World champions wow crowds at 2022 Goodwood Revival: race reports

Before the start his Grace the Duke of Richmond and Gordon gave a moving tribute to her late Majesty the Queen, complete with emotive footage of her at his horse race track just up the road, He also reminded everyone that the Queen’s last winner as race horse owner was, indeed, poignantly at Goodwood just the previous weekend.

Although Griffiths was clearly the favourite for the race, he had his task made considerably easier when fellow front-row starters Argentine Manuel Elicabe in a Maserati and Ron Gammons in his Lotus-MG Mk9 both hit problems. The Maserati was slow off the line while Gammons pulled off immediately.

Griffiths thus raced to an unchallenged win, finishing 12 seconds ahead of Malcolm Paul’s Lotus-Bristol 10 which just held off the similar car of 18-year old Oliver Marcais, the son of former racer Flavien. Elicabe never really recovered from his poor start to come home fourth.

One disappointment for fans of the unusual was the failure of Christoph Konig’s Tojeiro complete with the flat-four air-cooled Butterworth engine to start the race. Driver Gunther Lainer reporting that ignition problems intervened.

2022 Glover Trophy

Saturday’s second car event was the 25-minute Glover Trophy and a magnificent entry of the diminutive 1.5-litre Formula 1 cars raced between 1961 and 1965. We expected Chapman’s ground breaking Lotus 25-Climax to be up front, particularly with Andy Middlehurst in John Bowers’ 1962 version, But what a joy to see alongside him on the grid America’s Joe Colasacco in Lawrence Aurian’s fabulous 1965 Ferrari 1512, resplendent with its blue wheels contrasting against the scarlet red.

But it was Middlehurst who made the best start and, yet again, he was never troubled as he raced to his eighth Glover Trophy victory. Colsacco gave game chase but after five laps his hand shot up and he retired to the pits. Thus a Lotus 25 one-two looked on the cards but Nick Fennell’s similar and Championship-winning Jim Clark car pulled off with suspected gearbox problems. So Middlehurst took the chequered flag with 18sec in hand over the older Lotus 21 of Mark Shaw while a good drive took Philip Buhofer’s 1964 BRM P261 to third. Interestingly Middlehurst’s fastest lap in the 25 was two seconds shy of the lap record set by Jim Clark in April 1964 in a sister car.

2022 St Mary’s Trophy, Part 1

Next up came Part 1 of the 25 min St Mary’s Trophy for saloons that raced between 1960 to 1964 and embracing everything from mighty Ford Galaxies to tyre smoking Mini Cooper. On the grid were no fewer than eight outright Le Mans winners including nine-time victor Tom Kristensen. Jimmie Johnson was in there too, so was Formula E Champion Stoffel Vandoorne and stars of the past such as Derek Bell and Richard Attwood.

Seven litres of Ford grunt powered pole-position man Roman Dumas into the lead at the wheel of Bill Shepherd’s Ford Galaxie while behind the Lotus Cortinas of Andrew Jordan and WRC rally ace Craig Breen traded paint with former Porsche Super Cup Champion Frank Stippler in a silver grey Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint GTA. Later in the race the German broke free and, as his brakes started to fade, Le Mans winner Dumas found the Italian machine climbing all over him and, indeed, Stippler briefly got alongside once by judicious use of the grass.

Ultimately Dumas hung on by inches and Jordan was third ahead of Breen. Johnson in the second Galaxy was fifth for a while but retired, late race, handing the position to a second Alfa driven by Mexican ex-Sauber F1 racer Esteban Gutierrez. But perhaps the highlight was the Mini battle with André Lotterer just edging out Alex Brundle after an outrageous scrap. But the Trophy goes to the winner on aggregate, with the second race on Sunday, featuring the amateur drivers, still to come.

2022 Goodwood Trophy

The smell of methanol drifted across the circuit as the cars lined up for the Goodwood Trophy for Grand Prix and Voiturette cars raced between 1930 and 1951. This race is usually ERA domain but we also had the race debut of the BRM Type 15 chassis IV with Rob Hall at the wheel. Could it spring a surprise after overheating problems in qualifying?

A long safety car period threw strategies out of the window and shuffled the pack, hurting the crews who were staying out long with their mainly ‘pro’ drivers. This affected the dominant Ferrari and played into the hands of a second Dutch-crewed 250 SWB crewed by father and son David and Oliver Hart who had pitted just before the safety car. In the final laps Hart senior was passed by former BTCC Champion Jordan. A great drive by Joe Twyman, taking over from quick owner Vincent Gaye in another Ferrari 250 SWB, netted third place. Dario Franchitti, who shared with friend Dixon in Gregor Fiskin’s left-hand-drive E-type, took sixth place in what was a highly entertaining close to a terrific day’s racing, but victory went to Whitaker and Jordan in the Dragonsnake.

2022 Chichester Cup

Sunday’s racing started with a spirited battle for Formula Junior cars that raced between 1958 and 1962. This translated into drum brake and mainly rear-engined cars – some 29 cars representing 21 manufacturers. Immediately Andrew Hibbert’s Lotus 20, Pete de la Roche (Lola-Ford Mk3) and Stuart Roach (Alexis-Ford) broke away but the latter dropped out on lap two.

After a safety car period Hibberd spun away his lead at Lavant handing the lead to de la Roche, but he then collected a backmarker, bringing out a red flag. This gave victory back to Hibberd, Chris Drake was second in his Elva Mk3 and Joe Colassco third in the rare Italian RAM-Fiat chassis.

2022 Richmond & Gordon Trophies

Staying with single-seaters, next up was the Richmond & Gordon Trophies for 2.5 litre Grand Prix cars raced between 1954 and 1960: rear- and front-engined cars. Pole was taken by a front-engined car but no surprise there as Miles Griffiths is always quick in Philip Walker’s Lotus 16. He started with two Cooper-Climax T53 lowlines alongside him in the hands of Will Nuthall and Sam Wilson, driving Rudi Friedrich’s car for the first time.

Griffiths’ start was superb and he led away from Nuthall and Wilson and the trio quickly pulled away from the rest. But three laps in, the Lotus 16 again succumbed to gearbox problems and was followed into the pits by Wilson and Andrew Haddon in Julian Bronson’s Scarab from fifth place, both with engine problems. Nuthall, who won this race two years ago, raced home to a 22sec victory over Andrew Willis in Charles McCabe’s BRM P48 with Andrew Beaumont third in the ex-UDT Laystall Lotus 18 from ninth on the grid.

2022 Royal Automobile Club TT Celebration

The afternoon’s quartet of races commenced with what is probably the headline event of the weekend, the one-hour, two-driver Royal Automobile Club TT Celebration race for cars which ran in the TT events in 1963 and 1964. Graham Hill won both those races in Maranello Concessionaires Ferraris; the track had earlier commemorated his stellar career with a fine parade headed by cars driven by Damon Hill and his son Josh.