Video: 2026 Richmond & Gordon Trophies full race | Goodwood Revival

Saturday afternoon provided the perfect setting as drivers relished a bone-dry track to exploit. The front row featured a wealth of experience, with previous winners William Nuthall and Ben Mitchell sitting first and second on the grid respectively. But those starting positions meant very little when the flag dropped; Mark Shaw executed a staggering launch in his front-engined Scarab-Offenhauser and leapt from fourth to first in the space of just a few hundred metres.

Unfortunately for Shaw, his fairytale lead was short-lived. Nuthall utilised the nimbleness of his Cooper-Climax T53 to slice down the inside line at the next corner, reclaiming the lead with ease. The Scarab then suffered a few more quick-fire blows as Miles Griffiths in the Lotus-Climax 16 and Mitchell in the Lotus-Climax 18 also swept past, entirely undoing Shaw's opening-lap heroics. Yet, the real war out front had only just begun, with Nuthall and Griffiths trading the lead in a lap-by-lap duel.

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Further down the order, mechanical attrition began to take its toll. Charlie Martin was forced to park his Connaught B-type on the grass verge, with Eddie McGuire’s Scarab-Offenhauser quickly joining him in retirement. As the race unfolded, Mitchell also hit trouble, his Lotus-Climax 18 visibly losing pace and tumbling down the order just three laps in. 

Out front Griffiths and Nuthall provided a flawless snapshot of motorsport evolution, a pure, high-speed chess match between front-engined and mid-engined philosophy that laid the foundation for the remainder of the afternoon.

With less than 15 minutes on the clock, Nuthall and Griffiths were separated by a mere 0.13seconds, the gap compressing even further as the pair aggressively diced through backmarker traffic.

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But while the pair were fixated on one another, Tom Waterfield appeared out of nowhere to storm into the frame less than a second behind them. Having qualified dead last in the 27-car field, Waterfield had executed a miraculous drive through the pack, and in a stroke of pure racing genius he sliced down the inside of Griffiths' Lotus-Climax 16 to seize second.

The fight between the top three continued to the final lap, with the lead changing hands in a frantic tussle. Ultimately, it was Waterfield who crossed the line first, closely followed by Nuthall then Griffiths, but in a dashing post-race twist Waterfield was later disqualified and Nuthall inherited his sixth win in the Richmond & Gordon Trophies.

Griffiths was promoted to second, while Shaw's opening-lap heroics were rewarded with the final step on the podium. It was an immense race, perfectly showcasing the relentless talent and spirit of these F1 pioneers.