis Sharman and Tony Claringbould to take 8th position. Chris Compton-Goddard was an early retirement from the midfield race pulling off on the fourth lap. The similar Group 6 355/Ch of Vance Kearney was another driver to suffer technical gremlins, retiring to the pitlane at the end of lap 10.

Further back, Peter Fisk, Jago Keen and Peter Everingham were enjoying some close racing, finishing just ahead of Ray Ferguson. Nick Whitaker completed the finishers.

RACE 2

Cooler temperatures were welcome on Sunday but this would not benefit Tim Mogridge and Peter Fisk who both had to withdraw their cars having discovered fluid leaks during the overnight preparation. Chris Compton-Goddard’s car was also out for the remainder of the weekend, but like at Donington Park last month, Chris had gone home to collect his trusty Group 2 308 GTB as a backup and would therefore start race 2 from the back of the grid, just ahead of Nigel Jenkins who had the second part of his qualifying penalty to serve.

So 15 cars took the start and it was again Gary Culver who sped away with a 20 minute masterclass of smooth and consistent driving to open up a 26.97 second lead at the end of the 14 laps. By comparison to Saturday’s race, Chris Butler had a relatively quiet race in 2nd place, unchallenged from behind and equally unable to keep up with the more powerful car of Gary Culver ahead. The battle for 3rd was much closer though with Colin Sowter defending from Vance Kearney who had made an excellent start from the 5th row of the grid and had taken 3rd position by the end of lap 4. Colin managed to regain 3rd on the fifth lap, holding off Vance until the technical gremlin struck again forcing Vance to retire to the pitlane at the end of lap 11. This left Colin unchallenged for the final podium position, but all eyes were on Nigel Jenkins, who had repeated the feat of Saturday’s race, overtaking the field and chasing down the top 3 recording the fastest lap on the final tour. Again though Nigel needed more than the allocated 20 minutes in order to break through onto the podium.

The closest racing was to be found in the mid-field where Robin Biesbroek successfully held off Myles Poulton, Lewis Sharman, Tony Claringbould and Peter Everingham in a race long battle. Similarly close and just behind this group was the fight for lead of Group 2 between Chris Compton-Goddard and Jago Keen, with Ray Ferguson’s Group 5 machine getting stuck in as well. It looked as though Chris would be the victor in Group 2 but the recognisable blue 308 GTB slowed on its 11th lap and limped into the pitlane with a technical issue. Also retiring to the pitlane from last place was the unfortunate Nick Whitaker whose GT4 Dino had developed a misfire.

RACE 3

With the grid for the final race of the weekend being determined from the results of race 2, Nigel Jenkins would be starting from the second row, and able to continue his push forwards, with many pundits predicting him for the win. But Nigel made a poor start dropping to fifth behind Robin Biesbroek and it took until lap 7 for him to make his way through to second place and begin to chase down Gary Culver who again led a lights to flag victory to secure a hat-trick of wins, albeit by only 6.4 seconds this time. Chris Butler maintained his 100% podium success in 3rd ahead of Colin Sowter.

Vance Kearney had again made a great start and quickly fought his way through from the back to catch up with the lead group by the end of lap 3, where he settled into a close race with Robin Biesbroek, finally managing to overtake the Dutchman on lap 11 and finishing in a commendable 5th place.

Myles Poulton, Philip Connell, Peter Everingham, Tony Claringbould and Lewis Sharman again provided the majority of the entertainment in the midfield separated by just a couple of seconds with Jago Keen and Chris Compton-Goddard’s repaired 308 GTB resuming their race long battle for the Group 2 honours. Ray Ferguson completed the finishers as again Nick Whitaker was forced to retire the GT4 Dino at the end of the third lap.

SPECIAL AWARDS

The Scrutineer’s Choice Trophy was awarded to Jago Keen who had truly entered into the spirit of the event, with a special retro livery on his 308 GTB. Jago had a busy weekend as he was also racing in the headline Jochen Rindt Trophy in his historic Palliser WBD2.

The circuit commentary team picked out Robin Biesbroek as a very deserved recipient of the RNR Performance Cars Driver of the Event award for his consistently quick and impressive performance typically heading the midfield battle in all 3 races.

Footage of Race 2 and a few driver interviews including Jago Keen’s ‘flower power’ machine is available on YouTube.