Goodwood Revival 2003 Part one: Setting the Scene > Here

In this article I will try to pick out a few highlights from this years events and elsewhere on the site in this and future months I will post some “photo walk abouts” of some of the cars. For those who are used to overtaking in pits or with the aid of a blue flag Goodwood will come as an eye opener. It is usual rather than unusual to see cars overtaking often twice in the same corner and three abreast through Lavant was not unusual!

Royal Automobile Club TT Celebration

I think our favourite race at Goodwood is always the TT, a one-hour two-driver race for GT cars. A field that must make insurers quake comes together for this annual highlight and usually there is something new to provide the “wow” factor. The first year it was the Lightweight low drag E type raced at Le Mans by Peter Sargent and Peter Lumsden (Classic Jaguar Miniatures Low Drag E Type Le Mans 1964 > Part I  Part II) along with their Lister Costin Coupe and these two cars have appeared each year since without quite fulfilling potential. This year the Lister’s engine failed after first practice and it did not run again and the E Type was delayed by a trip to the gravel but this years new star attraction the very beautiful Bizzarrini (Spotlight on VROOM  > Here) came through to win the race taking the lead two laps from the end.

The Bizzarrini was driven by Dickie Attwood and the very quick motoring journalist Mark Hales, Mark being awarded driver of the day for his efforts in hauling the car up from 4th or 5th to the eventual win. We had suggested to Mark that he might win after practice on Friday but he felt they would be hampered by having to run tyres for which the car was not set up so either they managed to get the set up right or the tyres suited the oily track. Attwood had started the race and after the race Lord March commented to the winning pair, “I think Richard is a bit surprised, when he went off in the middle of the race to have lunch he did not expect to come back and find they had won”.

Other Stars were the several lightweight E Types, Cobras, Corvettes, Astons and Ferrari 250SWB/GTO/GTO64/330LMB.

It is not however the only event and each has its particular charm and here we will pick out a few high lights from some of the other events.

Goodwood Trophy for Front engined single seaters up to 1953

Barrie Williams won this one in the A type Connaught from Irvine Laidlaw and Mark Gillies in Maseratis. One highlight of the race was the appearance of the Kieft Climax, which will be featured elsewhere on the site. The ERA’s threatened in the first laps and other attractions were the 308Alfa and Talbot.

Madgwick Cup for 1955-60 production sports cars under 2.5 litres

These are mainly front engined sportscars with Coventry Climax engines, Lotus and Cooper predominate the Coopers of course being rear engined and indeed it was Sytner’s Cooper Monaco that beat Robert Brooks 2 litre Lotus 15 to the flag.

Barrie Sheene Memorial trophy

This was a two-part race, one part on Saturday the Second on Sunday. Wayne Gardner came over from Australia to win the first part from Jamie Whitham while positions were reversed in the second part. A highlight was the shrill sounding Linto 500 of Pentti Elo who led much of the second race before finishing 3rd. Gardner won overall on combined times by fractions of a second. There was also a tribute parade featuring Wayne Gardner, Giacomo Agostini, John “Mooneyes” Cooper, Gary Nixon, Sammy Miller, Mick Grant, Stewart Graham, Jamie Whitam, Damon Hill and Dave Aldana who wore his famed Skeleton leathers in the parade and the races.

Freddie March Memorial trophy race for 1952-55 sports cars “in the spirit of the Nine-Hour races”

Eight Jaguar engined cars including four C-types, four Aston Martins, one driven by Stirling Moss, three Ferraris, and an awesome 7 litre Allard J2R which made fastest time in practice. There was also a Lotus X Bristol, which despite a power handicap managed 3rd place in the race.

Chichester Cup for one litre front engined Formula Junior cars

This was won by Robin Longdon in a Lola Ford MkII with a Terrier (Designed by Len Terry who went on to design in Formula 1 and Indy) There was also a U2 and several very pretty Stanguelinis which looked like mini 250F Maseratis.

Fordwater Trophy

The expected battle was to be Willie Green in the superb Alfa TZ2 against the pair of Porsche 906 of Laidlaw and Bscher however Green ran away after the first couple of laps and was not seen again by his rear engined rivals. Laidlaw managed second from the Alfa TZ1 of Colasacco Bscher failing to finish. It was nice to see several WSM cars out in the race and Douglas Wilson Spratt was there to supervise. These Sprite/Midget or MGB based cars were built in Leighton Buzzard where I went to School and many an after school hour was spent longingly looking in the workshop of Wilson Spratt Motors.

