350 + Photo Gallery: 2012 Goodwood Revival
The magnitude of the Goodwood Revival Meeting is simply staggering, it has established itself as one the top three of ‘must go to’ events on the motorsport calendar in the UK and has to be among the largest historic motor racing meetings in the world.
This year’s 146,000 visitors, a record breaking sell out crowd were treated to some stunning sights, The glorious rolling thunder of the Shelby Cup Cobra race, a fitting tribute to Carroll Shelby who we sadly lost in May. A unique gathering of the Silver Arrows, Mercedes Benz and Auto Union pre war Grand Prix cars which drew huge crowds at the specially constructed paddock garage and when they took to the track. Also a spectacular tribute to, in my humble opinion, the most influential American racing driver ever, Daniel Sexton Gurney. A collection of racing cars that spanned his career being driven by the likes of John Surtees, Jackie Stewart and Sir Stirling Moss took to track daily, the man himself at the front of the cavalcade being chauffeured round the 2.4 mile Goodwood circuit by Lord March and Tony Brooks amongst others. Add to this, 50 years of the iconic Ferrari 250 GTO, with no less than fifteen of these priceless cars gathered and paraded at high speed daily and you have a snapshot of what this year’s Revival Meeting had to offer.
The Sky over Goodwood was just as busy with four Supermarine Spitfires including the oldest example still flying, a MkIIa, a genuine Battle of Britain veteran and the late Ray Hanna’s Mk IX, MH434. A brace of North American P51D Mustangs, ‘Miss Velma’ flown by red Bull air racer Paul Bonhomme and ‘Ferocious Frankie’ from the Old Flying machine Company as well as The Fighter Collection’s recently restored Republic P47G ‘Razorback’ Thunderbolt ‘Snafu’ as well as two Hawker Hurricanes, all based at Goodwood for the weekend, with visits from the Royal Navy’s Historic Flight Hawker Sea Fury, the Battle of Britain Memorial flight and a pair of Hawker Hunter jet fighters. Visitors could view the Freddie March Spirit of Aviation Concours D’Elegance for aircraft close up. The Concours won by the Beech Staggerwing entered by William Charney who had stopped in on his way round the world in the aircraft, a trip he started in New Zealand back in 2009!
At the Earls Court Motor show visitors were treated to a display of classic British sports cars, as well as modern offerings from Mercedes Benz, Maserati, Ford, Jaguar and BMW with a special display of RAC vehicles. A beautiful 1938 Bentley 4.5 litre Embiricos was voted the public’s choice for the best British sports car, for the record my vote went to the TVR Griffith! Further away from the track the ‘high street’ and Revival market complete with a period styled Tesco supermarket with mods and rockers outside and the Police not too far away! The Goodwood Actors Guild (GAG) were out in force, ‘Haurel and Lardy’ were chimney sweeps this year, complete with Model T Ford with smoking chimney stack in the back. The three lazy workmen popped up threatening to dig a hole in the most awkward spots including the track at one point! George Formby on his ‘George Shuttleworth flyer’ sang and played banjo and Captain Mainwaring, Sergeant Wilson, Corporal Jones, Pike and the rest ‘Dads Army’ marched and conducted bayonet drill for the crowd. To complete the nostalgia, new for 2012 the ‘over the road’ street party got visitors dancing to period music, the Verve Cliquot marquee had a band and played cricket on the lawn, it was endless, I reckon I only saw a third of all the things that were going on. To complete the picture at a guess I’d say that at least 90% of the 146,000 visitors were in period dress, which confounded my father who used to visit Goodwood regularly back in the tracks heyday, and was moved to comment “I don’t get this ‘dressing up’ we used to go in our ordinary clothes!”
I first met Dan Gurney, at Goodwood, back in 1995 on the Friday of that year’s Festival of Speed. He was sitting on the wheel of his AAR Westlake Eagle T1G, spanner in hand tinkering with something, when I asked him for his autograph he looked quite surprised that I’d recognised him, we spoke for a few minutes after he’d signed my programme, he told me that he had only been asked for an autograph a few times! We shook hands and I moved on. I’m sure that he must have signed thousands more since then. Seeing him again this year, surrounded by fans and in the assembly area photographers, reporters and TV cameras jostling for position, made me think back to that day in 1995.
