B.A.R.C. Easter Monday at Goodwood

Goodwood, Sussex. April 19th.

The practice day on the Saturday of Easter weekend was blessed with mixed weather, so that times and starting-grid positions did not give a true indication of the possible outcome of the racing. The Formula One cars had two periods of practice, the first one dry and the second one wet, so that some drivers got caught out by reserving their big effort for the afternoon session. Main interest lay in Clark having the long-awaited four valves per cylinder Coventry-Climax V8 engine in his Lotus 33, and the introduction of the new R7 tyre by Dunlop, a 13-in. Formula One version of the tyres seen at Le Mans the previous weekend. Most of the top drivers had these tyres, except Brabham and Gurney, who had the latest Goodyear tyres. Time-keeping at Goodwood is only to the nearest fifth of a second, which is hopelessly inadequate for a lap time of 1 min. 20 sec., so the results of practice showed some dead-heats, and Stewart was given fastest time with 1 min. 19.8 sec. followed by Graham Hill and Clark with 1 min. 20.6 sec. and Spence and Anderson with 1 min. 20.8 sec., all these getting below the existing lap record of 1 min. 21.0 sec., held by Graham Hill.

In the big sports-car practice there was an indication of things to come for McLaren recorded 1 min. 19.4 sec. in his McLaren-Oldsmobile V8 with 4.4-litre engine, and that was on a crowded track. Clark was in trouble with a slipping clutch on the works Lotus 30 with 4.7-litre Ford V8 engine running on Tecalemit-Jackson fuel-injection, but even so he clocked 1 min. 21.2 sec. Much was expected from Surtees with his Lola 70 powered by a 5.3-litre Chevrolet engine, but it broke a connecting-rod on its first lap.

On race day, as a large crowd were streaming into the Sussex airfield circuit for a happy holiday meeting, there was a freak hailstorm that left everything inches deep in hailstones, and another abandoned meeting was visualised, but then there was brilliant sunshine and blue skies, and everything dried, but the icy wind never ceased.

The first event, at 1.30 p.m., was the 10-lap Formula Three race for the Chichester Cup, and as Williams in the Lucas Team Brabham-Ford made a cracking start from the second row, a hailstorm arrived at the far side of the circuit and covered everything. The B.A.R.C. officials rushed out and stopped the race at the end of lap one, the surprised F.3 drivers getting the chequered flag as they arrived. The storm quickly passed and a bright interval arrived, so the cars were lined up again and a second start was given. This time all was well and a good race developed between Pike in the immaculate “Chequered Flag Ltd.” black-and-white Brabham-Ford and Courage in a similar car from the rather gaudy Charles Lucas team. Courage seemed to be quicker on the faster bends, but Pike held him off and finally drew out a small lead by the end, though Courage had his moments of being in the lead.

Results:

Chichester Cup – Formula Three – 10 laps – 38.6 kilometres

1st: R. Pike (Brabham-Ford – Entrant: Chequered Flag Ltd) – 16 min. 172 sec. – 142.299 k.p.h. (88.42 m.p.h.)

2nd: P. R. Courage (Brabham-Ford – Entrant: C. Lucas (Eng.) Ltd.) – 16 min. 17.8 sec.

3rd: J. Williams (Brabham-Ford – Entrant: C. Lucas (Eng.) Ltd.) – 16 min. 26.4 sec.

Fastest lap: P. R. Courage (Brabham-Ford), in 1 min. 33.0 sec. – 149.508 k.p.h. (92.9 m.p.h.)

The next race was for saloon cars, and while they were on the grid the skies opened up once more and hail and snow poured down, making racing impossible, so the start was delayed. When things improved it was announced that the race would be shortened from 10 laps to five laps in the interests, not of safety, but the great god television, who had paid good money to televise the Formula One race, and the delays were putting things behind schedule. The fact that a large crowd had paid good money to see 10 laps of saloon-car racing was ignored by the B.A.R.C. This 5-lap sprint was four races in one, a Ford Mustang race, a Lotus-Cortina race, a 1,300-c.c. B.M.C. Mini race, and a 1,000-c.c. Mini race, and the front row had a representative line-up of Salmon (Mustang), Clark (Lotus-Cortina) and Handley (Broadspeed Mini). On the very wet track the Mustangs were really put in their place, the Lotus-Cortinas of Clark and Sears running away from everyone, while John Rhodes in the works Cooper Mini “S” also trounced the Mustangs, but he had been a “naughty boy” and jumped the start, so the B.A.R.C. penalised him one minute. This in a 9-minute race meant that he needn’t have bothered to go on, but he undoubtedly enjoyed himself and the crowd saw some “racing for fun instead of money.” Hutcheson drove a Ford Galaxie so slowly that it gave one enormous respect for Jack Sears who used to win races with one last year.

