Henry Hope-Frost's 15 favourite Revival moments
After recovering from his almost incurable fever, which is only exacerbated by exposure to top quality motorsport, our resident motorsport expert settled down to recall his favourite moment of the weeked. After choosing them he was readmitted to a local hospital suffering from a fever-relapse.
Kristensen is Kinrara King
For the fifth time at the Revival, nine-time Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen jumped in a car he’d never sat in, let alone raced, and won with it. The Dane’s charge to victory in fading Friday-evening light aboard Joe Macari’s Ferrari 250 GT SWB/C in the inaugural Kinrara Trophy for pre-1962 GT cars was mesmerising and ranks alongside his three St Mary’s Trophy successes in an Austin 105 Westminster, Ford Galaxie and Ford Fairlane Thunderbolt, and RAC TT glory in a Shelby Daytona Cobra Coupé.
Lockie defeats ERAs for Goodwood Trophy glory
After outqualifying the hordes of ERAs, for so long the dominant machines in the Revival’s pre-war encounter, Scottish GT ace Lockie knew he’d have his work cut out to keep them behind in Sean Danaher’s 1,500cc Maserati 6CM. As rain fell at the start of Saturday’s opener, he outwitted everyone to take Maserati’s first Goodwood Trophy win for 10 years – only the third time in 17 events that the English Racing Automobiles have been denied.
83-year-old Rudge TTR splashes to two-wheeled victory
In one of the wettest opening Barry Sheene Memorial Trophy salvos anyone could remember, one of the oldest bikes in the field, the 1938 585cc Rudge TTR ridden by owner Mike Farrall and nine-time Isle of Man TT winner Charlie Williams, was supreme in slippery conditions. From 24th on the 30-bike grid, Farrall worked his way up the order before handing over to Williams, who kept up the charge, defying physics on the way, to win. And they were just as quick in the dry in Sunday’s second leg, taking third place.
Brabham family fever for 50th anniversary fun
Arriving en masse to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Sir Jack Brabham’s world title in a car bearing his own name, members of the late, great Australian hero’s family wore perma-smiles all weekend as scores of great cars Sir Jack had raced and/or tested were on show. Racing sons Geoff and David who, like Jack, had their first go in a racing car on UK soil at Goodwood, and racing grandsons Sam and Matthew all jumped in various machines during the daily parades. The sight of ex-F1 racer and Le Mans winner David in the cockpit of one of his old man’s machines and wearing one of his period open-face helmets was uncanny and surreal.
BTCC aces in St Mary’s slipstream shenanigans
Once it was announced that this year’s St Mary’s Trophy saloon car thrash would be a one-make race for Austin A30 and A35 Academy cars, unanimous cries of ‘that’ll be epic’ rang out. And when a cast of touring car aces – contemporary and retired – as well as a few Le Mans winners and ex-Grand Prix drivers was corralled into sharing the 85bhp machines with their owners in the two-part slipstreamer, interest went a bit crazy. In Saturday’s opener, in which the stars went doorhandle-to-doorhandle, Gordon Shedden and GRR's own Andrew Jordan put on quite a show. In the end, Jordan pipped his polesitting rival by a tenth. For Sunday’s owners-only affair, Renault Clio racer James Dorlin took the honours, although it was third-placed Mike Jordan (in for son Andrew) who pipped Steve Soper (third in his heat) and Charles Knill-Jones (second) for overall honours.
Three-litre F1 thrills
Demonstrations, parades and tributes add an extra layer of on-track fun for fans at the Revival. And this year’s 50th anniversary celebration of Formula 1’s ‘return to power’ in 1966 was one of the best. With a dozen cars – comprising fabulous machines from Brabham, BRM, Cooper, Ferrari and Lotus – housed in a recreation of the pits at Reims in the 1966 French Grand Prix, open-mouthed visitors were ten-a-penny. And then they all came out to play on the circuit each day to prove that, even in a motorsport context, the sixties really did swing.
Huff is Whitsun Wizard
World Touring Car Champion Rob Huff caught the historic-racing bug many years ago, with regular club-level exploits in an MGB. And he shows no sign of shaking it off any time soon. He was out in several cars at the Revival, a meeting at which he’s always been keen to win. He must’ve fancied his chances from third on the grid for a sodden Whitsun Trophy aboard Chris Tolman’s Lotus 19, despite it only sporting an elderly 4.2-litre Oldsmobile engine. An epic scrap between Huff and Mike Whitaker in the ex-Nick Padmore Lola T70 Spyder ensued, with Whitaker running wide at the wrong moment to allow Huff to slither into a lead he kept until the end. His efforts, among others, earned him the Rolex Driver of the Meeting award.