Dan Gurney’s contribution to world motorsport is immeasurable.
He is responsible for the champagne spraying celebrations we see on more or less every victory podium in motorsport these days, when on the podium of the 1967 Le mans 24 Hour race which he and AJ Foyt had just won he sprayed the champagne over the assembled crowd, Dan explained “I was so stoked that when they handed me the Magnum of Moet Et Chandon, I shook the bottle and began spraying at the photographers, drivers, Henry Ford II, Carroll Shelby and their wives. It was a very special moment at the time, I was not aware that I had started a tradition that continues in winner’s circles all over the world to this day.”
At the 1968 German Grand Prix, Gurney became the first Formula One driver to race with a full face crash helmet.
The ‘Gurney flap’ is a small tab fixed at right angles to the trailing edge of the pressure surface of a wing which increases down force. It first appeared on Bobby Unser’s ‘Olsonite Eagle’ USAC car in 1971. Unser was reportedly testing the car in preparation for the Indy 500 and wasn’t happy with its speed or handling so Gurney, remembering some experimentation he’d carried out, had the flap fabricated and fitted with in an hour. Unser’s times didn’t appear to improve however on returning to the pits Unser took Gurney to one side and reported that the car now had so much rear grip it was under steering. With the addition of two small wings just aft of the front wheels the aero balance of the car was restored and Unser put the car on the front row for that year’s Indy 500. So successful is the Gurney flap that it is now common place in motor racing featuring on road cars too.
In the May 1964 issue of the American magazine ‘Car and Driver’ started a campaign to get Dan Gurney to the white house after the publication’s editor had become disillusioned with the Presidential elections, they issued bumper stickers in support. At Goodwood the ‘Dan Gurney for President’ bumper stickers and pin badges appeared again with members of the GAG roaming the public enclosures peddling a sticker and badge for £1 donation in support of the official charity of the 2012 event, The Fly Navy Heritage trust. All I can say is ‘Dan Gurney for President’
Silver Arrows, wow, what an enormous privilege to have been present to see these ten pre-war motor racing legends brought together for the first and probably the last time. Audi brought five Auto Union racers to the Sussex track ranging from the 1934 supercharged 4.3 litre V16 Type A recreation, a 1936 Type C and three type D’s from 1938 and 39, Nick Mason, Frank Biela, Jacky Ickx, Harold Demuth and Philippe D’Ieteren doing the driving. The three pointed star also brought five cars, the oldest being a W25 chassis number 105194 which was restored in time for the 75th anniversary of the Silver Arrow back in 2009. It’s the actual car than Manfred Von Brauchitsch won the 1934 Eiffelrennen, the first of many victories for Mercedes Benz Silver Arrow cars. A 1937 W125 chassis number 166369/6 one of nine chassis built for the 1937 season. The W125’s were utterly dominant driven by Seaman, Lang, Caracciola and Von Brauchitsch, winning all five the European Grand Prix chsmpionship bar one. For 1938 and 1939 Mercedes Benz produced the W154 two of which were present, chassis number 189441/11 which was not raced, instead used for record breaking and hill climbing and is rumoured to be the first Mercedes grand Prix car Fangio drove. 189445/15 was the last W154 constructed and was raced by Von Brauchitsch to second place behind Nuvolari’s Auto Union at the 1939 Belgrade grand Prix,on the day the second world war broke out. Finally a W165 chassis number 449547 is the car that Hermann Lang drove to victory in its one and only competitive outing, the 1939 Tripoli Grand Prix, the last victory for the pre war Mercedes Benz ‘Silberpfeils’. On driving duties for Mercedes Benz were, Karl Wendlinger, W25, Jochen mass, W125, Bernd Schnieder and Rob hall, W154, and Paul and Jackie Stewart shared the W165.
