Written by Ollie Lewis, Edited by Vyas Ponnuri
Welcome to the summary of the third and final day of Goodwood Revival. Despite some meteorological challenges, the racing did not leave anyone disappointed.
It was phenomenal to see so many classic machines doing what they were built to do; bringing smiles to so many faces.
Herbert Schwab’s 95-year-old BMW R63 Kompressor was a particular favourite, taking on much newer bikes and performing so well in all conditions.
The morning was much like the others, with yet another biblical downpour causing one race to be red-flagged. However, the sun did finally make an appearance this afternoon, illuminating the lush green English countryside providing a spectacular backdrop to some of the greatest classic racing scenes.
There was so much going on in every race, that is hard to summarise it all into just one article. So, below are summaries of four particularly good races from the final day’s timetable.
Barry Sheene Memorial Pt. 2
Just like yesterday, the second part of the Barry Sheene Memorial Trophy did not disappoint.
The riders swapped positions with the ‘amateur’ riders taking the first stint, including the Le Mans style start where they sprint to their bikes.
The start was nailed by the No. 38 Matchless G80, ridden by Dan Jackson, who jumped from seventh into the lead before the first corner. The 95-year-old No. 11 BMW R63 Kompressor again struggled to get off the line at the hands of Herbert Schwab.
Much like Pt.1 of the Barry Sheene Memorial Trophy, the No. 68 Norton Velocette of Michael Russell and Michael Rutter had another blistering start, climbing from 27th to 6th within one lap.
As the second lap began, the No. 38 Matchless had a three second advantage over second place, which slowly began to dwindle as Michael Russell flew up the field.
Further down the field, the No. 67 Triton GED Special was forced off the track onto the grass at Lavant corner, where Paul Stephen met the gravel, losing his balance and falling off the bike. Thankfully, the crash was at a slow speed so no injuries were sustained.
By lap 3, the No. 68 bike had caught up to the two leaders, facilitating some tense racing. The three bikes were three-abreast into Fordwater, one of the fastest corners, where they remained until St Mary’s as Russell slipped up the inside of the No. 27 bike.
The order at the front remained the same for the majority of the race and it was only mixed up once the pitlane opened for the rider swap.
On lap 8, TT star Davey Todd jumped onto the No. 11 BMW R63 just as the rain began to fall, looking like he’d match his unbeatable form as seen in the Friday practice sessions.
Todd began setting the fastest lap of the race as soon as he could, quickly rising from 7th to 4th and later to third.
However, both the No. 68 and No. 27 bikes chose to put in one more lap before making the mandated swap, and it wasn’t clear whether they would make it to the pitlane before it closed.
While the No. 68 bike of Russell was extremely lucky, sneaking into the pitlane with merely seconds to spare, the No. 27 bike was not as fortunate.
On lap 13, 4 laps after pitting, the No. 27 bike was disqualified from the race as they did not complete the rider swap in the required time.
This did not stop the racing, as the No. 27 rider Jeremy McWilliams was simply not told about the disqualification during the race. As far as he was concerned, he was still fighting for the win.
Despite the falling rain, the No. 68 and the No. 27 bikes were glued to each other around every corner, constantly swapping positions with elaborate moves around inside of St Mary’s and along the Lavant straight.
Perhaps the most hair-raising racing they did was on the final lap, separated by only a couple of tenths they were completely locked into a ground-based dogfight.
The No. 68 slid past into St Mary’s, taking the outside line into Lavant leaving a gap for the No. 27 to slot into. Down the Lavant straight, both riders were wringing their bikes to squeeze every last drop of power from their small two-cylinder engines.
Into Woodcote, the No. 68 of Rutter moved up the inside of McWilliams where it looked like he would stay. However, McWilliams somehow squeezed himself through the inside of the chicane.
While this was spectacular to watch, it meant he compromised his exit speed allowing Rutter to slipstream behind him and overtake on the line, separating the drivers by less than one tenth of a second.
Rutter and Russell dominated this Trophy, taking both wins and the overall aggregate victory.
Earl of March and Richmond & Gordon Trophies
While these races are so different in terms of engine size and size of car, they both experienced similar fates this morning.
The Earl of March trophy, with the 500cc motorbike-powered cars, started in the dry but only a few seconds later the heavens opened and the track was bombarded with an obscene amount of rainfall, bringing out the red flag after several laps behind the safety car.
The Richmond & Gordon Trophies began amidst the aftermath of the downpour behind the safety car, before eventually beginning with around 19 minutes to go.
The restart was controlled by the No.4 Cooper Climax T53 of William Nuthall, who timed it well to briefly pull away from Andy Willis in the No.2 BRM P48.
Approaching a still rather wet St Mary’s, the No.2 car made a late move up the inside into the second part of St Mary’s, but couldn’t quite make it stick leaving him to drift out wide giving the position back to the No.4 car.
Just behind them was the magnificent No.34 Maserati 250F of John Spiers, who sadly underestimated the grip on the track, left the track on the outside of Lavant, allowing 3 cars behind to move up past him.
The fun didn’t stop between the front pair, with Willis sending another late move up the inside of Will Nuthall. While he came close, it was not to be as Willis wasn’t able to make it stick and remained in second.
At the start of the second lap, the gap between the No.2 and the No.4 was still slim. Willis in the No.4 used the slipstream to his advantage, gaining crucial extra speed which he deployed against Nuthall up the inner part of Madgwick.
