World champions wow crowds at 2022 Goodwood Revival: race reports

There were racing greats, period costumes and nostalgic entertainment but, as ever, the on-track action was the star of the 2022 Goodwood Revival. Andrew Marriott reports on 13 of the weekend's races

Damon Hill gets ready to set off on the parade to celebrate the 60th anniversary of his father Graham's first F1 title

Damon Hill gets ready to set off on the parade to celebrate the 60th anniversary of his father Graham's first world championship

Goodwood

The Goodwood Revival – just where do you start? Over there Indy 500 winner Dario Franchitti chatting with a pair of Revival debutants, six-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon and seven-time NASCAR Cup Champion Jimmie Johnson. The Scot has arranged for them to share Gregor Fiskin’s E-type in the Stirling Moss Memorial Trophy. On the airfield there is an extraordinary Catalina Flying Boat amongst the Spitfires and Hurricanes.

In the marshalling area for the fabulous Ferrari parade is the ever-familiar bright green crash helmet of four-time Le Mans 24 winner Henri Pescarolo – I didn’t see his name in any publicity material. Talking Ferrari , the never seen in public 1951 Ferrari 375 Formula 1 car discreetly lent by Bernie Ecclestone. Who noticed the two mechanics looking after the car had a small Mr E embroidered on their overalls?.

Over in the next paddock area a large crowd has gathered. Is it former world champion Jenson Button signing autographs? Not so, the Hall and Hall mechanics are about to start up the ‘new’ BRM V16. In amongst a fine line-up of McLaren’s early Can-Am cars , Bruce’s own Austin 7. Leaning against the Plymouth Barracuda he is racing on Saturday, there is Mr Bean himself Rowan Atkinson – need I go on? Where do I look next? what have I missed!?

Away from the music of that V16 BRM bands are dotted around the site, everyone from the Black Kat Boopers to The Hoochie Toots. There are period hairdressers, pubs and costumiers, the fairground and even a couple of shoe-shine boys. VIPs are transported to the track in a fleet of vintage Rolls-Royces. The machine Sir Jackie Stewart described as the worst racing car he ever drove – the Rover-BRM turbine – is tucked away in a corner.

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Button entertained the crowds

Goodwood

Then there are the spectators’ period costumes, I walk into a tunnel behind a lady with her stocking seams laser straight, the whole ensemble topped off with a magnificent hat. There are RAF officers, Italian priests, babies in period prams, a gaggle of nuns and group of schoolgirls – all with plaits.

One thing I couldn’t miss was the extraordinary film-set style ‘tableau’ at the front entrance. A UFO has crashed, still smoking, an alien has escaped, the police and army are on hand but there are protestors too and period press. It has nothing to do with motor racing, of course, but who cares – it is brilliant. Only at the Revival. But let’s not forget there are 15 highly competitive races over the three days on the fast and unchanged Goodwood track.

 

2022 Freddie March Memorial Trophy

After practice and qualifying, the racing proper kicked off on Friday evening with the one-hour, two-driver Freddie March Memorial Trophy race for sports cars in the spirit of the Goodwood ‘Nine-Hour’ races held between 1952 and 1955.

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Mysterious UFO scene – typical of Goodwood entertainment

Goodwood

In period, the 9 Hours was dominated by Aston Martins with the DB3S and three were entered including Wolfgang Friedrich sharing his car as usual with Simon Hadfield. The Guy Harman and Nick Finburgh Cooper-Jaguar T53 jumped the start from pole and was also handed a penalty for a too-short driver change pitstop.

This left the road clear for American Fred Wakeman with Sam Hancock sharing a 1953 Jaguar C-type to take a well-judged 9sec victory over the similar but slightly older C-type of Nigel Webb and John Young. Nick Jarvis’s brutish Allard J2X was hustled to third place by Mike Grant-Peterkin and none other than Benoit Treluyer. The 2011, 2012 and 2014 Le Mans 24 Hour winner must have found the handling a little different to the Audi R18s he was used to.

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Final chicane shenanigans in Jaguar MkII

Goodwood

The Harman/Finburgh Cooper eventually finished fourth, the 20sec penalty actually making no difference to the result, while the Friedrichs/Hadfield Aston was sixth. Almost unnoticed in ninth was another Cooper-Jaguar T33 in the hands of owner Katarina Kyvalova and the Swiss Simona de Silvestro, a five-time starter at the Indy 500.

 

2022 Madgwick Cup

Saturday’s race programme commenced with the 20 minute Madgwick Cup for under 2-litre sportscars raced between 1948 and 1955 – an interesting field pitting four Maserati A6GCS against a largely eclectic mix of British built machines. These were led by the German-owned but Wolverhampton-built centre-seat 1100cc Kieft-Climax, soundly placed on pole position by Hi-Tech Motorsport’s Miles Griffiths.