Friday was an interesting day for the competitors and crowd alike as the forecast light showers drizzled on from mid morning, ironically just as the Barry Sheene Memorial Trophy bikes took to the track for their qualifying session. The cloud and precipitation hung around until the sun broke through late in the afternoon making the final couple of practice sessions interesting with a low sun. The first race of the weekend the Freddie March Memorial Trophy, specifically for cars which would have raced in the famous 1952 to 1955 Goodwood nine hour races was held with special permission granted by the MSA. The Union flag dropped at 18:20 pm with long shadows being cast and ended in near complete darkness some ninety minutes later. The 31 car field was headed by ex BTCC racer Anthony Reid who put the hammer down as the sun set throwing Nigel Webb’s C Type Jaguar around with gusto. Gary Pearson got great start from ninth on the grid and found himself second but with Reid going away from him at five seconds a lap! After eleven laps Pearson’s challenge faded as his engine started to smoke and was flagged in to the pits and retirement. Second place starter John Young stuck to his game plan and was lapping at a consistent but slower pace with John Ure’s Cooper Bristol Mk2 for company. Reid pumped in lap after lap trying to lap the field but it wasn’t to be. At the hand over Reid gave Webb a sickly cat, stuck in forth gear, Webb battled on gamely coming home four laps adrift in 13th. This put Ure into the lead as Young had handed over the gold, ex-Fangio, JD Classics C type to Alex Buncombe after 18 laps. Buncombe grabbing the lead when Ure handed over to Nick Wegley on lap 29, and despite a moment exploring the verge at St Marys and stopping to check a head light connector, Buncombe took the flag with over a minute in hand over Wegley who was struggling on with tyres well passed there best. The Snowdon and Willmott Austin Healey 100S was third home a lap down. The win was historic because it was the first time a Jaguar had triumphed in an endurance race at Goodwood ever!
Saturday dawned sunny and bright but with a crisp autumnal chill in the early morning air, racing started at a very civilised 10 am with a 20 minute race for Voiturette and Grand prix cars that raced between 1930 and 1950 for The Goodwood Trophy. The race won in some style by Mark Gillies in Mary Smith’s ERA A type R3A from Paddins Dowling his ERA B type R10B, third was the streamlined ERA E type GP1 of Duncan Ricketts. In fact ERA’s filled seven of the top ten places with Maserati’s finishing seventh ninth and tenth.
The Fordwater Trophy race was a belter, Martin Stretton put his Lotus Elan 26R coupe on pole but it was the Andy Newall in the JCB owned 4 litre Ford V8 engined Ginetta G10 who rocketed way at the start, the thundering little red car pulling a huge lead but with insight of the chequered flag the wheels fell off, literally, well, one of them, the left rear wheel bearing failed shedding the wheel and depositing Newall off at Fordwater, to add insult to injury the errant wheel followed the Ginetta in hitting the stationary car, bouncing off into the rapeseed field, a dejected Newall sat among the plants not believing his luck. This gifted the win to Stretton with Jackie Oliver’s similar Lotus a minute down in second and the rally spec Shelby Mustang GT350 of John Hugenholtz picking up third holding off Sean Walker in another 26R.
Actor and Motorcycling nut Ewan McGregor had flown in on Saturday morning to sample the delights of the Revival and led the Barry Sheene Memorial Cup ‘leather clad lunatics’ round for the parade lap on a Manx Norton for race four on Saturday. Duncan Fitchett and Jeremy McWilliams dominated both Saturday and Sunday’s races on their 1952 500cc Manx Norton with Steve Brogan and Ian Bain on a 1953 Norton International picking up a brace of second places. Surprise third on Saturday was the Matchless G80 CS ridden with aplomb by owner Stuart Tonge and Adam Child. the pair had battled with Superbike legend Troy Corser and Sebastian Gutsch throughout Saturday’s race crossing the line less than half a second apart. The Matchless didn’t take the start on Sunday leaving Corser and Gutsch’s BMW Group classic R5 SS with an un-troubled run to third. Sunday’s action came further down the field when British Superbike stars Scott Smart and Michael Rutter duked it out over fourth and fifth places in a highly entertaining dice. Come the last lap and Smart, thinking he’d got it, didn’t see or expect Rutter, who got great traction on his Velocette MSS out of the chicane to nick fourth place on t
