Goodwood rolls back the years with spectacular Revival meeting
Famous cars and drivers stepped back into the pages of history this past weekend (September 19-20) to take centre stage at the Goodwood Revival, which as expected lived up to all expectations.
In what is widely regarded as being one of the highlights of the historic racing calendar every year, the three-day meeting brought together the great and the good of the sport at the West Sussex venue for a spectacle like no other.
As has been the case for a number of years, the British Automobile Racing Club played its part in the event with many of its hugely admired officials and volunteers attending the event to fulfil a number of operational and marshalling roles.
One of the headline acts of the Revival is the Royal Automobile Club TT Celebration, which is for closed-cockpit GT and Protoype cars that race in the spirit of the RAC TT contests from yesteryear.
Sunday’s one-hour showpiece delivered no end of captivating moments but in the end it was the pairing of Andre Lotterer and Lukas Halusa that overcame a three-second time penalty to triumph in their Jaguar E-Type Lightweight Coup.
The St Marys Trophy presented by Motul is another firm favourite for race-goers with a stellar line up of global motorsport stars going wheel-to-wheel in production-based saloon cars from 1950-1959.
Romain Dumas and Fred Shepherd proved to be the dominate force of this year’s edition as they each tallied a win apiece in their monstrous Ford Galaxie 500. Those results therefore guaranteed that they were clear winners on the combined classification.
Alexander Van Der Lof and Yelmer Buurman were the cream of the crop when it came to the Stirling Moss Memorial Trophy - which was for closed-cockpit GT cars race before 1963 - as they reigned supreme by eight seconds in their Ferrari 250 GT SWB/C.
Like he did last year, Stuart Roach was the driver to beat in the Chichester Cup, which has long been open to rear-engine drum braked Formula Junior cars. Elsewhere, Richard Wilson won the Lavant Cup in his Maserati 250S.
Pre-war and vintage sports cars made up the Brooklands Trophy and those in attendance are treated to a thrilling encounter as Patrick Blakeney-Edwards beat Roderick Jack by just half a second in his Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Monza.
Small margins decided the outcome of the Goodwood Trophy (for GP and Voiturette cars from 1930 to 1951) as Mark Gilles narrowly got the better of David Morris in his ERA A-type R3A.
The Whitsun Trophy - which is for sports-racing prototypes between 1960 and 1966 - saw James Davison trounce the opposition as he beat last year’s winner, Alex Brundle, by almost a full minute in his McLaren-Chevrolet M1B.
Other names to triumph over the course of the weekend included William Nuthall in the Richmond & Gordon Trophies, Bonamy Grimes and Johnny Mowlem in the Sussex Trophy, Chris Ward in the Freddie March Memorial Trophy and Joe Colasacco in the Glover Trophy.
It wasn’t just four-wheel machines that had those in attendance captivated either as the Barry Sheene Memorial Trophy showcased some jaw-dropping 1950s motorcycles. Tom Booth-Amos and Ben Kingham punched in two strong results to secure victory when it came to the combined classification.
Concluding what was a momentous - yet slightly sodden weekend - was the Settringham Cup, which saw a total of 67 youngsters line up in Austin J40s for two feel-good dashes to the flag. On combined results, Joshua Pearce claimed outright honours.