Revival's winning combinations

Jim Clark’s Lotus-Climax 25 – raced by Andy Middlehurst – that has won five of the last seven Glover Trophies, and the ex-Raymond Mays ERA A-type R3A are just two of the Revival winners that are returning to Goodwood on 7-9 September to celebrate the Revival’s 20th anniversary. The Revival Winners parade will feature nearly 50 of the most well-known race victors, and many of the cars are from previous Royal Automobile Club Tourist Trophies.

During the Goodwood Motor Circuit’s frontline international life – 1948-1966 – the undoubted jewel in the venue’s crown was the RAC Tourist Trophy. The great sports and GT car classic was contested on the Sussex circuit seven times, from 1958-1964 inclusive, before being transferred to Oulton Park in 1965 since Freddie Richmond – the contemporary Duke of Richmond & Gordon – had become uncomfortable about the rising speeds of Group 7 sports-racing cars, which the organizing clubs had begun admitting to the TT. 

When we came to revive the Motor Circuit – and staged our first TT Celebration one-hour race in the inaugural 1998 Goodwood Revival Meeting. We were able to invite some of the 1964 race entry to the Revival, including two Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupes to be driven by contemporary team members Phil Hill and Bob Bondurant, and David Piper’s Ferrari LM – David being the only driver still competing regularly who had driven in even one of the original Goodwood TTs.

A fleet of five Ferrari 250GTOs faced a phalanx of Lightweight and competition E-type Jaguars, the Aston Martin Project 212 and 214 cars, and a pair of short-wheelbase Ferrari 250GT SWBs – including the 1961 TT winner co-driven by Stirling Moss/Mark Hales. David Piper topped what he rated as “a fabulous weekend” saying “heaven’s going to be a great disappointment after this”, by leading the spectacular opening laps of this great race.

Harried by the Jaguar E-types of Nigel Corner and Gary Pearson, and with such great names as John Surtees, Sir Jack Brabham, Martin Bundle, Stefan Johansson, Frank Gardner and Jochen Neerpasch all in contention – not forgetting Damon Hill driving the GTO in which his father Graham had competed in 1963 – the race developed into a stunningly atmospheric display of all the old sights and sounds that had made the Goodwood TT in period so very memorable.

A failing Cobra dropped oil early on. Piper was suddenly off on the verge at Madgwick, while Phil Hill overshot at St Mary’s and spun back to retire his Daytona Coupe against the left-side bank after the ess-bend. John Surtees, too, had a long moment on the grass after the fast Fordwater Corner in Nick Mason’s Ferrari GTO.

Stefan Johansson did his daring best in Nicholas Springer’s silver GTO, tearing through the field in the closing stages to steal third place from the awesome Simon Draper/David Clark Aston Martin DP214, followed closely by the Daytona Coupe of Bob Bondurant/Jochen Neerpasch.

At the end of that hard-fought, one-hour race it was the Lightweight Jaguar E-type, co-driven by Nigel Corner/Barrie Williams, which took the chequered flag, a full minute clear of the sister E-type of Gregor Fisken/Frank Sytner – a Celebration TT Jaguar 1-2 home win (at last!) – with the Springer/Johansson Ferrari 250GTO third.

What sights and sounds – unseen and unheard at Goodwood for 34 long years. As Derek Bell declared in his round-up prize-giving speech that evening – “don’t go out of those gates over there – that’s the real world and nowhere near such a nice place as here…” Yes indeed – aah nostalgia, the real thing…

Tickets for Saturday have already sold out for the 20th anniversary of Goodwood Revival, which means Sunday and Friday tickets are selling quickly!