One of the feature races of Saturday was the St Mary’s trophy Part one. It saw a host of star drivers take to the track in a 25 minute dash for ‘production based cars raced between 1950 and 1959’ I have to say there was nothing ‘production based’ about most of the cars that formed up on the grid! Current Chevrolet WTCC points leader Rob Huff put Andrew Higginson’s Austin A40 on pole nearly 3 seconds quicker than Anthony Reid’s Jaguar Mk1 with Jackie Oliver out to play in a tiny 1959 BMW 700, with a 900 cc twin motorcycle engine mounted in the back the little Bimmer was punching well above its weight in third. It was Oliver who starred with a feisty drive, battling with Huff, Reid, and Kenny Brack’s A40, providing many oh’s and ahh’s from the enthralled crowd. Huff won after putting 2 seconds of air between himself and Reid’s Jaguar. Oliver brought the battle scared BMW home third with some fantastic race craft and setting the fastest lap of the race on lap 9! Brack crossed the line 0.187 of a second behind. Tony Jardine came home sixth in an Austin A35 spending most of the race following John haugland’s Czech built air cooled V8 Tatra T603. Barrie ‘Whizzo’ Williams is showing no signs of slowing down at 73 years young, keeping Jardine honest in his Standard Vanguard Phase III for seventh and the last man to finish on the lead lap. Tiff Needell ‘hustled’ the giant Jaguar MkVII to eighth with Tim Harvey in an Alfa Romeo Giulietta TI on his tail in ninth. Brendon Hartley was tenth despite the Bonnet of his Russian Gaz Volga M21 folding itself over the windscreen. Rupert Keegan was next followed home by Sunbeam Rapier of Derek Daly, in his first race for almost twenty years, Andy Wallace enjoyed his run in a Jaguar MkVII which was a slightly bigger and heavier Jag than he was used to. Desire Wilson, Jurgan Barth, Rauno Aaltonen, Rowan Atkinson and Derek Bell were the last classified finishers. Sunday’s Part Two owners race was won by Grant Williams in his Jaguar MkI from Justin Law in another MkI with Desmond Smail third with the previous days winning Austin A40.
The Shelby Cup for AC Cobra’s was simply a glorious sight to behold. Twenty eight gorgeous Cobra’s of varied engine size and configurations rumbled onto the grid headed up by the Shelby American Daytona Coupe driven by Derek Hill, the son of the 1961 F1 World Champion Phil Hill. It was the Coupe that romped away at the start and there it stayed until the driver changes when Hill handed over to ‘super swede’ Kenny Brack sadly the 2011 TT winning car rolled into retirement 4 laps later with a very smoky engine. Once it all settled down that man Anthony Reid found himself at the front of the queue and again looked set for the Laurels and cigars however his luck deserted him again and was black flagged for a repair after part of his exhaust came a drift leaving the car at Madgwick, this promoted Andy Wolfe and Rob Hall to an easy win with the Cobra of David Hart and Tom Coronel in second, with Reid and Ludovic Caron having to settle for third.
The Whitsun Cup was won by Gary Pearson in a Lola T70 spider with Jay Esterer second in a Chinook Chevy, Roger Wills rounding out the podium in his McLaren M1B after an error at Lavant with four laps to go cost him the lead. The last race of the day The Chichester Cup for front engined Formula Jr cars was an entertaining affair with a close fought battle for the lead in the closing laps between Will Mitcham’s U2 Ford Mk2, Joe Colasacco’s Stanguellini Fiat and Stuart Roach’s Alexis Ford. Mitcham took the lead on lap eleven of fourteen with Colasacco in hot pursuit and Roach climbing over the back of the Stanguellini. Mitcham held on, despite the ford engine in his U2 developing a misfire, until Woodcote on the last lap when Colasacco pounced to take the lead and the win, crossing the line half a second ahead, Roach completed the podium with less than a second covering the top three.
