Motor racing’s annual offering to the idiosyncratic British knack of successfully combining nostalgia with sublime racing scored again.
Goodwood’s Revival meeting provided a 17-race card containing a broad selection of Saloon, Sports, GT and formula cars driven by a cross section of top-class drivers from both historic and modern racing genre. Held in normally sunny Sussex, event shook off wet weather that saw Chaters motoring book shop sell few books but 300 umbrellas on Friday!
Main theme of this year’s event was a tribute to Britain’s versatile seven-time motorcycle world champion for Norton and MV Agusta, John Surtees, known to his Italian fans as ‘Il Grande John’ who then converted onto 4 wheels after testing an Aston Martin DBR1 at Goodwood in 1959.
The 26-year-old driver made his debut with Ken Tyrell’s eponymous Formula Junior team at the 1960 Goodwood Members meeting. Surtees went on to successfully carve a second career as driver, team owner and constructor in a variety of international formula including CanAm, F2 and Grand Prix. The pinnacle came when Surtees became Great Britain’s fourth F1 world champion in 1964 driving for Scuderia Ferrari.
But as well as motor racing, Surtees was a successful businessman and collaborated closely with the then Lord Charles March to re-establish motor racing at his family’s former Westhampnett airfield circuit in 1998 and became a regular spectator favourite of the knowledgeable Goodwood audience, frequently demonstrating some of his former racing steeds. Among John’s extensive list of motor sporting achievements was being the first to score three successive wins in the daunting Isle of Mann Senior TT race.
In an eloquent homage, the now Duke of Richmond spoke of Surtees extraordinary talent as both an inspirational engineer and tenacious competitor until his death in 2017 at the age of 83. Present at the duke’s address to a silent and respectful Goodwood audience were John’s widow Jane, with daughters Leonora and Edwina, who’d helped compile the tribute.
Among other motorsport personalities on the grid was Giacomo ‘Ago’ Agostini (above), a contemporary of Surtees at MV Agusta. The spritely 82 years old Italian star who also rode an MV in the two and four wheeled tribute procession was joined by Stuart Graham, the unique British winner of the Tourist Trophy on two and four wheels.
Other anniversaries celebrated this year included 75 years of Jaguar’s sonorous 6-cyliner XK engine, which powered Jaguar production cars for 4 decades as well as having a remarkable competition career following its 1949 debut in the XK120, which included many race wins including five at Le Mans and is still winning today in historic motorsport!
Undoubtedly the Revival’s racing pièces de résistance this year was the RAC TT Celebration race where current BTCC drivers Jake Hill and 2022 champion Tom Ingram battled in the two-driver race for closed cockpit GT cars & Prototypes 1963/4, driving V8 powered AC Cobra and TVR Griffith respectively. After taking over from the car’s owners – Olly Bryant and Mike Whittaker – Jake and Tom raced relentlessly with the outcome and new lap record going in favour of the TVR, which Ingram was driving for the first time!
Other notable races included the 2-part St Marys Trophy for saloon cars 1960-1966.
In Saturday’s stanza Jake Hill, now driving a Plymouth Barracuda starred, racing wheel to wheel with German DTM and GT driver Frank Stippler in an Italian prepared Alfa Romeo GTA. Despite heavy metal American V8 power V 1600cc Latin twin-cam, Hill failed to get past Stippler after 15 laps of the 2·4-mile circuit in tricky damp conditions. Three-time Le Mans winner Romain Dumas was third in a Ford Galaxie 500 illustrating the truly international flavour of the field.
The 45-minute Stirling Moss Trophy race for GT cars contained 5 Ferrari 250 GTOs and was won by 4-time Indy winner Dario Franchitti and Californian 5-time NASCAR Cup winner Jimmie Johnson in the ex-Stirling Moss Aston Martin DB4 GT.
Despite the typically erratic autumnal British weather, around 150,000 spectators attended the 2024 Goodwood Revival weekend and there can’t have been many disappointed with the quality of racing or pure theatre of the weekend!
© Ken Davies
