Daventry man retains British champion crown in second Ferrari Hillclimb triumph and sets sights on hat-trick

Dave poses next to the red F430 that helped him claim his second title and with the yellow twin turbo F488 which he hopes will deliver his third championship win

Dave Snelson won the British Pirelli Ferrari Hillclimb championship on August 19 with three races to spare.

He joins two other drivers, Richard Prior and Robin Ward, in claiming the title while carrying the champion's handicap, which sees one per cent of the lap time added on to each run.

"I won six out of eight races and came second in the other two," said 56-year-old company director Dave, who drives a red F430.

"It's very hard because I have an extra one per cent of my time added on.

He added: "I enjoyed it, it's been great.

"I'm going to try and win it for a third time."

The Hillclimb championship is organised by the Ferrari Owners’ Club of Great Britain and sees drivers complete two practice runs before their two timed runs on uphill courses around the UK.

Around 450 people have entered their road-going Ferraris into the competition in its 30-year history, but only 17 drivers have won the title in that time; none have won three times in a row.

Once you win a championship it's not uncommon for your opponents to try harder in order to beat you, and this was true in Dave's case.

One of his rivals, Nick Taylor flew in from Germany midway through the series after competing in a race on the Nurburgring circuit to try to pip Dave to first place.

He succeeded on two occasions, pushing Dave onto the second step of the podium, but it wasn't enough to prevent the Braunston man's march to the title.

With an eye on next season's title, Dave has spent Â£250,000 on a yellow Ferrari 488 twin turbo with a top speed of 215mph and 660 horsepower, which he hopes will give him the edge.

But simply beating his competition was not the sole motivation for Dave.

In March, his uncle John passed away and he told his aunt he wanted to honour him by taking the hillclimb crown.

"I used to go out fishing with him as a kid," said Dave.

"He inspired me a lot and always told me to do as much as possible when I was young.

"He liked driving and I told my auntie I was going to try and win it for him."