Sunday dawned grey and cloudy but with no threat of rain thankfully. After the Mods, Rockers, cops and lazy workmen had taken to the track the first race of the day the Brooklands Trophy had quite a story attached to it. Max Werner drove his father’s 1933 Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Monza from Dusseldorf to Goodwood to compete in the race. He qualified it in third and after a titanic battle with Gareth Burnett in his Talbot AV 105 won the race! The laid back German was offered some help and a pit board on arrival in the ex Nuvolari car, he politely refused saying “it’s ok, I checked the oil and the tyres back in Dusseldorf, and I’m not worried about the lap times” After a mistake on the opening lap which dropped him to eighth he gathered the Alfa up and fought his way back to the front setting the second fastest lap of the race on lap 6. After trading places with Burnett and some very robust driving from both at Woodcote, Werner took the win by 0.616 of a second. Then set the car up to drive back home a round trip of close to 900 miles in a 79 year old car! They don’t build them like that anymore! His odyssey netted him the Rolex driver of the meeting and well deserved it was too. I managed a quick catch up with him in the paddock where he confessed he was ‘knackered!’ and didn’t leave for home for until on Sunday afternoon. After a spirited drive in the saloon bodied Frazer Nash ‘Owlet’ Patrick Blakeney-Edwards came home some forty seconds shy of the two leaders for, a popular with the crowd, third place.
The Richmond and Gordon Trophy for Formula One and intercontinental Formula cars that raced between 1954 and 1961 was next. Another huge grid 29 cars took to the track with the Cooper Climax T53s of Alistair McCaig and Will Nuttall and Rod Jolley’s Cooper Climax T45/51 locking out the front row, as the flag dropped so did the revs on 4th place man Gary Pearson’s BRM type 25, the car stuttered setting off a chain reaction which, after the dust had settled saw seven cars eliminated on the spot, including Andrew Garner’s BRM Type 25, Tom Dark’s Lancia D50 recreation which limped round with a badly damaged nose cone and no coolant. John Chisholm’s ex Jim Clark lotus 18 was also badly damaged, thankfully its driver escaped unhurt. Roger Wills Lotus 16 ended up on the tyre barrier after climbing over the back Paul Smeeth’s Lotus 18, sadly two of the three Maserati 250F’s in the race the cars of Willi Balz and Michael hinderer were both eliminated too and Tony Smith’s almost unique original Ferrari 246 Dino, a car which survived the Ferrari policy of being scrapped at the end of each season purely because it was not cost effective for the Scuderia to have it brought back from the other side of the world to scrap it, received some unwanted attention from John harper’s Cooper T51 caving in the beautifully sculpted tail with a front wheel, the nose on the Dino was also damaged during the accident but with none of the cars internals damaged was able to make the re-start. Roger Wills Lotus was retrieved from its perch and some hasty repairs were made with tank tape but Wills retired the car after just three laps. Out front pole sitter McCaig got away cleanly but was kept very honest by Rod Jolley who, clearly enjoying the unspoilt Goodwood track was drifting the 1958 Cooper most spectacularly at every corner in an effort to catch the leading T53, every lap Jolley braked later than McCaig into Woodcote but the younger car was more planted and beat off every lunge to take a hard fought win. Jolley beamed afterwards “Goodwood is my favourite track in the whole world, I love it!”Gary Pearson who had inadvertently caused the melee at the first start ran with the two Coopers for the first half of the race but was dropped finishing 34 seconds behind to claim third with his BRM type 25. Richard Attwood brought Hubert Fabri’s Aston Martin DBR4 home fourth with John Harper fifth and Barrie Baxter rounding out the top six in his very rare rear engined BRM P48.