Results:

St. Mary’s Trophy – saloon cars – 5 laps – 19.3 kilometres

Over 2,000 c.c.: 1st: M. Salmon (Ford Mustang V8 – Entrant: Dawney Racing Ltd.) – 9 min. 23.6 sec. 

2,000 c.c: 1st: J. Clark (Lotus-Cortina – Entrant: Team Lotus Ltd.) – 9 min. 01.1 sec. – 128.506 k.p.h (79.85 m.p.h.)

1,300 c.c: 1st: J. Handley (B.M.C. Mini “S” – Entrant: Team Broadspeed) – 9 min. 27.8 sec.

1,000 c.c: 1st: M. Campell-Cole (B.M.C. Mini “S” – Entrant: Don Moore) – 9 min. 57.0 sec.

Fastest lap: J. Clark (Lotus-Cortina), in 1 min 46.0 sec. – 131.178 k.p.h. (81.51 m.p.h.)

Now came the main event of the day, the 42-lap International Trophy race for Formula One cars, which suffered from not having the reigning World Champion taking part, as Enzo Ferrari cannot take our “holiday” meetings seriously, so Surtees had to be a spectator. As the cars went out on their warming-up lap Spence was in trouble with his works Lotus 33, the injection system flooding and pouring neat petrol into the cylinders of his flat crank Coventry-Climax engine. The car was taken back to the pits but nothing could be done in the time available, and he joined Frank Gardner with the Willment Brabham-B.R.M. V8 as a non-starter.

Graham Hill (B.R.M.) leapt into the lead ahead of Clark (Lotus), but Gurney (Brabham) went charging through into third place from the third row of the grid as the field of sixteen cars swept round Madgewick Corner. In only five laps the race settled down, with Hill, Clark and Gurney out in front, followed closely by Stewart (B.R.M.), and Brabham (Brabham) in fifth place, but dropping back. McLaren (Cooper) was just holding off Bonnier (Brabham), and then came Rindt (Cooper), Attwood (Lotus), Siffert (Brabham) and Anderson (Brabham), these four having a good scrap, and followed by John Taylor (Cooper). There were three F.2 cars with twin-cam Lotus-Ford engines competing, and Cardwell was leading these very comfortably. Already Hawkins (Lotus 33-Climax) had retired with a defective scavenge pump.

On lap six Clark got by Hill and began to pull out a lead, the new 32 valve Climax engine, with its short exhaust pipes and megaphone ends, making an exciting new sound as it ran to 10,000 r.p.m. From this point Clark went on and on, completely unchallenged, running on the new R7 Dunlop tyres which are supposed to be good in wet or dry conditions, the new tread pattern giving good drainage. The Lotus 33 was obviously handling better than Hill’s B.R.M., while Gurney was using a lot of opposite lock on his Brabham to stay with Hill, as he had chosen to run on Goodyear rain tyres in anticipation of another storm, and now the sun was shining all the time, though an arctic wind was sweeping across the circuit. In a secure fourth place was Stewart in the second works B.R.M., and he was not losing any ground to Hill and Gurney, but an unhappy-looking Jack Brabham was dropping further and further back.

The tail-enders were soon lapped and Cardwell did a silly thing by lifting off and slowing in the middle of Madgewick when he saw Gurney coming up to overtake. This upset the Californian’s calculations and caused him to shake an angry fist as he went by, Bob Anderson got the better of Rindt, Siffert and Attwood, and then overdid it and went through the chicane wooden fence, continuing on his way with a length of wood jammed in his front suspension. He stopped to remove it, but was disqualified for taking a “short-cut,” and later Rindt was disqualified for doing the same thing. Just after half-distance Hill’s B.R.M. showed signs of losing power as there was something going wrong inside and the plugs were suffering, so that Gurney got past and then Stewart went by. Meanwhile Siffert had got into the Goodwood groove and was closing up on his team-mate Bonnier, but then he caught a front wheel on the wall of the chicane and this bounced him head-on into the opposite wall. The Brabham-B.R.M. was bent nearly double and the Swiss driver was very lucky to suffer only minor injuries. An immaculate and faultless Clark was racing on to victory, followed by Gurney, Stewart and Hill, but on lap 38 Stewart came to rest out on the circuit when his engine broke, and at the end of that lap Gurney came to rest opposite the pits as all his oil pressure had gone, so this left a very lucky Graham Hill back in second place with his sick-sounding B.R.M., and Brabham third, everyone else having been lapped, even McLaren in the works Cooper that was now fourth.

