Gallery: The thunderous Pierpoint Cup at the 78MM
Holding the headline slot for the Saturday night at the 78th Members’ Meeting was The Pierpoint Cup. A two-driver, 45-minute battle royal between big, bold, brash pre-1966 American V8 saloons. Not wanting to disappoint, the great and the good of touring cars, Formula 1 and sportscar racing took to the track to wrestle these aircraft-carrier sized lumps of metal including Ford Falcon Sprints and Galaxies, Notchback Mustangs, Dodge Darts, Plymouth Barracudas and Mercury Comet Cyclones around the Goodwood circuit. And boy, did they deliver.
From the off, it was a rough and tumble competitive display, with three-abreast into Madgwick. A break-neck start that only began to settle once Emanuele Pirro flipped a 1964 Ford Falcon Sprint onto its top against the tires at St. Mary’s. The safety car followed moments before the pit-lane was due to open, bunching up the pack for what would be a breathless second part of the race.
Even the narrow pit-lane wasn’t spared the argy-bargy, with more than a few cars swapping paintwork after driver change-overs.
Plenty of oversteer, tyre smoke, and fire-spitting later, the Pierpoint Cup came to an end at dusk with the number 32 1963 of Studebaker Lark Daytona 500 driven by Adrian Willmott and Andrew Jordan taking the victory by a massive 23.688 seconds in front of Anthony Reid and Murray Shepherd in second and Marco Attard and Tom Ingram in third. If that’s the new standard, Sunday has plenty to live up to! Enjoy the gallery.
Photography by James Lynch and Jordan Butters.
78MM
Members Meeting
Pierpoint Cup
Gallery