Rounds 4 & 5 of the CSA Service Group Ferrari Hillclimb Championship took place over the weekend of 10/11 May at the picturesque Harewood Speed Hillclimb course in North Yorkshire. A traditional fixture on the Championship calendar, we once again supported the British Hillclimb Championship so there was a packed paddock of impressively fast single seaters to look at amongst the 9 Ferraris present.

Going into the weekend there was a three way tie at the top of the Championship standings between Dave Snelson (488 Spider), Rob Samuels (458 Speciale) and John Kennedy (California T) who had all taken one win apiece during the opening three-day event on the Isle of Man last month.

Also fresh from the Isle of Man were Pauline Goodwin and Stuart McCabe in their respective 328 GTB’s, Brian Jackson (308 GTB), Steve Nunney (F430) and Martin Jones (360 Modena). Completing the nine car entry was regular circuit racer Chris Butler making a guest appearance at his local Hillclimb venue in his beautiful Ferrari 458 Italia.

Both days were blessed with warm sunshine which made for some quick running and everyone improved their times during their second of the two scheduled practice runs. Dave Snelson even managing to record a practice time 0.5 seconds quicker than his own hill record set during last years event. After the lunch break and with the track continuing to improve Dave secured this new record during the first official timed run, shaving another 0.5 seconds off and lowering the hill record by almost 1 second with a time of 62.49 (compared with his previous record of 63.47). Rob Samuels also managed a personal best and ducked below last years hill record with a time of 63.26 placing him firmly in second position ahead of John Kennedy (65.68), who in turn was just ahead of the guesting Chris Butler (65.97).

Once the tipo equalising ‘PEP’ was applied things got even closer with John and Chris trading positions for the final podium spot mainly due to John carrying an additional 2% ‘SEP’ as the winner of Round 3. Times were equally as close amongst the ‘classic’ runners with just 0.14 seconds separating Pauline Goodwin and Brian Jackson after the first official timed run, their positions also being reversed once the PEP was applied.

Following a halt in proceedings to retrieve an errant BMW from the scenery at the final corner there was only time for one more run and by this point the track conditions seemed to favour the older cars with only Pauline Goodwin, Brian Jackson, Stuart McCabe and Martin Jones managing to improve compared with their first timed run. Stuart’s improvement though was short lived as he was deemed to have exceeded the track limit crossing the finish line and his time was promptly deleted. The days best improver was Steve Nunney.

A quick dash down the A1 to the Wentbridge House Hotel where the Club had arranged a private dinner for the drivers and their guests provided an opportunity to share tips on lines, starts and generally seeking out those elusive tenths of seconds with Rob “The Professor” Samuels carefully studying the data from the days runs and forming a plan for Sunday to catch the flying Snelson.

Day 2
Sunday dawned as Saturday had ended, with the track in good condition and warming up quickly in the spring sunshine.

Dave Snelson threw in a ‘curve ball’ during the first practice run with a leisurely drive up the hill, breaking the speed trap at a mere 40mph and crossing the finish line with a time of 96.56 seconds, over 50% slower than his previous days runs. When questioned about this potential car problem Dave answered with “there is no problem, I’m just out for easy drive to start the day”. This proved to be correct as Dave posted a time just one tenth shy of his new hill record during his second practice run, firmly laying down his intentions for the timed runs.

With the event running ahead of schedule the first timed run was squeezed in before the lunch break with Dave, Rob and John topping the time sheets as expected. The second timed run immediately after lunch took place in similar conditions which understandably resulted in similar times. Only when the mid-afternoon third (and what was initially expected to be the final) timed run occurred did the times improve and we saw yet another new hill record for Dave Snelson with a time of 62.48 seconds, a mere one hundredth quicker than his Saturday record breaking time.

By this point everyone seemed to driving at peak performance and the time sheets reflected this, particularly after the PEP was applied when less than 0.5 seconds separated the top three and only 3.79 seconds separated the top seven positions, proof that the many years spent perfecting and tweaking the PEP formula seemed to be working well.

The additional 2% Success Equalising Percentage (SEP) was also having its desired effect, demoting the previous days winner Dave Snelson to third overall and elevating John Kennedy (now relieved of the SEP) to first position. Rob Samuels holding firm in the runner up spot for both ‘Scratch’ and ‘PEP adjusted’ times.

It was with much nervous anticipation then that we waited around for the unexpected bonus of a fourth timed run. With track conditions past their peak though only the highly experienced Brian Jackson managed to improve his time, and then only by one hundredth of a second, closing down the gap to Pauline Goodwin. This general lack of improvement also confirmed Martin Jones as the days Best Improver and Martin was also awarded the ‘Best Prepared Car’ accolade by the event Scrutineers to round off his weekend.

You will recall that we arrived at Harewood with a three way tie for the championship lead and we leave Harewood with just a single point separating the top three. It could not get much closer. On to Curborough next month for the next instalment…