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report by Tony Attwood
photography by Tony Attwood, Steve Burns & Chris Leach
The fifth event of this season was held at Gurston Down on Saturday 17 June.
Gurston is the most Southerly of our regular venues being in the Chalke Valley SW of Salisbury. It is also the only hillclimb that actually starts going down-hill and continues down for the first ⅓ of the course. Speed is rapidly gained and the first bend can be taken flat out by most (if brave) competitors.
When we arrived, it had obviously rained overnight and the track was very greasy for first practice.
The Ferrari class was in Batch 2 but Tony Attwood was second car up the hill in Batch 1 because he was sharing the Dino 308GT4 with Iwan. Batch 1 was done by 08.30 and there were only 3 Ferraris in the Paddock. In fact everyone in the class was actually there as unfortunately Dave Snelson had had to cancel the day before and John Kennedy’s car wasn’t ready.This meant the Ferrari team was made up of Pauline Goodwin, Iwan & Tony Attwood, and welcome newcomer Rob Samuels in his 458 Speciale. It was Rob’s first time out Hillclimbing.
First practice was definitely a careful ‘get your eye in’ run and an invaluable learning point for Rob Samuels who was slowest at 50.22 with Iwan Attwood on 49.50.
Pauline Goodwin showed that the 328 is competent in any condition to record 45.08 and Tony Attwood did 47.58, with the slowest time in the first speeed trap at 60MPH and yet the fastest time in the 2nd speed trap at 78mph. He was happy going up hill.
Conditions improved throughout the day as the sun broke through and dried the track. Confidence also grew and, for the first time in memory and from records perused, all drivers improved sequentially over every run they did.
Rob Samuels took the class win on scratch with a good 37.36 seconds and 102 mph in both speed traps. Rob’s major complaint was that he just couldn’t get the power down, especially at the start which was shown with a best 0-64ft of 2.67seconds.
Pauline had her usual excellent starts with a best 0-64ft time of 2.4 with Tony snapping at her heels in 2.46. Neither of these are individual personal best at Gurston but close and Pauline is consistent to within 1/10 of a second on all her starts.
Iwan & Tony appear to have the Dino308GT4 sorted at last and it went well with them both exploiting it consistently. There is such a closeness it must come down to bravery and driver confidence. Tony usually gets a better start. Iwan was always faster in the first speed trap (10mph on first practice yet 2 seconds slower at the end on that run!). By the final run Tony got upto 79mph but Iwan was 80mph and they both got 87mph at the second trap. Sector times were slightly more variable but on the final run Iwan beat his (grumpy) Dad by just 4/100th of a second with a personal best of 41.22 compared with Tony’s 41.26. Tony was only consoled by the fact that his own PB at Gurston is still faster at 41.04! Pauline remains ultra competitive and was 0.8 seconds faster than Tony
Scratch results:
Rob 1st with 37.36
Pauline 2nd at 40.46
Iwan 3rd on 41.22
Tony 4th on 41.26
The most remarkable thing is the PEP scoring… All four competitors came in on 39 seconds:
Pauline 1st (-3%) 39.25
Iwan 2nd (-4.5%) 39.37
Tony 3rd (-4.5%) 39.40
Rob 4th (+7%) 39.98
So congratulations to Pauline on 20 points and to Rob for winning the class, on his first ever run at Gurston (and entry to the championship). Next, is the double header at Loton Park on 8 & 9 July.
We need many more new entrants now, as this shows everyone can have fun.
From Steve Burns: A special thank you to Pauline, Iwan and Tony for giving a warm welcome to newcomer Rob.