For many the race that was most eagerly anticipated was the RAC TT Celebration another star studded race with no less than ten Le Mans winners, twelve former F1 pilots, eight current and former BTCC drivers as well as a rally champion, an F1 car designer and a current F1 team boss as well as Can-Am and Indycar greats The grid was a veritable ‘whose who’ of motor sport. Adrian Newey Red Bull Racings design genius brought out his 2009 TT winning Jaguar E type which he shared with Sky F1’s Martin Brundle. The car is astonishingly well sorted, rumour has it that the car has visited the Red Bull Racing wind tunnel. Brundle used it to good effect putting the car on pole for the race, lining up alongside was Ross Warburton and Andy Newall in a Jaguar E type low drag coupe with Joe Colasacco and Derek Hill in the tidy Maserati Tipo 151 next. Row two had Jean Alesi and Mark Hales in Nick Mason’s Ferrari 250 GTO in 4th with Patrick Watts and Chris Beighton in the Sunbeam Lister Tiger ‘monster’ and Tiff Needell and Joachim Folch-Rusinol 6th in the ex Bruce McLaren E type lightweight. When the flag dropped and Newey didn’t get the best of starts, finding himself fourth behind Alesi, Young and Newall. Approaching St Mary’s the adverse camber caught Newey out pitching the Jag wide and very sideways. In a very impressive display of driving he managed to gather it all up without collecting anyone and rejoined in the mid field. Furious with himself for the error, Newey put the ‘balls to the wall’ and set about a recovery drive setting the fastest lap of the race on lap ten. Joe Colasacco in the Maserati had been enjoying a good run in third, sizing up the two leading Jaguars. At the start of lap eleven had a look down the outside on the way into Madgwick got two wheels on the grass and slewed the Tipo 151 into a spin, the car slammed into the tyre wall side on at a terrific rate of knots the full impact being taken down the driver’s side of the car causing extensive damage to both the car and the tyre barrier. Happily Colasacco got out of the car unaided but got picked up by the medical car for a precautionary check over. The recovery operation and the repair to the tyre wall brought out the safety car and a mad dash for the pits. Once it all settled back down the lead fell to Bobby Verdon-Roe taking over from Young, Brundle second having taken over from Newey, Patrick Watts enjoying the power of the Sunbeam Tiger in third, sadly the Tiger only lasted until lap 21 when Watts pulled off retiring the car, promoting Ludovic Lindsay in Shaun Lynn’s lightweight E type up to fourth. Brundle dived by B V-R on lap sixteen and was never headed taking a comfortable win with a margin of just shy of thirty seconds from the Young/ Verdon-Roe Jag, the Needell/Folch-Rusinol E type took the final podium spot a further eleven seconds down the road. The Lynn/Lindsay E type was fourth and the last car unlapped. There was a titanic scrap for fifth and six between two chaps that were frankly old enough to know better, the original ‘flying Finn’ 1965 rally champion Rauno Aaltonen in Gary Pearson’s E type coming out on top over Richard Attwood in Richard Frankel’s Lister Jaguar Coupe that Tim Harvey had briefly led in, the pair crossed the line barely half a second apart. The drive earned Aaltonen the Will Hoy Trophy for the best performance in a closed cockpit car.
The penultimate race of the weekend saw the 1.5 litre Grand prix and Tasman cars take to the track for The Glover Trophy. Andy Middlehurst put Classic Team Lotus’ immaculate Lotus Climax 25 on pole with teammate Nick Fennell in the sister car next to him, Mark Piercy’s Lola Mk4 filled the front row and that’s pretty much how it stayed. Fennell got the jump at the start leading for four laps before Middlehurst got past at Fordwater and gradually drew away taking the flag with a twelve second advantage over Fennell. Piercy mounted an early challenge on Fennell but with the Lola’s Climax engine suffering from fading oil pressure he eased off to conserve the car.
The Final race of the weekend was The Sussex trophy in tribute to the late Roy Salvadori, for World Championship Sports Cars and production sports racing cars 1955 to 1960. It was won by Julian Majzub who had qualified badly with his Sadler Chevy Mk3 only managing ninth on the grid. Not wasting any time Majzub rocketed off the start going from ninth to fourth after the first tour, he then passed Mark Hales Maserati T61 ‘bird cage’ and Andrew Smith’s Lister Chevrolet Costin and set after the Lister Jaguar of Alex Buncombe, who rather obligingly spun off beaching the car in the Lavant gravel. With Smith and Porsche super cup and BTCC legend Tim Harvey who was thoroughly enjoying Jon Minshaw’s Lister Jaguar knobbly snapping at his heels He managed to keep the pair at bay with a very wide Sadler to the flag for a well received win and a roar of approval from the crowd.
Thus ended the 2012 Goodwood Revival Meeting, can March and his team improve it for next year? The answer has to be no, in the most favourable way, because this event is un-improvable! I can’t think of a better way to go motor racing… can you?
I’ll close with the phrase which sums up this event and the Festival of Speed, the late great Roy Salvadori once said “Give me Goodwood on a summers day and you can keep the rest of the world” Too right Roy, God rest you and Carroll Shelby and the Prof too.
by Graham Dalley
Images: Graham Dalley
