Goodwood, Chichester 14th-16th of September
This year's Goodwood Revival is history. After three fantastic days
the revival came to an end with the final of the 16 races, the
Sussex Trophy for sports car from 1955 to 1960. This is always
one of the highlight with a superb line-up of Aston Martin DBR1,
Jaguar D Type, Maserati 300S and Lister-Jaguar and keeps the
spectators track side to the last minute of the Revival Meeting. As
reported earlier this was again sold out well in advance giving Lord
March and his organization team another successful event in its
15th edition.
After a long classic car season the 4 weeks in September see a
peak of events before it dries out for the winter time. Although
there are a few more event coming the Goodwood Revival is for
many the culmination of a long summer. Beside the regular racing
in the common race groups and the legendary ambience the
revival features year by year some special celebrations and
marque races that prevents the event from repeating itself. Even
those who have visited all the previous editions and think that they
have seen already everything were surprised again by the
displays and parades of the 15th edition featuring 75 years of the
Silver Arrows in the UK (debuting 1937 in Donington), 50 years of
the legendary Ferrari 250 GTO and 50 years of the AC Cobra.
A few years ago the Goodwood Festival of Speed saw an equal
amount of Silver Arrows with some of them running up the hill but
this time not less than 9 of the 10 German pre-war racers on
Show were running on the track at the same time, this might be
the largest gathering of this ultra-rare machinery since their last
race in Belgrade 1939. This was without doubt a highlight of the
Goodwood history and it is difficult to imagine what might top that
in future editions. This alone would have been worth to visit the
revival but in addition about a dozen of Ferrari 250 GTO took the
track on all three days as well, also in a Parade. The speed was
very different as some of the owners of these sports racers
enjoyed the empty track to the fullest whereas others took the
name parade more serious.
Beside the GTO another icon is celebrating its golden jubilee, the
AC Cobra, masterpiece of the late Carroll Shelby and one of the
main rivals of the GTO in period. After the Jaguar E-Type race last
year this year saw again a single type race for the American
sports car with no less than 30 of them on the track. After the
race in their motherland a few weeks earlier in Laguna Seca the
Cobras were taken to their limit this time on the very fast track by
many experienced professional drivers in this 2-driver race. Some
of the American owners might have been surprised by the
competition in Goodwood as a race win over here is still an
achievement most of the historic racers are looking for. After the
qualifying was dominated by last year's RAC Trophy winning
Daytona Coupe (proving the advantage of this closed design over
its open variations) this car just made half of the distance on
Saturday giving victory to the following car of Hall/Wolfe.
Further races included again the Brooklands trophy for pre-war
sports cars that is run every second year. In this race a diverse
grid was lined-up with the fast Alfa Romeo 8C Monza and Talbot
105 but also more uncommon entries like a Bentley 4 ½ Litre
Saloon that showed best the definition of body roll. After a very
interesting race on Sunday morning the victory was taken by Max
Werner in the ex Scuderia Ferrari 8C Monza over the Talbot after
a superb last lap when he re-took the lead in the chicane after a
hard breaking with a jumping rear wheel.
But this was not the only exiting race as nearly all the races had
their moments and a few safety car sorties were necessary to
cool the drivers down.
Beside the racing the Revival is very well known for its
atmosphere that is unmatched by any other classic car event in
the world. Every year a good portion of the spectators join in to
dress in period fashion making the event a “Magical step back in
Time”. Unfortunately one does not see all the places of interest
when looking at the races as the race program is action packed
from morning to the evening, this year the Friday even saw again
the race from the Freddie March Memorial Trophy running into the
dusk. But still after that people had the chance to party in the
“village” over the road until 10 o´clock with rock ´n´ roll and beer.
As already mentioned the Earl of March pulls another theme out
of his hat year by year and one can be curious what it will be in
2013 but a rough guess would be the 100th anniversary of Aston
Martin that might be one of them. But we have to wait a few more
months for the presentation of next year´s program to know for
sure.
At the moment we have put together a small selection of pictures
trying to give you an impression of the Revival Meeting (although
picture cannot really give justice to this event without being there)
and later we will have a more detailed look into the races.
Text & images ... Peter Singhof
www.ClassicCarPhotography.de
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