Having chalked up a win for the new Coventry-Climax engine in its first race, Clark was brought to rest on his slowing-down lap with a flat front tyre, and had to be collected to receive the winner’s laurels.

Results:

International Trophy – Formula One – 42 laps – 160.9 kilometres

1st: J. Clark (Lotus 33-Climax V8 – Entrant: Team Lotus) – 57 min. 33.8 sec. – 169.089 k.p.h. (105.07 m.p.h.)

2nd: G. Hill (B.R.M. V8 – Entrant: Owen Racing Organization) – 57 min. 58.0 sec.

3rd: J. Brabham (Brabham-Climax V8 – Entrant: Brabham Racing Organization) – 58 min. 24.6 sec.

4th: B. McLaren (Cooper-Climax V8 – Entrant: Cooper Car Co. Ltd.) – 41 laps

5th: J. Bonnier (Brabham-Climax V8 – Entrant: R.R.C. Walker) – 41 laps

6th: R. Attwood (Lotus 25-B.R.M. V8 – Entrant: R. Parnell (Racing) Ltd.) – 41 laps

Other finishers: J. Taylor (Cooper-Climax V8), J. Rhodes (Cooper-Ford 4), R. Bloor (Brabham-Ford 4).

 Fastest lap: J. Clark (Lotus) and J. Stewart (B.R.M.), in 1 min. 20.4 sec – 172.935 k.p.h (107.46 m.p.h) (new record)

After this event came the the Sussex Trophy for GT cars, this being four races in one, and the overall event was dominated by Roger Mac driving the “Chequered Flag” team’s Shelby American Cobra. A spin out of the chicane by Mac let Peter Lumsden into the lead with his lightweight E-type Jaguar, but Mac caught him up again, and then Lumsden spun at Fordwater. The Porsche 914 of de Udy was going well until he spun and hit the bank at Woodcote, bending the back of the car. Remarkable was the fact that the winning Cobra ran with hood and sidescreens erect and they did not blow off. Salvadori in another Cobra entered by Ford Advanced Vehicles of Slough burst a radiator hose on the line and joined in the race on the fourth lap, and Jack Sears drove the Willment Cobra coupé after Bob Bondurant had tried it in practice and declined the drive. He also turned down the offer of the Willment Elva-B.M.W. for the sports-car race, after trying it in practice.

Results:

Sussex Trophy – GT cars – 15 laps – 57.9 kilometres

1st: R. Mac (Shelby Cobra – Entrant: Chequered Flag Ltd.) – 22 min. 34.2 sec. – 154.015 k.p.h. (95.70 m.p.h.)

2nd: J. Sears (Shelby Cobra – Entrant: Race Proved by Willment) – 22 min. 40.0 sec.

3rd: P. Sutcliffe (Ferrari GTO – Entrant: P. Sutcliffe) – 23 min. 04.8 sec.

4th: M. Salmon (Ferrari GTO – Entrant: Dawnay Racing) – 23 min. 12.0 sec.

Fastest lap: P. Lumsden (Jaguar E), in 1 min. 28.2 sec. – 157.652 k.p.h. (97.96 m.p.h.)

Class winners:

Over 2,500 c.c.: R. Mac (Shelby Cobra)

1,600 – 2,500 c.c.: J.B. Wingfield (T.V.R. Grantura – only finisher)

1,151 – 1,600 c.c.: R. Parsons (Lotus Elan)

Up to 1,100 c.c.: J. Mackay (Lotus XI GT)

The final race of the day was for sports cars, with three classes and the bad weather just managed to hold off. Jim Clark with the works Lotus 30-Ford V8 ran away with the event, chased in vain by Bruce McLaren in his own car powered by Oldsmobile. Although the Lola works had replaced the broken Chevrolet engine in Surtees’ car by a Ford V8 engine they could not get it to run properly and it was a non-starter, while Salvadori in a Cooper-Cobra, again entered by Ford Advanced Vehicles, only got as far as the starting line before the gearbox gave up.

