Revival Revealed: Goodwood Trophy

It is hard to imagine now, but many of the drivers of the day were still able to be competitive in cars that were at least a decade old. Among these that rolled out to try Goodwood for the first time on 18 September, 1948 in front of a crowd of 20,000 spectators were ERAs, with a cluster entered for the main race of the day to challenge the pre-event favourite, Reg Parnell in a post-WW2 Maserati 4CLT, as well as Duncan Hamilton’s Maserati 6CM and Roy Salvadori’s Maserati 4C.

Bob Gerard put his ERA on pole but was soon passed by Parnell, yet worked his way back onto the low-slung Maserati’s tail and stayed right with him until the finish. Each year from then on, the number of perpendicular pre-war cars dwindled, but they were very much part of the scene in those early Goodwood years, earning the affection of the fans for the way that their drivers took on the roll of underdog with such gusto.

In honour of the British drivers who couldn’t get their hands on the newest machinery, the Goodwood Trophy is a race for Grand Prix cars and Voiturettes from either side of the Second World War, built up to 1950, after which the pace of development really took off and it was no longer really possible for even the greatest ERA driver to keep up with the all-new machinery.

Photography by Jochen Van Cauwenberge