words and photos by Martin Hoare
Ahh the smell of burning rubber, burning fuel and the noise of rumbling engines and screeching tyres, then all of a sudden the sound of merlin engines above…this can only mean one thing, day two of Goodwood Revival. The sun is out albeit very low and spitfires are flying around above my head, famous drivers are jumping into their classic cars and racing them around the Goodwood racing circuit. Pretty much everyone is wearing some kind of attire to fit their favourite era, including the women.. Lord March has pretty much created heaven and dumped it on his doorstep.
On my way to one of the races I bumped into Murray Walker and asked him if he had any highlights he could share to which his response was “I’ve just had a full English breakfast looking out at a view of 6 spitfires, it was fantastic”
One of my favourite races was the Whitsun Trophy, a 25 minute race featuring sports racing prototypes that raced between 1963 and 1966, This was also the fastest race of them all with some cars reaching a startling 108 mph on this 2.4 mile long track, The race was pretty much won by two 1966 Lola T70 Spyder’s right up until the last hairpin when they had a slight touch resulting in Paul Knapfield’s car (#18) spinning off into the verge and allowing Jay Esterer to win this race in his 1966 Chinook Chevrolet Mk2 (#1), and Gary Pearson ended up in second place in his Lola T70 (#19).
As this year marks the 50th anniversary of the E-Type Jaguar and as a commemoration to the “Fordwater Trophy” there was a featured 2 driver 29 E-Type race, spanning 45 minutes. Unfortunately, Desire Wilson(#10) had to end the race early when her brakes locked up on the grass and ended up sliding into the barriers. Gerhard Berger was in the lead for a majority of the race as he drove Adrian Newey’s Lightweight E-Type (#25) to the max but lost valuable time swapping drivers in the pits. Adrian Newey took over but ended up second to the combined efforts of Jon Minshaw and Martin Stretton (#28).
Also, due to it being the 75th anniversary of the Spitfire this year, there were around 14 Spitfires on the airfield. Occasionally groups of two or three would take off and perform displays. On Sunday, all of them were expected to be scrambled and perform a special display, with the Avro Lancaster also making an appearance on Saturday and Sunday, There was also a selection of the worlds most concourse aeroplanes on static display featuring the B-17 Flying Fortress “Sally B” which appeared in the film Memphis Belle.
There were actors and dancers aplenty, dotted around the site, setting the scene from the 40’s all the way up to the 70’s, including period marriages and shotgun weddings performed in a chapel to the side of the track, tree hugging hippies, Hare Krishnas and police pursuits. In addition, a street made out with full sized shops, Tesco, Kenwood and Delonghi were some of the brands who brought their own unique taste of the past with them with retro branded products to look at and some were even for sale.
The dates for the next revival have been set as the 14th,15th and 16th September 2012 so we hope to see you all next year.
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