Gordon Shedden: The Revival’s like Disney World for adults!

The thing about Goodwood, for me, is that it’s a reminder of why I fell in love with motorsport as a wee lad in the first place and the reason why I wanted to start competing. There’s a hugely nostalgic feel to it and a real sense of turning the clock back.

It’s so easy to be wrapped up in the day job, in my case the British Touring Car Championship, where there’s the pressure to perform at every corner on every lap in every race all year long. There’s a title to fight for, which means engineering debriefs to work out why you missed an apex by six inches!

In historic racing, particularly at Goodwood, it’s all about the show and having fun. We really do put the day job out of our minds. Don’t get me wrong: we still want to be fast, to beat our mates (who are rivals in modern racing) and take home some silverware, but there’s no real pressure, no debriefs, sponsor or media work. You won’t often see me with a smile on my face in the BTCC, unless I’ve won, but at the Revival I’m grinning from ear to ear all weekend.

And the cars are so cool to drive. It’s possible to overdrive and still get a laptime out of them. In fact, in some cases, they need to be taken by the scruff of the neck and bullied a bit. You’re experimenting with braking points and lines and it’s a huge buzz to get them up on their tip-toes.

This year I raced in the St Mary’s Trophy race for identical Austin A30s and A35s – what a hoot! – and defended my RAC Tourist Trophy win in JD Classics’ Jaguar E-type.

I was keen on the St Mary’s as long as the cars were equal. That’s what I really hoped. The opportunities for drivers to compete against each other with identical kit are slim, so I wanted it to be authentic. And it really was! They might have only had 85bhp but it was brilliant racing – the best since my Ford Fiesta days. After my only test in the car, which was six laps in the dry and nothing in the wet, I thought, ‘chuffing Norah, this is going to be epic!’.

I had a great dice with my BTCC rival Andrew Jordan. It was so funny when I got a tow from AJ, pulled out to pass and hit that wall of air, only able to run alongside waving but not able to get by. He pipped me by a tenth at the end. We were on the ragged edge, with 85bhp!

The TT was another superb scrap – those fairly powerful, low-grip 1960s GT cars always put on a good show. It was great to get pole again. I had to really get my head round which car I was in as second qualifying for the TT on the Saturday wasn’t long before the St Mary’s race.

I’ve done a fair few miles in the JD Classics E-type but none in the wet, so that was an eye-opener. I was sideways on the straights even without full power during the really wet session on Saturday. You have to respect these old things; they’re quick, they don’t stop very well and there’s no grip. Keeps you busy, I can tell you. You’re braking hard at the 200-metre board and the thing’s still not slowing down enough.

My dice with Giedo [van der Garde] in the Cobra was incredible. He would pull out 100 metres on me thanks to the sheer grunt of the Cobra’s V8, but I was all over him in the corners; the Jag’s a bit easier than the short-wheelbase Cobra. We had a small touch and Giedo went off briefly, but we talked about it afterwards. He was recovering from his own slight mistake and came across on me. I had nowhere to go and that slight ‘kiss’ made the difference.

It’s a real treat to be entrusted by the owners of these valuable historic machines to go out there and give them a good exercising. I can’t wait for my next go!

It’s back to the day job this weekend: the penultimate round of the BTCC with Honda at Silverstone, where I’m hoping my points catch-up in the championship over the past few weekends continues. Sam Tordoff, my team-mate Matt Neal and Mat Jackson are all fully in contention but it’s a tough series to crack, with success ballast and reversed grids – and plenty of ‘what if’ stories all in the mix. I’d love to win it a third time. I’ve had a bit of bad luck this year so have some work to do from third in the points, but with six races left there’s still a huge amount to do and lots of points on offer. No one will have two entirely clean weekends at Silverstone or Brands Hatch, that’s a certainty.

Whether it’s sliding round Goodwood with a smile on my face or nailing inch-perfect laps for Honda in the BTCC, I’ll be giving it my all and am very fortunate to have the opportunity to do both.

Photography by Drew Gibson