The Goodwood Revival has become one of the 'big' events of the season, with this being the 19th running of this fantastic Historic Racing Festival.
While the event stands out for the number of people entering into the spirit by dressing in 1950's & 60's fashion, the real 'stand-out' continues to be the actual racing. Competing at the Revival is not a right, it is all done by invitation and the quality of the racing is fast becoming as legendary as the cars being raced at this splendid circuit.
Most years, the Revival has been lucky with the weather but this time around someone faced the prayer mat in the wrong direction for Saturday, with the rain starting on cue with the start of the first race and continuing for most of the day. Despite that, or maybe even because of, the racing was again superb.
Having missed Friday’s action, the first race I saw was the Goodwood Trophy – a 20min race for GRAND Prix & Voiturette cars of a type raced up to 1951. Calum Lockie mastered the tricky conditions the best, hustling Sean Danaher’s Maserati 6CM to a splendid victory – the first for this car after several years of trying. Matt Grist (Alfa Romeo type B) held off the challenge from Tom Dark’s Bugatti Type 73C to claim 2nd.
The Madgwick Cup was next on the programme, again a 20min race – this time for sports prototypes of less than three litres and raced between 1960 & 1966 – and what a fantastic race this proved to be. Poleman Chris Goodwin led the opening lap in his Lotus 23, with Andy Newall and Andrew Hibberd tucked in behindin their Lotus 23’s. Joe Twyman powered his Elva through to 2nd at the start of lap 2 and took the lead at St Mary’s further round the lap. Twyman then eased clear of the squabble for 2nd and looked to have the race sewn up, but Newall got clear of the others for 2nd and closed the gap to Tyman. As they entered the last lap, there was just 0.75sec between them and backmarkers looming ahead. Having gone either side of Steve Tillack’s Brabham-BRM as they approached Woodcote, they came up behind Stuart Tizzard as they headed towards the Chicane. Twyman looked like he would stay behind Tizzard until after the corner, but dived inside as they braked for the Chicane just as Tizzard turned in. The ensuing contact delayed the following Newall as well, so Twyman was able to retain control and take the flag. However, the stewards took a dim view of that contact and applied a 20secs penalty to his race time, which dropped him to 5th in the result and handed victory to Newall. Hibberd was delighted with 2nd and well clear of Max Bartell’s Elva-BMW that came through to claim 3rd ahead of Goodwin.
TT Legend John McGuinness combined with Glen English to take the overall victory in the 2 part Barry Sheene Memorial Trophy, the pair sharing a Manx Norton of 1953 vintage. Fitchett & Clews took 2nd in the combined classification, ahead of Williams & Farrall.
This year’s St Mary’s Trophy race, traditionally for Saloon cars, catered solely for Austin cars of either A30 or A35 derivative. Saturday’s wet race was for the ‘star’ drivers and saw current BTCC stars Andrew Jordan and Gordon Shedden battle throughout for the win- Jordan just edging it despite constant attention from Shedden. Former BTCC star, Steve Soper, reckoned he had the best view of this battle as he took a close 3rd. Former F1 driver Mark Blundell secured 4th, with two more of the current BTCC drivers hot on his heels – Tom Ingram and Adam Morgan completing the top 6. One light-hearted feature of this race was the sight of Shedden and Blundell feverishly wiping the inside of their screens with cloths to clear the misting while on the straights.
James Dorlin took a narrow victory in the dry on Sunday, closely followed by Charles Knill-Jones and Mike Jordan – Mike’s 3rd enough to secure overall honours.
The Lavant Cup caters for Sports Cars from 1930’s – 1950’s, with drum brakes and either BMW or Bristol engines. Former Mini Metro racer Malcom Harrison took a last gasp win in his Cooper Bristol, passing long-time leader Martin Hunt’s Fraser Nash Le Mans replica late on. Some way adrift of the lead duo, Patrick Blakeney-Edwards’ Fraser Nash Targa Florio just edged out Philip Champion’s Fraser Nash Mille Miglia in the dice for 3rd.
The Whitsun Trophy is one I always look forward to, catering as it does for Sports prototypes dating from 1966 or earlier and of unlimited engine capacity – therefore bringing out a spectacular selection of machinery. These cars have more power than grip at the best of times, but in the very wet conditions that prevailed on Saturday afternoon they were a real handful. Mike Whitaker hustled the Lola Chevrolet T70 Spyder that current Goodwood lap record holder for Historic racing, Nick Padmore, used so effectively to set that record at the 2015 Members Meeting to pole in the dry on Friday, with Tony Sinclair’s similar car and WTCC star Rob Huff’s Lotus Oldsmobile completing the front row of the grid. This was another superb race, with cars slithering around and opposite lock being very much the ‘order of the day’, resulting a fine win for Huff ahead of Whitaker. Tif Needell took great delight in securing 3rd in a Lotus-Ford 30, while Chris Ward was very entertaining as he yo-yo’ed around the leader board on his way to an eventual and eventful 4th place.