In the dry, this move may have worked. However, Nuthall remained on the outside of the corner where there was less rubber and, therefore more grip. Despite some brief side-by-side action, Nuthall yet again remained in front.
Perhaps fighting frustration, Willis made yet another move into St Mary’s which he was still trying to complete on the run to Lavant. While the track was drying slowly, there was still standing water. Willis aquaplaned on the inside of Lavant and slid off the track onto the grass.
He never came particularly close to collecting Nuthall but gave him the advantage of a sizable lead for the rest of the race.
At this point, the No.34 Maserati was running in second with an agitated Willis trying to catch up. Willis eventually caught the heavier, front-engined Maserati into the chicane where he looked to sneak up the inside far too late.
Willis skidded into the rear-right bumper of the Maserati, sending it into a spin at the start of the straight.
The No.34 car had to engage reverse to rejoin the track, but they were able to continue the race, preventing a safety car from being deployed. The No.34 made considerable progress up the field during the rest of the race and ultimately finished outside the top 3.
Having made the mistake earlier, Willis was unable to close the gap between himself and Nuthall and ended up finishing in second, despite a brief excursion to the grass at Lavant.
RAC TT
Perhaps one of the most exciting races across the weekend, the RAC TT featured a star-studded field of drivers from the British Touring Car Championship to World Endurance and even engineering legends such as Red Bull aerodynamicist Adrian Newey.
The race began with a fantastic start by Adrian Newey, competing with his son Harrison, in the No.25 Jaguar E-Type. Despite the blistering start, other drivers managed to catch up on the run into Fordwater, where they were briefly four abreast.
Even though the track was still quite damp, and the grip still being inconsistent, all drivers made it through with only one spinning out.
The No.79 AC Cobra driven by Andrew Smith had a good start, climbing from sixth to first within two corners.
Further down the order, a brilliant start by Olly Bryant meant that the No.1 AC Cobra had managed to climb from 29th on the grid to tenth within just one lap.
Bryant continued his charge up the field taking four more places over the next lap, eventually reaching the top five within five laps.
On lap nine, one of the Chevrolet Corvettes suffered a mechanical failure on the exit of the chicane, as the rear left driveshaft failed and exploded, throwing debris everywhere. While this did not trigger a safety car, it was still disappointing for such a special car to not finish the race.
In the same lap, Bryant had pulled the Cobra onto the podium having pulled off some electrifying moves, particularly around the outside of Madgwick.
By lap 12, the pitlane had opened and some cars began to pile in. The No.88 E-Type of current leaders Martin Brundle and Richard Kent was amongst the first to perform the driver swap, where Brundle took over for the remaining 35 minutes of the race.
On lap 14, Olly Bryant entered the pits to swap with current BTCC leader Jake Hill, who set off in hot pursuit of the No.88 Jaguar.
Brundle, while trying to carve his way through the backmarkers, had briefly left the track at St Mary’s, conceding precious time to Hill, who was beginning to set some of the fastest laps of the race.
On the 18th lap, Hill was close enough to smell the fumes of the No.88 cars and went for a move after Fordwater towards St Mary’s. While just alongside, Brundle tried to control his throttle causing his wheels to spin, forcing his car to veer right into Hill.
Thankfully, no mechanical damage had been done and Hill was forced to drop back, having wrestled his wild Cobra from a slide. Hill recovered and made an easy pass down the Lavant straight, utilising the extra power from his V8 Cobra.
Romain Dumas was the next driver to leave the race, with an unknown failure causing his engine to cut out, forcing him to stop within the chicane. He was not able to get it restarted, triggering the first and only safety of the race.
A new threat began to emerge for Jake Hill in the form of Tom Ingram and his TVR Griffith 400, which appeared to be coming alive as the track continuously dried up. Just before the safety car, Ingram managed to set the fastest lap by six-tenths of a second.
Ingram was only just in the top ten when the race restarted, but the drivers in front of him were merely cobwebs he had to brush aside.
Ingram was flying, pulling some outrageous moves on the inside of Woodcote and around the outside of Madgwick. With 10 laps to go, there was a nine-second gap to be closed.
With six laps to go, Ingram had caught Hill. From then on, Ingram and Hill were stuck together like glue.
Both drivers were demonstrating their natural talent by pushing their cars to the ragged edge, to the point where the suspension compressed so much the bodywork rubbed against the tires.
Five laps left, and it looked like Ingram had a real chance to make a move on the inside of Madgwick. However, a rare error from the touring car champion meant he locked the rear wheels of his TVR while braking for Madgwick, sliding onto the grass on the inside and narrowly missing Hill.
As if he had a sixth sense, Hill was aware enough of where Ingram was to move out of the way and allowed him to slide across the track, where he lost time and Hill could retake the position.
Ingram remained right on Hill’s bumper throughout the last few laps until the penultimate one. Ingram finally launched his assault on Ingram, using the TVR Griffith’s 5-litre Ford V8 to fly down Lavant where he lined up a move around the outside of Woodcote.
Ingram’s sheer speed in the TVR meant he was perfectly in front of Hill before the braking zone, where Hill was unable to counter.
Ingram began to pull away in the first half of the final lap, with Hill using all that was available to him to catch up. Alas, the TVR was too quick and, despite a last-minute burst of speed, Ingram took gold.
After 60 minutes of racing, Hill finished 0.4 seconds behind Ingram, finishing what was probably one of the most exhilarating duels across the whole weekend.
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