Glorious Goodwood again a big triumph
THE Goodwood team again presented the now legendary ‘Revival’, bringing the best of the best to the Sussex circuit to mark remarkable anniversaries.
Sunday, the final day of this year’s racing, was 74 years to the day since the first ever race meeting at the old RAF Westhampnett base, and 24 years to that same day in 1998 when Goodwood Motor Circuit resumed roaring with race cars.
With events across the country cancelled after the passing of the Queen, the organisers decided to continue with what is the biggest such motorsporting celebration of its kind in the world, but with special moments throughout the weekend to acknowledge Her Majesty’s reign and dedication.
A number of one-minute silences were announced by a single field gun shot, bringing the bustling, noisy circuit and crowds to a respectful hush.
The line-up of races for 2022 brought back the types of cars that were raced at Goodwood in its original period of 18 years as a noted international circuit, the Goodwood Trophy race seeing pre-war Grand Prix racers.
That power and glory were added to by the BRM V16-engined re-creation driven by Rob Hall, making a noise that had to be heard to be believed.
The Freddie March Memorial Trophy race got the weekend under way at 6.30pm as the sunset neared, prefaced by an amazing cavalcade of some 30 cars from the all-too-short life of Graham Hill, that ‘most British of gentlemen’ who lost his life in his private plane in his 45th year, and 60 years since he won his first world championship in a BRM.
Graham’s son Damon, himself a world champion in Formula 1, and his son Josh marked Hill Snr’s 1968 second world title by driving two Lotus 49 racers. Graham’s close friend Sir Jackie Stewart was in Hill’s 1963 Tourist Trophy-winning Ferrari GTO, and the sole surviving Brabham BT37 that Graham Hill used in 1972 was paraded by Jamie Constable, the Historic F1 driver.
Three cars that were seen in that series were the GH F1 cars that Graham Hill’s own F1 Team built and raced in 1975 and up to his unexpected death, also marked a special time in many lives as the trio of red and white cars drove together for a first time.
The Hill Tribute ran three times over the weekend, as did the Ferrari Tribute Parade, and as is traditional the entire Goodwood site was presented in the usual pre1966 style, a theme enthusiastically supported by visitors who dressed the part, adding to the unique character of the event.
Described by the Duke of Richmond and Gordon as a man who exemplified the best of British character, Graham Hill was a funloving extrovert man of the people, with a fearsome competitiveness and a natural gift for speed.
The parade celebrated the 60th anniversary of Hill’s first F1 world title in 1962, and his first ever outright F1 category victory at Goodwood in the BRM P578.
Graham’s son, and fellow F1 world champion Damon Hill, paid tribute to his late father by driving the same car for the commemoration. A multi-time race winner at Goodwood, a two-time F1 champion, five-time Monaco Grand Prix winner and still the only man to win motorsport’s Triple Crown, Graham Hill remains a legend and much-missed friend of Goodwood.
Another parade had 100 Austin 7 cars of every type, contrasting with the 30 thundering racing motorcycles from the 1920s to the 1950s, the two-rider two-race battle including such stars as John Mcguinness, Steve Parrish, Peter Hickman, Jenny Tinmouth, Michael Rutter and James Hillier to name but a few, the latter taking the win on the 1954 Matchless G80 620 teamed with George Thomas.
Kieft racing cars from the former Swansea company of Cyril Kieft were impressively numerous.
Their best result came in the Madgwick Cup for under-two-litre sports cars, Miles Griffiths in the 1954 Kieft-climax 1100 taking the win and fastest lap, another of the marquee 15th, and the driver of the Kieft Climax Grand Prix car, Nigel Batchelor, later to race it in the Richmond & Gordon Trophy event, taking a 14th Madgwick Cup place in his 1953 Cooper MG T21.
Formula Junior was the series that started the careers of many a racer who became a legend.
The Chichester Cup, open to rear-engine drum-braked Formula Junior cars, the Revival’s hotly-contested single-seater race cars close to those that raced in contemporary top-level Grand Prix racing, with manufacturers competing in both. Again, two 1960 Kieft-fords raced, Nic Carlton-smith 10th and Rob Goodwin 17th in the 30-strong field.
In the 2.5-litre Grand Prix cars from 1952 to 1960, Nigel Batchelor shared the Richmond & Gordon grid with Ferrari, Maserati, Lotus, Connaught and BRMS, his 1954 Kieft Climax Grand Prix car giving away some years and cc’s to the opposition yet finishing 16th from 30 after a bit of grass cutting after a massive spin.
The Kieft, now a unique racing car, races throughout Europe in the classic F1 series, impressively rebuilt and run by Classic Performance Engineering expert Andy Ford, who knows every part of the car, such has been his dedication in rebuilding old Cyril’s F1 creation.
AMMANFORD’S Keegan Rees resumed his busy year as a rally co-driver with ‘The Flying Kiwi’ Boyd Kershaw in his Jonesportprepared and run Ford Escort Mk2 on the Woodpecker stages in Ludlow.
They finished first BTRDA Silverstar crew, top 2WD in the Pirelli Ravenol Welsh National Rally Championship 2WD championship, 20th overall outright and first in the B11 class.
It was touch and go with a cracked inlet manifold, the Escort losing huge amounts of water and the temperature rising such that they had to stop outside a house in Knighton to ask for water to fill the radiator back up, and top it up again before each stage.
A fantastic finish but not without drama. The duo are in good stead for the remainder of the championship, and the next round will be the Wyedean in October.
Both expressed thanks to the Knighton gentleman who saved their day!