Results:

Lavant Cup – sports cars – 21 laps – 80 kilometres

1st: J. Clark (Lotus 30-Ford V8 – Entrant: Team Lotus) – 29 min. 14.0 sec. – 166.566 k.p.h. (103.44 k.p.h.)

2nd: B. McLaren (McLaren-Oldsmobile V8 – Entrant: McLaren Racing Ltd.) – 29 min. 34.0 sec.

3rd: D. Hobbs (Lola 70-Ford V8 – Entrant: Harold Young Ltd.) – 30 min. 38.0 sec.

Fastest lap: J. Clark (Lotus 30-Ford V8), in 1 min. 20.8 sec. – 172.083 k.p.h. (106.93 m.p.h.)

Class winners:

Over 2,000 c.c.: J. Clark (Lotus 30-Ford V8)

1,151 – 2,000 c.c.: D. Hulme (Brabham BT8-Climax 4 )

Up to 1,151 c.c.: J. Hine (Lotus 23-Ford 4)

* * * * *

Goodwood groans

The traffic control outside the circuit was laughable. Large signs by the R.A.C./B.A.R.C. told you to do one thing, the Sussex police told you to do exactly the opposite. After a lot of people saying racing should not start until Easter because of bad weather and postponed meetings, the first Easter race had to be stopped because of weather. Perhaps we should wait until Whitsun before we start racing.

Among the many entrants of cars at the meeting only two were successful, Team Lotus winning three races and Graham Warner’s Chequered Flag team winning the other two.

Certain “pundits” say the crowds only come to see saloon-car racing and if this is so the B.A.R.C. “sold them up the river,” by cutting the race to five laps.

I hope the crowd enjoyed the gentleman with the Greek name doing his “act” on the public address system. He certainly seemed to be enjoying it himself. – D. S. J.

__________________________

International Oulton Park (April 3rd)

The Mid-Cheshire Motor Club staged the first F.2 race of the season at the pleasant Oulton Park circuit, and it provided a worthy victory for Denis Hulme in a works Brabham-Cosworth. Strong opposition had come from Graham Hill, driving John Coombs’ Brabham-B.R.M., Stewart in the Ken Tyrell Cooper-B.R.M. and Attwood in the Midland Racing Partnership’s Lola-Cosworth, but they were all beset by various troubles and the works Brabham-Cosworth showed superior tuning and preparation. The race was over 40 laps (177 km.) and it is surprising how many things go wrong or fall off in that short distance. Jack Brabham was driving his own Brabham-Honda, but the much-vaunted Japanese engine was obviousy unwell and not giving the publicised 139 b.h.p.

Results:

Formula Two – 40 laps – 177 kilometres – warm and sunny

1st: D. Hulme (Brabham-Cosworth SCA) – 1 hr. 08 min. 39.6 sec. – 155.317 k.p.h. (96.51 m.p.h.)

2nd: J. Stewart (Cooper-B.R.M. 4-cyl.) – 1 hr. 08 min. 58.6 sec.

3rd: A. Rees (Brabham-Cosworth SCA) – 1 hr. 09 min. 22.4 sec.

4th: A. Maggs (Lola-Cosworth SCA) – 1 hr. 09 min. 43.6 sec. 

5th: M. Beckwith (Brabham-Cosworth SCA) – 1 hr. 09 min. 47.0 sec.

6th: A Hegbourne (Lola-Cosworth SCA) – 1 hr. 10 min. 23.6 sec.

The remaining seven finishers did not complete 40 laps in the order: D. Prophet (Brabham-Cosworth), C. Irwin (Merlyn-Cosworth), W. Bradley (Brabham-Cosworth), J. Maglia (Lotus-Cosworth), A. Wyllie (Brabham-Cosworth), C. Amon (Merlyn-Cosworth), T. Taylor (Brabham-Cosworth).

Fastest lap: J. Rindt (Brabham-Cosworth) and G. Hill (Brabham-B.R.M.), in 1 min 41.4 sec. – 157.747 k.p.h. (98.02 m.p.h.) (new record)