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Motor sport remembers Queen Elizabeth II
Historic Racing News

Motor sport remembers Queen Elizabeth II

Drivers and crowds paid tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at the weekend's Goodwood Revival, ahead of the state funeral

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Before the start his Grace the Duke of Richmond and Gordon gave a moving tribute to her late Majesty the Queen, complete with emotive footage of her at his horse race track just up the road, He also reminded everyone that the Queen’s last winner as race horse owner was, indeed, poignantly at Goodwood just the previous weekend.

Although Griffiths was clearly the favourite for the race, he had his task made considerably easier when fellow front-row starters Argentine Manuel Elicabe in a Maserati and Ron Gammons in his Lotus-MG Mk9 both hit problems. The Maserati was slow off the line while Gammons pulled off immediately.

Griffiths thus raced to an unchallenged win, finishing 12 seconds ahead of Malcolm Paul’s Lotus-Bristol 10 which just held off the similar car of 18-year old Oliver Marcais, the son of former racer Flavien. Elicabe never really recovered from his poor start to come home fourth.

One disappointment for fans of the unusual was the failure of Christoph Konig’s Tojeiro complete with the flat-four air-cooled Butterworth engine to start the race. Driver Gunther Lainer reporting that ignition problems intervened.

 

2022 Glover Trophy

Saturday’s second car event was the 25-minute Glover Trophy and a magnificent entry of the diminutive 1.5-litre Formula 1 cars raced between 1961 and 1965. We expected Chapman’s ground breaking Lotus 25-Climax to be up front, particularly with Andy Middlehurst in John Bowers’ 1962 version, But what a joy to see alongside him on the grid America’s Joe Colasacco in Lawrence Aurian’s fabulous 1965 Ferrari 1512, resplendent with its blue wheels contrasting against the scarlet red.

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Classic competition cars in a classic setting

Goodwood

But it was Middlehurst who made the best start and, yet again, he was never troubled as he raced to his eighth Glover Trophy victory. Colsacco gave game chase but after five laps his hand shot up and he retired to the pits. Thus a Lotus 25 one-two looked on the cards but Nick Fennell’s similar and Championship-winning Jim Clark car pulled off with suspected gearbox problems. So Middlehurst took the chequered flag with 18sec in hand over the older Lotus 21 of Mark Shaw while a good drive took Philip Buhofer’s 1964 BRM P261 to third. Interestingly Middlehurst’s fastest lap in the 25 was two seconds shy of the lap record set by Jim Clark in April 1964 in a sister car.

 

2022 St Mary’s Trophy, Part 1

Next up came Part 1 of the 25 min St Mary’s Trophy for saloons that raced between 1960 to 1964 and embracing everything from mighty Ford Galaxies to tyre smoking Mini Cooper. On the grid were no fewer than eight outright Le Mans winners including nine-time victor Tom Kristensen. Jimmie Johnson was in there too, so was Formula E Champion Stoffel Vandoorne and stars of the past such as Derek Bell and Richard Attwood.

Seven litres of Ford grunt powered pole-position man Roman Dumas into the lead at the wheel of Bill Shepherd’s Ford Galaxie while behind the Lotus Cortinas of Andrew Jordan and WRC rally ace Craig Breen traded paint with former Porsche Super Cup Champion Frank Stippler in a silver grey Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint GTA. Later in the race the German broke free and, as his brakes started to fade, Le Mans winner Dumas found the Italian machine climbing all over him and, indeed, Stippler briefly got alongside once by judicious use of the grass.

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Seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson was one of the start attendees

Jimmie Johnson

Ultimately Dumas hung on by inches and Jordan was third ahead of Breen. Johnson in the second Galaxy was fifth for a while but retired, late race, handing the position to a second Alfa driven by Mexican ex-Sauber F1 racer Esteban Gutierrez. But perhaps the highlight was the Mini battle with André Lotterer just edging out Alex Brundle after an outrageous scrap. But the Trophy goes to the winner on aggregate, with the second race on Sunday, featuring the amateur drivers, still to come.

 

2022 Goodwood Trophy

The smell of methanol drifted across the circuit as the cars lined up for the Goodwood Trophy for Grand Prix and Voiturette cars raced between 1930 and 1951. This race is usually ERA domain but we also had the race debut of the BRM Type 15 chassis IV with Rob Hall at the wheel. Could it spring a surprise after overheating problems in qualifying?

