Video: Tony Gaze Trophy highlights | 80MM

17th April 2023

Adam Wilkins

The Tony Gaze Trophy is named after the World War Two pilot who suggested making a race track from the perimeter roads around RAF Westhampnett. It stands to reason, then, that cars that make up the grid are from the Goodwood Motor Circuit’s earliest days. All the sports and GT cars on the grid were built between 1948 and 1954.

The highlights video from the 80th Members’ Meeting presented by Audrain Motorsport starts with an on-board with Patrick Blakeney-Edwards and his Frazer Nash Le Mans Replica. He goes on to be embroiled in a three-way Frazer Nash battle with Cliff Gray and John Ure. We rejoin Blakeney-Edwards on board for some very close wheel-to-wheel action where the drivers trust each other to leave enough room with absolutely none to spare. It’s what true racing is all about.

Further on in the race, Nicholas English makes an error that saw his Austin-Healy 100M veer from one side of the track to the other, but he held it together to return to the tarmac unscathed. Fellow Austin-Healey driver Jonathan Abecassis had better fortunes aboard his 100/4. He was in a race of his own at the front of the field and crossed the line under no pressure at all 5 seconds ahead of the drum-braked Frazer Nash of second-place Cliff Gray.

The racing is the most important thing, but it’s also rendered all the more appealing by the classic forms circulating the track. As well as the aforementioned Frazer Nashes and Austin-Healeys, the grid also featured Aston Martin DB2s, a Jaguar XK120 and a Porsche 356. See them in action in this highlights video.