For the second year running the Donington Historic Festival was the first meeting of the season for the Superformance Ferrari Club Classic Series. A great event with a paddock packed with a wide variety of classic race cars provided plenty of interest between the races held on Saturday and Sunday.

Our own entry of 26 cars was excellent and included the welcome addition of 3 new competitors; Philip Connell in his 355 Challenge, Nigel Sayles in his newly acquired 328 GTB and Robin Fisk making his racing debut in the family Mondial QV. There was also the return of Atul Saini bringing along his very stylish blue 308 GTB providing even greater variety to the assembled cars.

Qualifying

Track conditions seemed to be ideal for qualifying so it was no surprise that the 355’s were at the top of the leaderboard. Tris Simpson impressed taking pole for the first two races ahead of Wayne Marrs in his Group-6 355. Colin Sowter was going very well in his 348 Challenge to head the Group-4 times ahead of the usual Group-4 leader Gary Culver, also ahead of Gary and heading Group-3 was Chris Butler in his 328 GTB.

In Group-2 Jago Keen was glad to be at the event after hopefully solving some mechanical issues with his 308 GTB was able to head the group albeit by a smaller margin than usual. A special mention should go the Jim Cartwright who had decided to race his blue Group-4 328 GTB. The car was only made race ready at the last minute and even then, only appeared on the track with time for two flying laps. These two laps had their time disallowed for exceeding track limits so that he would have to start at the back of the grid having set no times at all.

Race 1

At the start of the race Tris Simpson and Nicky Paul-Barron made good starts in their Group-5 355’s to lead ahead of Wayne Marrs at the end of the first lap. Other notable first lap performances came from Nick Whittaker in his 308 GT4 to head Group-2 and Jim Cartwright who made up 10 places after starting at the back of the grid.

Simpson would hold on to the lead for 9 laps when Marrs taking advantage of a lapped car as at this stage of the race they were beginning to lap slower cars. Gary Culver made up places in his very quick 328 GTB to have a race long tussle with the 355 of Tim Mogridge but it was Mogridge who would ultimately take 4^th place.

Sowter and Butler were both models of consistency continuing to lap very quickly. To the extent that Butler took a new Group-3 lap record and I think this demonstrated that the best times of the weekend were on Saturday afternoon when the track was a little cooler than it was on Sunday.

An evergreen Nick Cartwright in his 328 GTB was the leader of a tight group with Charlie Ugo, Peter Everingham and an excellent debut by Philip Connell close behind.

In Group-2 Jago Keen prevailed as he finally got by Whittaker on lap 9 as earlier your scribe had to drop out with an electrical problem.

Race 2

Day two of the race meeting defied the weather forecast as the meeting was bathed in spring sunshine with hardly a cloud in sight. The results of the show that there were a notable number of very close finishes even if places did not change that much.

Tris Simpson started well to lead the race from start to finish beating Wayne Marrs by a narrow margin and behind them was a very close race between the Group-5 355’s of Tim Mogridge and Nicky Paul Barron. Chris Goddard was now running well and made up two places and behind them carrying their good form from the first race were Colin Sowter and Chris Butler winning their respective groups.

Of the cars behind the leading group Philip Connell did well to improve on his first race performance to beat Nick Cartwright into 10^th place. Nick Taylor also went better in his Group-4 Mondial T getting ahead of Peter Everingham in his 328 GTB.

Group-2 had a bit of a change in form at the beginning of the race when your scribe kept his GT4 ahead of Jago Keen and Nick Whittaker for a few laps before normal order was restored with Keen getting past and Whittaker being forced to retire with a misfire.

 

Race 3

At the start of the race, it was the turn of Tim Mogridge to take the lead for the first two laps until Tris Simpson took over from him. As the race unfolded there was terrific race between the front seven cars all of them in close contention with Gary Culver making ground to catch them having started at the back of the grid.

It is worth noting that these front runners included two Group-6 355’s, two Group-5 355 and in Group-4 a 348 and a 328. By all accounts something well worth watching.

There was a bit of a shake up on lap 9 due to the 328 GTB of Robert Rees letting rip a good supply of something very slippery. This caused the previously flying Sowter to spin and loose two places and the lead of Group-4. Marrs was able to take the lead for his second win of the meeting and Culver was able to get ahead of Butler and Sowter. Further back Peter Everingham was also caught out into an impressive spin.

Group-2 had a bit of a shake up for this race. Jago Keen retired to the pit lane at the end of the green flag lap with a mechanical problem. Car no 13 had a replacement driver as Peter Fisk decided to take the drive away from his son. The Mondial QV shot off the line at the start making up several places and was soon up behind the Mondial T of Nick Taylor. From that point onwards the two were locked together in a terrific race although Fisk senior was not able to make further progress as in part he was hampered with a faulty clutch. The lesser places were fought out in a race long GT4 tussle with Nick Whittaker narrowly beating your scribe. Nigel Sayles had the misfortune of being stuck behind these two and took the view that it was probably better not to get too involved.

As with last year the Donington Historic Festival delivered a fantastic start to the season. The racers certainly enjoyed themselves and it seems pretty certain that the spectators around the circuit did so as well. In recent years the regulations have been tweaked with the specific aim to encourage close racing between the groups and to try and avoid a dominant front runner. The rationale behind this is to make the racing more enjoyable for both participants and spectators.

If we are to maintain our participation in flagship classic race meetings such as the DHF the organisers will continue to invite us if they consider the quality of the cars and the quality of the racing enjoyed by the spectators adds value to the event. Judging by the races at Donington we are succeeding in doing this. Long may it continue.