My family and I lived in Canada back in the 1990’s. In a country with such extreme variations in climate the first thing we learnt was:- “There’s no such thing as bad weather – only unsuitable clothing”.
The forecasts predicted that this year’s Goodwood Revival would see the British weather living up to its reputation of being rather grey and rainy. Thus my camera bags were filled with wet weather gear.
Those that follow Formula 1 will know that rain tends to lead to more interesting and exciting races, and so it was at Goodwood. It tends to equalise the power differences and puts a premium on driver skill and bravery. As a result the racing was exceptionally close at times with the winners only being settled on the last lap.
The RAC TT Celebration is usually the most popular race of the weekend with the mighty V8 powered Cobras vying for the lead against the less powerful but more agile E Types. This year was no exception. As the sun finally emerged from behind the clouds, exceptional drives by Jake Hill and Ollie Bryant took them from last place to first only to be passed on the last lap by a similarly Ford V8 powered TVR Griffith. I suspect that the stress of overtaking the entire field had overstressed the tyres of the Cobra, which has the distinction of being one of the very few of these cars to havre raced at Le Mans back in the 1960’s.
On a somewhat smaller scale the Settrington Cup for Austin pedal cars is another crowd favourite. A grid of around 70 cars can be chaotic but is always entertaining.
The David and Goliath entries for the two St Mary’s Trophy ranging from the 3 metre 1.3 litre Minis to the 5 1/5 metre 7 Litre Galaxies.
The relatively dry conditions meant that this year the Galaxies reigned supreme with Bill Shepherd’s taking the overall win with a comfortable lead in race two being supported by Romain Dumas’s third place in Saturday’s damper first race.
The 1960’s saw the transition from front engined to mid engined cars in the top echelons of motor sport. As an AC owner it was a real pleasure to watch the sole front engined entry ( the seven litre Cobra of Fred Shepherd) successfully take on the much better balanced mid engined machines in the Whitsun Trophy, rising to 3rd place at one stage. The race was won by Ollie Bryant in a beautiful Lola T60.
Words cannot do justice to the 18 races held over 3 days so here are a some of my other favourite shots from what was, despite the weather, a great weekend of racing.
