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report by Steve Burns
photography by FHC Competitors
Round 10 of the CSA Service Group Ferrari Hillclimb Championship took place at the famous Shelsley Walsh Hillclimb in Worcestershire. Like several previous events we again shared the billing with the British Hillclimb Championship so the paddock was full to the brim with an eclectic mix of high powered single seaters and sportscars, watched over by a big crowd of spectators enjoying the sights and sounds of the cars under the warm August sunshine.
7 cars and drivers represented the Ferrari Owners’ Club made up of the Championships regular entrants Dave Snelson (488 GTB), Rob Samuels (458 Speciale), John Kennedy (California T), Steve Nunney (F430), Martin Jones (360 Modena) and Stuart McCabe (328 GTB). Having made his debut here last year Anthony Smith was a welcome addition in his 360 Spider, Anthony making his second appearance in the 2025 Championship. Notable by their absence were Pauline Goodwin and Brian Jackson who were otherwise engaged and Tony & Iwan Attwood were unfortunately still sidelined with car trouble.
As is becoming traditional, a number of drivers had informally arranged to meet up for dinner at the local hostelry on the Friday evening where expectations were discussed, stories shared and braking points and lines analysed following the Friday afternoon hill walk.
On arrival at the hill on Saturday morning, the Ferrari drivers were straight into action with the Prancing Horses taking the hill for the first of two practice runs shortly after 9am. Dave Snelson immediately setting the bar high with a time of 32.85 seconds, just 0.28 seconds shy of the hill record set by Rob Samuels last year. Second practice took place just before lunch and with the track surface warmer and more ‘rubbered in’ Snelson managed to dip under the record with a time of 32.10 seconds. Heading into the lunch break Samuels was second (33.12s) ahead of Kennedy (34.04s), Nunney (37.40s), Jones (41.48s), McCabe (41.80s) and Smith (41.91s), which set the target times for the drivers to beat during the afternoons official timed runs, and given how close the practice times were the afternoon look set to be highly competitive.
With the first timed run immediately after the short lunch break it was no surprise that the times were similar to practice but it was pleasing to see that all bar Stuart McCabe and Anthony Smith managing to improve. Smith was disappointed with himself for inconsistent starts as he learned the intricacies of getting the paddle shift 360 off the line. With Snelson posting a faster time, a new hill record was now official (31.39s), adding to his tally of records this year. Samuels had also managed a personal best (braking his own hill record time) with a time of 32.41s. Kennedy was third (33.61s) ahead of Nunney (36.52s), McCabe (39.46s) which was a big improvement over his practice times, Jones (41.83s), and Smith (42.21s). With the PEP adjustments applied the times were even closer with just 0.44s separating the top 3 and Kennedy moving up to second place on PEP.
After a long break while the British Championship runners had their second practice run, it was gone 4pm before the Ferrari drivers were called up for their second and final timed run. By now the track temperature had continued to rise, possibly above optimum so it would interesting to see if anyone would be able to improve their times. With a near perfect and consistent performance both Snelson and Samuels again lowered their times, reflecting how competitive this years championship has become with marginal gains making the difference to the final podium places. Snelson with another record of 31.24s and Samuels less than a second behind on 32.19s. This was enough to restore Samuels to second on the podium once the PEP adjustment had been made, the PEP difference between him and Kennedy in third being just 0.14s. Further back (but not too far back) both Jones and Smith managed to post their quickest times of the day at 41.22s and 41.50s respectively, which Smith was happy with after his earlier disappointment.
Stuart McCabe was confirmed as the days Best Improver and was also awarded the Best Prepared Car title by the event Scrutineers.
This win extends Dave Snelson’s lead in the Championship with a total of 184 points ahead of Rob Samuels (167 points) and John Kennedy (158 points). At this point of the season though we also need to consider each drivers best 9 scores which count toward the final championship standings, and with 6 wins on the scoreboard this now puts Snelson in an unbeatable position so he leaves Shelsley Walsh as the unofficial 2025 CSA Service Group Ferrari Hillclimb Champion. Congratulations Dave. Whilst Snelson may have secured the top spot the battle for 2nd and 3rd is still wide open with Kennedy having two wins to Samuels’s one, but the latter having more 2nd place finishes.
Next up is Gurston Down in just a couple of weeks time.