The final race of a sodden Saturday was the Freddie March Memorial Trophy, for sports racing cars from 1952 – 1955 and of the type that originally contested the Nine-Hour races at Goodwood. This race resulted in an excellent victory for Richard Woolmer in his HWM-Cadillac, after a very close race with Rob Hall’s Aston Martin DB3 and Steve Boultbee-Brooks’ DB3S.
The weather on Sunday was so different from Saturday it was difficult to believe it was the same weekend, dry and gloriously sunny. Racing got underway with the Chichester Cup for front-engined Formula Junior cars that raced between 1958 and 1962. Stuart Roach qualified on pole and raced away to what looked like being victory, but his car failed a couple of laps from the end and robbed him of that win. That left Andrew Hibberd to claim the honours in his Lola-Ford Mk2, after some thrilling overtaking moves and close racing. Joe Colasacco took 2nd in his Stanguellini Fiat, with Chris Drake completing the ‘podium’ with his Terrier Mk4.
More single-seater action followed, as next up was the Richmond Trophy for 2.5 litre Grand Prix Cars from1954 – 1960. With 4 wheel drive, Nick Adams made the best start to lead the pack into Madgwick for the first time in his Ferguson-Climax Project 99. Julian Bronson soon moved through to the lead with his Scarab-Offenhauser and would eventually take the win, though only after an altercation with a slower car on the Lavant Straight that resulted in his car losing it’s nose cone. Andrew Willis and Rob Hall took 2d and 3rd in their Ferrari 246 Dinos, while Adams slipped to 4th by the flag.
The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight made a tremendous sight in the clear blue skies at lunchtime and was followed by one of the highlights of the whole weekend for many – the blue riband RAC TT Celebration race – a one hour, two-driver race for closed cockpit GT Cars in the spirit of the TT races held at the circuit in 1963 & 1964. Gordon Shedden & Chris Ward took victory in 2015 with their Jaguar Etype and got their weekend off to a good start by claiming pole for this year’s race, narrowly ahead of David Hart & Giedo van der Garde’s AC Cobra. Ward had to take to the grass on the way into Madgwick on the opening lap, but emerged with the lead ahead of Hart and the similar Cobras of Andrew Smith, Richard Squire and Bill Shepherd. The latter and the Ferrari 250 GTO of Jo Bamford both retired in the gravel on lap 15 and triggered a safety car period that caused some shuffling of the pack as some pitted and some didn’t. When racing resumed it became apparent that the dice for victory was between van der Garde and Shedden, with the two circulating close for several laps. Eventually, light contact on the rear corner of an already unsettled Cobra saw van der Garde have a grassy spin down to 4th place and Shedden through to claim the win. Frank Stippler took over the driving of Squire’s Cobra and had a fabulous battle for Oliver Bryant (in Smith’s Cobra) for the whole of the second part of the race – Stippler just able to hold off the challenge from Bryant who is very experienced in these cars.
After all that excitement, there were only two more races left before the curtain would come down on another fantastic revival. The Glover Trophy celebrates the 1.5 litre Grand Prix cars from 1963 – 1965 and produced another superb race. Martin Stretton put his Lotus-BRM 24 on pole ahead of the Lotus-Climax 25 of Nick Fennell. Stretton led most laps, with Fennell ahead occasionally, but crucially Fennell got ahead late on and eased a little way clear to secure victory ahead of Stretton. Miles Griffiths took 3rd in his Lotus-BRM 24, while Richard Attwood drove the BRM P261 that he drove ‘in period’ (and a previous = winner of this race) to 4th, ahead of James King’s Brabham-Climax BT7.
The last race of the weekend was the Sussex Trophy, for Sports Cars of a type that contested World Championships between 1955 and 1960. Chris Ward secured pole in his Costin bodied Lister-Jaguar, closely followed by Oliver Bryant’s Lotus-Climax 15 and Julian Majzub in his Sadler-Chevrolet Mk3. A first lap excursion for Majzub meant the race soon became a battle between Ward and the Lister-Jaguar Knobbly of Gary Pearson. Ward it was who took the flag ahead of Pearson, while James Cottingham came through to 3rd in his Tojeiro-Jaguar ahead of Bryant.