The answer was no, but it did make it to the finish with the V16 motor screaming beautifully. After practice problems, Mark Gillies in Dick Skipworth’s ERA R3A was ninth on the grid. Mark won this race back in 2007 and was fresh from a Monaco Historic win this year. Indeed Dick’s team had sorted what is one of the original works ERAs and Gillies roared through the field to snatch victory in the closing stages by inches from David Morris in the ex-Reggie Tongue ERA R11B. In the mix for all of the race was Ian Baxter in the 1937 Alta. The Surbiton-built machine runs without shock absorbers and finished a tight third in this highly entertaining battle.

 

2022 Whitsun Trophy

The Whitsun Trophy features the fastest cars racing at the Revival, the unlimited sports prototypes from 1966 and earlier, including early spaceframe Can-Am cars. Polesitter Oli Bryant came close to winning this last year for the first time and was determined to take the victory this year. Indeed in the family Lola T70 Spyder took the immediate lead, surviving a safety car period after Mark Shaw crashed his McLaren M1A, meaning Oli took a cherished win.

But always in his mirrors was a phenomenal battle for second place between the unrelated Halls – Rob in a McLaren M1A and Stuart in the recently acquired GP Extreme M1B. On the closing lap Rob started to suffer a slight fuel surge problem and Stuart — sporting a period moustache — nipped by for second. Great drives up the grid came from ex-Australian IndyCar racer James Davison to finish fifth and Nick Padmore in the unfancied Hamill-Chevrolet SR3 was sixth.

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Rowan Atkinson on the grid

Goodwood

 

2022 Stirling Moss Memorial Trophy

Bringing Saturday to a close was the one-hour Stirling Moss Memorial two-driver race for closed cockpit GT cars that raced before 1963. This was expected to be a battle between Jaguar E-types and early Cobras plus a Ferrari or two.

Indeed, in was John Hugenholtz’s Ferrari 250SWB which took the lead at the start with Nicky Pastorelli at the wheel. Quickly working its way into second place after a poor start was the purple ‘Dragonsnake’ Cobra with owner Mike Whitaker in the hot seat before handing over to Andrew Jordan. Just eight Dragonsnakes were built specifically for drag racing. Indeed this car was used by Bruce Larson, who went on to the 1989 NHRA Funny Car World Championship. There was a good battle for sixth between Scott Dixon and the Bob Neville-run E-type of Jenson Button who was sharing with old school pal Alec Buncombe.

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A long safety car period threw strategies out of the window and shuffled the pack, hurting the crews who were staying out long with their mainly ‘pro’ drivers. This affected the dominant Ferrari and played into the hands of a second Dutch-crewed 250 SWB crewed by father and son David and Oliver Hart who had pitted just before the safety car. In the final laps Hart senior was passed by former BTCC Champion Jordan. A great drive by Joe Twyman, taking over from quick owner Vincent Gaye in another Ferrari 250 SWB, netted third place. Dario Franchitti, who shared with friend Dixon in Gregor Fiskin’s left-hand-drive E-type, took sixth place in what was a highly entertaining close to a terrific day’s racing, but victory went to Whitaker and Jordan in the Dragonsnake.

 

2022 Chichester Cup

Sunday’s racing started with a spirited battle for Formula Junior cars that raced between 1958 and 1962. This translated into drum brake and mainly rear-engined cars – some 29 cars representing 21 manufacturers. Immediately Andrew Hibbert’s Lotus 20, Pete de la Roche (Lola-Ford Mk3) and Stuart Roach (Alexis-Ford) broke away but the latter dropped out on lap two.

After a safety car period Hibberd spun away his lead at Lavant handing the lead to de la Roche, but he then collected a backmarker, bringing out a red flag. This gave victory back to Hibberd, Chris Drake was second in his Elva Mk3 and Joe Colassco third in the rare Italian RAM-Fiat chassis.

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Mini battles between legends provided much entertainment

Goodwood

 

2022 Richmond & Gordon Trophies

Staying with single-seaters, next up was the Richmond & Gordon Trophies for 2.5 litre Grand Prix cars raced between 1954 and 1960: rear- and front-engined cars. Pole was taken by a front-engined car but no surprise there as Miles Griffiths is always quick in Philip Walker’s Lotus 16. He started with two Cooper-Climax T53 lowlines alongside him in the hands of Will Nuthall and Sam Wilson, driving Rudi Friedrich’s car for the first time.