Scarab’s scalp in Richmond Trophy
Julian Bronson has been trying to win the front-engined Grand Prix car race, to add to his McLaren M1B Whitsun Trophy win and Lister-Jaguar Sussex Trophy success, for years and finally achieved it after a scintillating 13-lap scrap. A botched pass on leader Tony Wood, in which he lost the nose of the Offenhauser-powered beast, dropped him back for a bit, but he was soon back on the Tec-Mec Maserati’s tail. He moved clear at the front when the Maser cried enough with a few laps to run.
Flash Gordon takes a TT double
Reigning BTCC champ Gordon Shedden wowed crowds with his performance last year in the JD Classics Jaguar E-type Lightweight alongside one of the best in the historic business, Chris Ward. The duo won the TT and found themselves back in the big cat in 2016 ready to try to do the double – which hasn’t happened since 2007. After a mighty scrap with 2014 winner Giedo van de Garde, back in David Hart’s Cobra, the Scot prevailed when the two had the briefest of touches while oversteering as one out of Lavant. When the Dutchman pirouetted onto the grass, victory was Shedden’s.
Fennell on top for maiden Glover glory
With Classic Team Lotus down to just one of its perfect monocoque 25s thanks to the engine in five-time Glover Trophy winner Andy Middlehurst’s car playing up at Monza, it was down to Nick Fennell to try for six in a row for CTL. He got embroiled in a furious battle with the polesitting spaceframe Lotus 24 of Martin Stretton who couldn’t find a gear as they crossed the line to start the last lap – with a second to spare. Having lost the lead to Fennell, Stretton had it all to do again and made a monster effort at St Mary’s, only to run wide and kangaroo across the grass, leaving Fennell to take a maiden 1.5-litre F1 win.
Ickx reunited with 1969 Brabham BT26A
The sight of one of racing’s greatest all-rounders sporting his trademark black-and-white helmet while strapped into the car in which he won the German Grand Prix at the fearsome Nürburgring Nordschleife the year before I was born was extraordinary. Chatting to the Belgian legend on air out on the grid during the Brabham tribute about his year with Jack’s team – in which he finished second in the title race – almost finished me off. And my condition deteriorated when period Brabham mechanic Neil Trundle walked me round the car offering a fascinating insight into its make-up.
Remus returns for anniversary parade
Reunited for a Goodwood Greats parade commemorating the 50th anniversary of the circuit’s closure in 1966, Ludovic Lindsay and ERA R5B ‘Remus’ were back in action. Lindsay, a six-time Revival winner in what is probably the most raced competition machine anywhere on the planet, won the very first Revival race, the 1998 Woodcote Cup, in the 1936 blue-and-yellow ex-Bira voiturette that was also campaigned in early Goodwood meetings by Ron Flockhart.
McGuinness in dream debut on Manx Norton
A staunch supporter of the Festival of Speed on outrageous Isle of Man TT Honda superbikes for many years, the Morecambe Missile had somehow never made it to the Revival. This year, that wrong was righted and the 23-time TT winner was entered on a Fred Walmsley-built Manx Norton alongside Glen English for the Barry Sheene Memorial Trophy. And he didn’t disappoint, taking an early lead from 10th on the grid in Saturday’s opening heat. The duo finished fourth at the flag, setting themselves up for a strong aggregate result on Sunday. English rode out of his skin to build up a big lead in glorious sunshine, with ‘McPint’ taking over and maintaining the advantage. Result: heat victory by 27 seconds and overall glory by a similar amount. McGuinness was hooked by the whole event and promises to be back…
Lord March lands a special driving lesson
Seated behind the wheel of a replica of the Ferrari 250 GTO in which Graham Hill won the 1963 RAC Tourist Trophy, complete with faded number 11s on the roundels, Revival founder Lord March had an apprehensive look ahead of leading the field round in Sunday’s Goodwood Greats parade. Alongside him was seven-time TT winner Sir Stirling Moss to offer some encouragement. Quite a moment for our event host who, as a small boy alongside his circuit-owning grandfather Freddie March, watched Moss win the 1960 and ’61 TTs in a Ferrari 250 GT SWB.
Credit Suisse Forum
For the sixth time, I was entrusted with the role of master of ceremonies at Revival partner Credit Suisse’s annual Historic Racing Forum on Saturday morning in the old Race Control building, now home to the Swiss bank’s hospitality and media activities. Joining me for a typically lively debate, loosely based on the theme ‘Closed-cockpits versus single-seaters: the path the motorsport glory’, were Credit Suisse ambassadors Sir Stirling Moss, Derek Bell, Jochen Mass and Alain de Cadenet, joined by Dario Franchitti and David Brabham. What this legendary sextet doesn’t know, or hasn’t experienced, during a lifetime in racing isn’t worth knowing. Not unexpectedly, it was a real treat!
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Henry Hope-Frost
2016
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Henry Hope-Frost’s Top 15 Revival Moments
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