Goodwood just keeps getting better

Now a ticket only event the Goodwood Revival was a complete sell out as 103,000 spectators enjoyed a weekend of sunshine, nostalgia and incredibly exciting historic motor sport. The Revival has now firmly established and built upon its successful formula having discovered the magic recipe for the perfect classic racing weekend.

Success at this level is hard to sustain but the organisers have managed to improve, develop and re-invent the format each successive year. There is a warm feeling of carnival and celebration about the weekend as everyone conspires together to re-create a distant age, for many of us it’s the time of our childhood but for many more, it’s a lost golden age from before they were born, history. The fifties fashions help enormously to create the illusion of the past come alive with the crowd around the paddocks all decked out in trilby hats, cloth caps, and tweed suits, with baggy trousers for the boys with Dior dresses or pencil skirts and bright red lipstick for the girls.

The overall effect makes everyone present look like the cast from an expensive period film or TV drama but the production in question is undoubtedly a new blockbuster in glorious living colour entitled the Goodwood Revival. The meticulous care that is taken with the set of this production was certainly matched by the action out on the track.

All the racing was exciting while most of it was quite breathtaking; there is no substitute for watching a skilled driver keeping a car that is difficult to control on the track. To be close enough to see the drivers so clearly as they work hard in the cockpit correcting the steering wheel constantly as the car attempts to transfer its power to the track through skinny tyres remains a privilege to watch.

RAC TT – 1963 ISO Bizzarini A3C with the driving shared by Mark Hales and Richard Attwood came home first by a wide margin

Tribute parade with Sir Jack Brabham, the only man to become world champion in an F1 car bearing his own name

Tom Dark’s 1935 MG Q Type in the Brooklands Trophy

Nelson Piquet Junior before Saturday’s St Mary’s Trophy Race

Road gang appears before the start of the St Mary’s Trophy a typical piece of Goodwood Theatre

Amazing Alvis delighted the crowds

MGs at the 2004 Revival
The Revival’s policy of constantly changing themes meant that this year MGs were thin on the ground, because the featured marque of this year’s event was BMW and BMW powered cars including Bristol, Frazer Nash and Veritas. MG was represented by Tom Dark’s 1935 MG Q Type in the Brooklands Trophy and the two Magnettes of Julius Thurgood and Michael Yarney in the two St Mary’s Trophy races.

In the Brooklands Trophy the Q Type was alongside some wonderful racing machinery from the twenties and thirties, such as Bugatti type 35s, Alfa Romeos, Bentleys and even a 1928 Lea Francis Hyper driven by 93 year old Tom Delaney whose father bought him the car in 1930. The race was great to watch and Duncan Ricketts in a Riley Dixon Special lead from the start driving with great style but he lost the lead after a spin and then had to fight his way back to first place. He finally passed the flag just in front of the Alfa Romeo Tipo Monopostos of Thomas Bscher who was second and Robert Fink who came third while Tom Dark in the Q Type finished in sixth place.

The other race with MG participation was St Mary’s Trophy which had two MG Magnettes in the field of production saloon cars raced between 1950 and 1959. These belonged to Julius Thurgood and Michael Yarney and were both 1958 ZBs, the driving was shared with celebrities Rupert Keegan and Nelson Piquet Junior. Two races were held, the first on Saturday with a celebrity driver and the second on Sunday with the entrant/owner driving and the results of both races were then combined to determine an overall winning team. Also in the line up was an Austin A35 shared by celebrity Tony Jardine and experienced racer Rae Davis, who is well known for his exploits in MGOC racing. It was wonderful to see the fifties saloons competing so fiercely but Sunday’s battle between Rae Davis and Grant Wilson in a Jaguar Mk1 completely overshadowed the two races with inspired driving by Williams and Davis. Davis started from the back of the grid and drove the little red A35 with incredible skill, frequently lifting an inside front wheel as he pushed the little car to its absolute limit until he had fought his way back into the lead.

Grant Williams had been forced to make a pit stop with a loose bonnet, on his return to the track he made a determined effort to catch Davis. So much so that the Jaguar was soon making up two seconds a lap but despite his ferocious driving style and resolute effort Williams failed to catch the A35 before the chequered flag. Another unexpected star turn in the St Mary’s Trophy was Ivan Dutton and Gerry Marshall in an astonishingly fast Alvis Grey Lady which made an incongruous but surprisingly effective race car and finished in fourth place behind Jim Woodley’s Austin Westminster A105 which was third.

The Julius Thurgood and Rupert Keegan ZB Magnette in the St Mary’s Trophy

ZB Magnette of Michael Yarney and Nelson Piquet Junior

Grant Williams pushes the Jaguar well beyond its limits

Typical Goodwood scene with motorcycle policeman

Rae Davis in Sunday’s epic battle with Grant Williams

Magwick Cup, fettling a 1950 Frazer Nash Le Mans Replica

Stirling Moss chats with Rowan Atkinson

A 1948 Veritas RS in the Magwick Cup

An interview with Carroll Shelby

Featured marque, Michael Parr’s 1937 BMW 328 in the Magwick Cup

An SU expert explains the mystery of jet centering

I have singled out these particular races because of their MG entrants and sheer entertainment value but the whole programme for the weekend was compulsive viewing. The Goodwood Revival just continues to amaze and delight and because of the film set backdrop you have to remind yourself that everything that happens is real, no special effects or computer graphics, it’s a question of real drivers and real cars taking considerable risks, and there were some accidents and serious damage. The worst incident involved Chris Smith the head of Westfield Sports Cars driving a Lotus 18, it took awhile to get him free from the wreckage and he sustained five fractures in one leg and a broken ankle, but he is now well on the way to recovery.

This year a short wave radio was included with the race programme. These tiny ear mounted radios enable the wearer to clearly hear the commentary wherever they are located on the circuit; access to the commentary is a tremendous asset. The Revival provides a very full weekend of spectacular racing and a unique experience, don’t miss out on the magic of Goodwood, it will be ticket only entry again next year, so book early for 2005.

For more information on the Goodwood Revival you can visit their website at http://www.goodwood.co.uk/revival/

Richard Ladds
Photos by Richard Hampson