Competitors returned to Prescott for the final round of the 2024 CSA Service Group Ferrari Hillclimb Championship, with a respectable entry despite the less than favourable conditions. Rather miraculously the day remained “mostly dry” however there was a distinct shift from the previous day, autumn was flexing its colder side and there was a noticeable dampness to the air. In the words of a popular TV hero “winter is coming”.

Whilst the championship was already decided there was still glory to be found. Lorraine Hitchman was on track to set a new Personal Best (the Saturday was her first-ever visit to Prescott) and quietly Rob Samuels had his eye on Nick Taylor’s record… if only the conditions would improve!

There was a marked reduction in the competitor numbers at the event as a whole today. The forecast really had put people off.

Running in the same order as the previous day everyone takes to the hill, the key difference however is Nick Taylor is now sporting a rather fetching additional 2% PEP for winning the previous round. He would have to drive hard if he wanted to maintain his undefeated streak at Prescott.

Practice

Whilst conditions certainly seemed unfavourable the times were respectable. As competitors hunted for grip around the track it would seem that there was time to be found for most competitors… only time would tell.

Also on the minds of those in the paddock was the incoming weather… nobody wanted to run in the wet, especially with how much of it was headed our way. I made a quick visit to the event organisers hut to put forward our case to try and get ahead of schedule… it transpires that the event is not sanctioned to offer timed runs before the lunch break, and given the lower number of entrants overall they would look to run a third practice run to maximise time on the hill for everyone.

I make a suggestion to bring the mandatory lunch break forward and start the timed runs sooner. They agree to see what they could do and to the praise of the paddock the lunch break was called early.

Run 1

The weather had marginally improved by this point but to say it was warmer would be misleading, it was just less cold.

Chris Hitchman heads out first and betters his best practice time by half a second, setting the scene for a good drive from all the competitors. Stuart McCabe goes well, very well in fact, setting a new personal best just under a second faster than his previous.

At the front Rob Samuels and Nick Taylor each push one another with Rob being the first to go sub-50 seconds. It’s clear that the boys at the spiky end of the stopwatch are not playing nice today.

Run 2

By this point that the grip on the start line has now been found with drastically improved launches across the entire meeting.

Chris Hitchman leads the charge once more and goes across the line in 56.47 seconds, a new PB. Behind Chris is Rain Hitchman who – after a crash course on Prescott with Richard Preece – squeals her way up the hill in a blistering 56.18 seconds, a new PB with a massive 3-seconds shaved off her previous run and bests Chris Hitchman’s time by just 0.29 seconds. Maximum bragging rights secured for the drive home!

This theme of rapid sprints up the hill continues with all competitors setting their best times on the second run. Most impressive is Rob Samuels who managed to pilot the 458 Speciale up the hill in 47.79 seconds, a new Club record and the first Ferrari in the history of the championship to go sub-48 seconds at Prescott.

Nick Taylor is very gracious in being dethroned as “king of the hill”, his record previously set in his F430 standing just days short of 10-years.

Round 12 from another perspective The final round: Sunday dawned dull and some rain in early morning, with the forecast for heavy rain late morning or early afternoon. We were resigned to slower time and possibly a wet race like last years June event where the track was literally a river in places. Some went straight to the hill and the bacon roll for breakfast whilst others had a more leisurely breakfast at the hotel and rushed for scrutineering again. Practice was slower that Saturday for all due to the track conditions, slippery in places and the runs were used to find the levels of grip, under the trees at the top remained wet and treated with caution. Simon Jeffries had another engagement so was absent for Sunday as were Iwan and Tony due to the 308 being out of action but were at the circuit to cheers the rest of us on. We were still in the upper paddock, so some tired knees were exercised again. By the end of practice, times were about a second slower that Saturday, but Lorraine Hitchman was consistently getting quicker and quicker, must have been the Weetabix! Lunch came early as a number of the other classes number were depleted due to the bad weather forecast. The rain still held off, although the skies were threatening. Timed runs: the first run was strange, the track had become very unpredictable and slippery in places that it hadn’t been before lunch, quite a few told of white knuckles and tails twitching. The second run for all was much better, Lorraine stormed up the hill to post a faster time than husband Chris, Pauline and Stuart did quicker times than Saturday with Pauline getting into 55 seconds. Peter Hitchman and Martin Jones kept each other honest with both getting 61 seconds times, both better than the previous day. In the 430s, Richard Preece was consistently fast and Nick Taylor broke 50 seconds whilst Rob in the 458 broke Nick’s record on the second run at 47.79 seconds . The record was set in 2014, and Rob becomes the first Ferrari drive to get into the 47 seconds time of any Ferrari in the hillclimb records. At the end of the day the PEP adjusted results were 1st Rob Samuels, 2nd Nick Taylor, 3rd Richard Preece, Best Improver, Lorraine Hitchmann and Rob also picked up the best presentation award. The rain finally came after the last run of the day had been run, lucky! Much celebrating by all ensued in the paddock, it was a fitting end to a brilliant season of hillclimb racing!

~ Martin Jones

And just like that it’s all over, the 2024 season of the CSA Service Group Ferrari Hillclimb Championship has come to an end. With the scores on the board it looks like we’ll be in for an enjoyable time at the Club Competition Awards Dinner in November where the ever-dominant Dave Snelson will be crowned once again as our Champion.

After the awards our attention turns to the 2025 season, news to be shared soon!