Griffiths’ start was superb and he led away from Nuthall and Wilson and the trio quickly pulled away from the rest. But three laps in, the Lotus 16 again succumbed to gearbox problems and was followed into the pits by Wilson and Andrew Haddon in Julian Bronson’s Scarab from fifth place, both with engine problems. Nuthall, who won this race two years ago, raced home to a 22sec victory over Andrew Willis in Charles McCabe’s BRM P48 with Andrew Beaumont third in the ex-UDT Laystall Lotus 18 from ninth on the grid.

 

2022 Royal Automobile Club TT Celebration

The afternoon’s quartet of races commenced with what is probably the headline event of the weekend, the one-hour, two-driver Royal Automobile Club TT Celebration race for cars which ran in the TT events in 1963 and 1964. Graham Hill won both those races in Maranello Concessionaires Ferraris; the track had earlier commemorated his stellar career with a fine parade headed by cars driven by Damon Hill and his son Josh.

The grid comprised mainly Cobras and Jaguar E-types plus the very fast TVR Griffiths 400 of Mike Whitaker. Largely a Pro-Am event, most teams started their Ams. But at the start it was Button who took the lead from the middle of the front row in the E-type he was sharing with Harrison Newey. The 2003 Le Mans-winner Guy Smith in the TVR disposed of several Cobras to move to second place before there was a short early safety car intervention, which wiped out Button’s 13sec advantage.

Button was once again romping away in one of the twelve original E-types lightweights, before pitting to hand over to Harrison Newey (whose father Adrian owns the car). However, a lap later the car’s gearbox broke throwing the race wide open. Another full course yellow followed after Whitaker spun the TVR into the tyre barriers all on his own.

The second half of the race saw a big Cobra battle with yet another Le Mans-winner Dumas battling wheel to wheel with Gordon Shedden until 9-times La Sarthe victor Kristensen in the Lister Jaguar coupe, shared with owner Fred Wakeman, joined the party. However, the Dane spun and with just minutes to go Dumas pulled off leaving Shedden in the car shared with fellow Scot Andrew Smith to take the win. For Shedden it was his third TT win, the Scot having won it in 2015 and ’16 in an E-type.

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Mike Whitaker and Andrew Jordan drove to victory in the Stirling Moss Memorial race

Goodwood

Second place eventually went to the Lister-Jag chased home by the Richard Meins/Rob Huff E-type, Marino Franchitti and Hong Kong’s Philip Kadorie in the latter’s Cobra and the similar car of Shaun Lynn and Jimmie Johnson.

 

2022 Lavant Cup

This year’s Lavant Cup was reserved for MGBs built before 1966 and unsurprisingly former World Touring Car Champion Rob Huff was on pole, Huffy started his racing career in his dad Peter’s MGB. Huff avoided some carnage at the start but the car dropped a valve as the red flag came out. At the restart, former Porsche Cup GB Champion Mark Cole in Ron Quinn’s canary-yellow car took the lead but hit problems with three minutes to go thus handing an unexpected seven-second victory to an ecstatic Ed Foster, this website’s former editor, who was pulling double duty as part of the commentary team. Malcolm Gammons held off ROFGO’s Nick Maton for second.

 

2022 Sussex Trophy

The penultimate race was the Sussex Trophy for World Championship sports cars raced between 1955 and 1960. Sam Hancock in the Louwman Ferrari 246S Dino scrapped with Dutchman David Hart’s Lister-Jaguar for the lead, pulled away but then retired with seven minutes to go, trailing expensive-looking smoke.

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Can-Am monsters thrilled again

Goodwood

In the closing laps Hart could not hold off a hard-charging James Cottingham in the ex-Ecurie Ecosse Tojeiro-Jaguar with Miles Griffiths a close third in Philip Walker’s Lotus 15 – the three covered by a scant 0.6sec. A second Lotus 15 driven by Kiwi Roger Wills was fourth while Will Nuthall came from near the back of the grid to a cracking fifth place in Barnado Hartog’s 15.

 

2022 St Mary’s Trophy, Part 2

Final race of the action-packed weekend was the second part of the St Mary’s Trophy saloon car race now with the ‘non-celebrity’ drivers at the wheel – the overall result determined on the combined times. The Galaxie raced to victory yesterday by Dumas, now with Bill Shepherd at the wheel, powered into the lead and was never headed to the flag to take the St Mary’s Trophy overall win for a second year running. Oliver Hart was second in the family Alfa inches ahead of Gregor Fiskin and Mike Jordan. The Shepherd/Dumas Galaxie was clearly the overall winner but it needed the calculators to work out that owner Alex Furiani had done enough in the Alfa – driven yesterday by Frank Stippler – to finish second ahead of father and son Jordan in their Lotus Cortina.

Every year we ask the question, how can the Goodwood Revival improve on that? Somehow it always does.