FERRARI HILL CLIMB CHAMPIONSHIP
REPORT : ROUND 2 : HAREWOOD : 12 MAY 2001

This should have been Round 3 of the Championship but with the cancellation of the Prescott round due to the foot and mouth epidemic Harewood actually became the second round. The weather, unusually for Harewood, was simply lovely and the Ferraris gleamed in the warm sunshine which lasted all day long.

There were sixteen entries for this popular JCT600-supported event - a little down on the usual 20+ numbers but the clashing PMFC race at Rockingham on the same weekend took away a few of the normal runners.

Morning practice already raised a few eyebrows as Peter Hayman set the quickest time in his bulky 512TR, an excellent effort. Local maestro Simon Clark (328GTS) set the second quickest time, just three hundredths of a second behind, whilst Geoff Dark (308GT4) put in a couple of sub-70 sec runs for third slot, ahead of Nick Frost (348GTC), Brian Jackson (308GTB) and Robin Ashley in his incredibly quick Dino.

The three competitive runs started immediately after the lunch break. It was very close. Hayman hung on to his big TR to set the quickest time of 68.11 secs, with Nick Frost in his lovely 348 just one hundredth of a second behind. Clark was just over a second behind to take third place, with Dark in fourth and Richard Allen (360 Modena) in fifth spot.

The second runs brought an amazing coincidence when both Hayman and Frost speeded up mightily but again were separated by just one hundredth of a second, with the former maintaining his lead. Clark drove hard to take over a second off his previous time but this still left him in third slot, ahead of Allen and Dark. The closeness at the top meant that anything could happen in the final runs.

This time Nick Frost raised his game again and his improvement of just nine hundredths of a second was enough to edge out Peter Hayman, whose TR had a wild understeer moment at the final corner and he was unable to improve upon his second run time but nevertheless secured second spot. Clark also had to rely on his second run time for third place, with Dark and Allen in the next places separated once again by the blink of an eye - just two hundredths of a second.

Michael Spicer, driving the ex-Robin Ward 308GTB, set his quickest time on his first run of the afternoon and took sixth place ahead of Brian Jackson's yellow 308GTB and Chris England's similar tipo. The next two were again just one-hundredth apart, with Ashley just pipping Terry Esom (328GTB) . It was all close stuff!

A great day's hillclimbing was rounded off by two other competitions for the Ferraris. In the chase for Championship points, with the PEP factors applied, Simon Clark took the maximum 20 points, ahead of Nick Frost, Peter Hayman and Robin Ashley. The handicap competition was handsomely won by series returnee Sally Maynard-Smith, in her 328GTS, who drove a storming second run to take over two seconds off her handicap target. Mike Spicer and Len Watson (who shared Sally's car) took the next two handicap awards.

After the track activities had finished JCT600 hosted a magnificent evening at a nearby hostelry, at which the prize winners received their various trophies.

The next round takes place at MIRA on 26th May 2001.

RESULTS :

POINTS STANDING AFTER ROUND 2 :

Pos.	Driver	Tipo	Points
1	Peter Hayman	512TR	26
2	Simon Clark	328GTS	20
3	Michael Spicer	308GTB	19
4	Nick Frost	348GTC	17
5=	Stuart Bailey	246GT	14
5=	Jeff Simpson	246GT	14
7=	Richard Allen	360M	13
7=	Robin Ashley	246GTS	13
9	Geoff Dark	308GT4	12
10	Brian Jackson	308GTB	11
11	Chris England	308GTS	9
12	Jos Van De Perre	308GTS	8
13	Terry Esom	328GTB	7
14	John Dobson	308GT4	5
15	Len Watson	328GTS	4
16	Philip Whitehead	328GTB	2
17	Sally Maynard-Smith	328GTS	1

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