St Mary’s Trophy for production saloon cars 1960-66

This was a two-driver race, and cars had to stop to hand over to the other driver, which made lap scoring very difficult. The race was dominated by the large engined Fords, with the Pattinson/Rea 4.7 litre Falcon Sprint leading the enormous 7-litre Galaxy of Woodley/Fitzpatrick until the Falcon Sprint of Voyazides/Bacon passed them both into the lead, which it held to the end.

The Lotus-Cortinas started well, with the Sanders/Marshall car third on the opening lap, and falling back to fifth until it disappeared on lap 7 (out of 20). But all this was overshadowed by the most spectacular driving of Barrie Williams/Norman Grimshaw in a Mini Cooper S which was driven sideways through most of the corners, and even took to the grass to pass back markers. Derek Bell was fast in the Jaguar Mk 1, but co-driver Grant Williams perhaps the most spectacular Jaguar MkII driver I have seen, he rarely had it in a straight line with full opposite lock and full throttle out of all the bends. He spun at least once but still finished 2nd, the Mini taking third. Alfa GTA, Hillman Imp, Anglia and Mercedes brought back memories of the British Saloon Car Championship of that time.

Richmond & Gordon Trophies Inter-Continental and F1 1954-61

This class contained the incredible Lotus Sixteen cars which have been developed to such an extent that they actually hold together long enough to win races! After a long free practice session and half hour qualifying practice they were still serviceable and raring to go.

In practice it had been the Cooper of Rod Jolley who was fastest, with Don Orosco in the pretty Scarab with 3-litre Offenhauser engine next up, and then the 3 litre Dino Ferrari of Tony Smith. Although Lotus #18 held third on the opening lap, the field soon settled in practice lap order until lap 5 when there was an incident at Woodcote and the Scarab was out and the race stopped.

With the race reduced to 8 laps Jolley led again but now Lotus 16’s of Philip Walker and Joaquin Folch were second and third, and when the Cooper faded and retired on lap 11 they led the Ferrari home. The race also featured the Lancia D50, Maserati 250F, BRM and Aston Martin GP cars.

Glover Trophy 1.5 litre F1 and up to 2.5 litre Tasman cars 1961-65

 Practice had been dominated by last year’s winner, Dickie Attwood in the 2-litre BRM with a similar car driven by Thomas Bscher. The meat in the sandwich was the Brabham with 1.5 litre Climax engine driven by James King. In the race it took Attwood 15 of the 16 laps to move up from third at the start to take the lead from Bscher, moving King down to third. Simon Hadfield in a Lotus 21 Climax in 4th was a good performance with only 1.5 litres and four cylinders.

Also in the race were Lotus33 and24, ATS and ATS Derrington, Brabham BT7and BT11, BRP, Stackpipe BRM, Scirroco and the pretty Lola Climax which has won on past occasions in the hands of Danny Sullivan. I am particularly fond of these dainty Grand Prix cars.

Sussex Trophy for sportscars of the late fifties

This was a repeat of the last two years a third win for Tony Dron in the beautiful little Ferrari 246S Dino. But like previous years Peter Hardman in the Aston Martin DBR1 lead the early stages and continued the battle to the flag, the Aston overtaking on the Lavant Straight only for the more nimble Ferrari to regain the lead on the slower corners. Julian Bronson in the brutal Lister Chevrolet Costin was third and this race is always a tremendous display of the four-wheel drift. The Scarab showed great pace but did not last and the lovely Kurtis was too newly restored to feature. Sadly Win Percy was not out in the JCB D Type Jaguar as he was in hospital with a partial paralysis following a gardening accident.

Whitsun Trophy for prototype sports cars 1963-66

The last race of the day saw Frank Sytner who had been fastest in practice in the Lola T70 Chevrolet 5.9 litres involved in a ferocious battle with Simon Hadfield in the Lotus 30. This was one of the most exciting races of the day, with Sytner in front for two laps, until the race was stopped when Willie Greens Ford GT40 crashed in a big way at Woodcote. When the race re-started it was again Sytner in the lead, but Hadfield squeezed past on lap 5 and managed to hold off Sytner until lap 12. Try as he might Hadfield could not re-pass, and so they finished, with a Ford GT40 in third place.

Final comment....

I hope the pictures will encourage you to visit Goodwood next year, in my opinion the revival is a better event than the festival as the racing is always very close and exciting. There is no better place to see historic racing cars in a “period setting” racing on a circuit that very much retains the atmosphere of the past. The circuit is not one of the modern day sanitised catch fence littered circuits we see today.