Video: On board Mini versus Alfa race‑long battle at Revival

The St Mary’s Trophy race provided some of the closest-fought and most competitive racing of the entire Goodwood Revival race weekend. Split into two parts, there was one race for professional drivers, and a second for ‘gentleman’ racers on the second day. Each provides an incredible spectacle.

Race one from 2015 will mostly be remembered for Le Mans legend Tom Kristensen’s hustle through the whole pack in the Ford Fairlane Thunderbolt to take victory from dead last on the grid, which you can see in this highlights video. There were plenty more battles throughout that grid – which is no surprise when you consider that the race contained more BTCC race winners than this year’s BTCC championship.

The second race was scarcely bereft of close racing, either. Arguably the closest-fought battle – and certainly the one that has had people talking since the weekend – was that between the very rapid Morris Mini Cooper S of Nick Swift and the slightly remodelled Alfa Romeo 1600 GTA of Alex Furiani. The Alfa had suffered a small first corner tap from a BMW 1800 TiSA, which had little effect on the shape of the BMW but caused a rather a dramatic reshaping of the Alfa’s aluminium bodywork.

That didn’t slow Furiani’s pace, though, and he remained in close quarters with Swift’s hard-charging Mini for the whole race. The battle was for sixth place, and we won’t spoil the result of which of the two cars crossed the line first. Instead, ride on board with Nick Swift and enjoy the view from his forward and rearward facing cameras. Oh, and in typical Swift style, there are plenty of hand signals to indicate exactly what he’s thinking…