![Geri Halliwell [links] and Christian Horner [rechts] mit Familie anlässlich des Settrington Cup - Goodwood Revival 2024](/bild/Geri-Halliwell-links-and-Christian-Horner-rechts-mit-Familie-anlaesslich-des-Settrington-Cup-Goodwood-Revival-2024/46859bdb-551d-431e-8417-8cd0cfa3d951-normal.jpg?h=gwucewIHuH3E49a2eKGeEJHfy5zkh0Ies1lZo6ToeZ8=&from=carousel&urlcontext=%2Fen%2Farticles%2Fraces%2FGoodwood-Revival-2024.html)
If, like the author, you have already traveled to the Goodwood Revival for the 17th time, primarily as a tour guide for a group of petrolheads (some gentlemen, of course, always accompanied by delightful female companions), there is little that can really impress you. In 2023, the weather did - it was as warm as the Mediterranean in midsummer, and this was the only motorsport event at which men were able to comply with the organizers' request for period dressing, i.e. a smart outfit with long trousers, shirt, tie or bow tie and matching headgear, just like in the legendary Goodwood days. The ladies wear as little as possible, which visually compensates for the beads of sweat.
And the weather also impressed in 2024 - simply the other way around. "Although we're hoping for sunshine, please check the weather forecast ahead of the day and prepare accordingly," the Goodwood Estate Company Limited warned the audience as a precaution. The hope for sunshine was only fulfilled in the course of Sunday afternoon, until then it rained repeatedly in varying degrees on the three public days, only interrupted by longer dry spells on Saturday. When even the locals talk about "typically English conditions" and "ever-changing skies" (in the press release from Goodwood partner Rolex), i.e. typically English conditions under constantly changing skies, then this time it was not just a sarcastic statement, which we always like to use to make fun of the English.
Unclouded mood under gloomy skies
But regardless of whether it was coming down from above and how deep the puddles or muddy paths were, if you couldn't avoid them or wanted to sit on a covered grandstand all day - it didn't dampen the good mood. What was on offer at the Revival on and around the Goodwood Motor Circuit is and remains unique, which is why it is always a pleasure to attend.
The audience was not only enthusiastic about the races, but also about the numerous demonstration runs. This began with the Beach Buggy Parade on Friday.
The same was also true for the run in memory of John Surthees.
Visual and acoustic pleasure
Depending on which vehicle class you prefer as a spectator, all the racing fields were a visual and acoustic delight. And depending on the degree of wetness of the track, the drivers' willingness to take risks was limited. The profiled all-weather tires, mostly of the Dunlop Racing type, enable breathtaking drift angles on dry surfaces, but their grip in the rain tends to advise a more cautious driving style. Anyone who heard how the cars spun in all gears when accelerating, or counted the many spins, could understand this. Of course, there were still a few daring drivers who were able to assert themselves in the individual training sessions and races.
A Lotus victory at the start
After the almost entirely wet practice sessions for all fields, the British-dominated Sussex Trophy for sports cars from 1955 to 1960 kicked off on Friday evening, having previously usually concluded the Revival on Sunday. On a drying track under a clearing cloud cover, Andrew Smith and Oliver Bryant - who had already won the sprint race in 2023 - won the one-hour race from ninth on the grid in their Lotus 15. In second place, Nigel Greensall and John Spiers in the Lister Jaguar Costin were able to hold off two other Lotus with Climax engines.
Multiple Le Mans winners André Lotterer (Lister-Jaguar Knobbly) and Tom Kristensen (Cooper-Jaguar T38) finished 8th and 12th with their British partners Joe Macari and Frederic Wakeman respectively.
Improvement in the weather on Saturday
After Friday's rain, the drivers of the pre- and post-war racing cars were happy to be able to start the Saturday races on a dry track. On the final lap, multiple Goodwood winner Mark Gillies and his green 1931 ERA A-type R3A had to concede defeat to the 1937 Alta 61S driven by Ian Baxter. Patrick Blakeney-Edwards, who started from pole position in the 1935 Frazer Nash 'Fane' Monoposto, completed the podium in third place, which as usual consists of a laurel wreath and a short interview.
Only the winner receives the famous cigar. Heinz Bachmann was able to avoid being lapped in his 1936 ERA B-type R9B and was the best German-speaking driver in eleventh place. Volker Hichert (Talbot-Lago T26C - 1948), Fritz Burkard (Maserati 4CL - 1939), Markus Neisius, Stephan Rettenmaier (both Maserati 6CM - 1938) and Josef Rettenmaier (Maserati 8CM - 1933) finished in 14th, 15th, 16th, 19th and 22nd place.
Old BMW beats almost all British motorcycles
For the subsequent first race of the motorcycles up to 1954, Davey Todd and Herbert Schwab were allowed to put their 1928 BMW R63 Kompressor on the front row at the start according to the legendary Le Mans procedure (practiced at the 24 Hours of Le Mans until 1970). They would have liked the rain to continue, but in the dry the more modern machines soon took command, while the BMW eventually succumbed to mechanical problems.
On Sunday morning, the duo, who had once again started from the front, showed their strength in the wet with a magnificent second place. TT veterans Michael Russell and Michael Rutter won both 25-minute races in a 1954 Norton Velocette MSS, despite having to start from 27th position twice after problems in practice. Sebastian Gutsch/Howie Mainwaring-Smart and Klaus Ottillinger/Andy Hornsby brought their two 1937 and 1938 BMW R5SSs home in the middle of the many all-British pairs after 25 minutes in the top ten in the first race and in 20th and 15th place in the second race.
Red flag brings the decision
In the field of the Fordwater Trophy for production-based sports cars and GT cars from 1955 to 1960, Marc Gordon and Tim Crighton fought a duel in light drizzle in which the lead changed hands almost every lap. When the race was red-flagged after 20 instead of 25 laps due to an accident, Gordon in the Jaguar XK150 FHC was half a second ahead of his opponent's Austin-Healey 100/6. At full distance, things might have ended differently. Behind them, a trio of Porsches with the second-fastest Jaguar and an Elva Courier battled it out for third place, which Sam Tordoff in the 1953 356 - the oldest of the three - won. Charles Morgan, grandson of the founder of the eponymous marque, finished eighth in a 1961 Morgan Plus 4 after qualifying an astonishing third in the rain.
Tribute to a unique world champion
During the break of around one and a half hours until the next race on Saturday (repeated on Sunday), the career of John Surtees, who died in March 2017, was commemorated with an impressive parade. Surtees, who remained a permanent guest at the Revival until his death, would have turned 90 in 2024. In 1960, at the age of 26, he contested his first car race at Goodwood in a Formula Junior Cooper T52 and finished second behind the equally unforgettable Jim Clark. Remarkably, he was on his way to his third double world championship title in the 350cc and 500cc motorcycles in the same year. In July 1960, Surtees finished second on the podium of a Formula 1 race at the British Grand Prix and four years later he won the world championship title with Ferrari. To date, Surtees is the only world champion on two and four wheels, and later he also made a name for himself as a constructor and team owner. The parade therefore consisted of a unique field of two- and four-wheeled racing cars from his career.
German success on Alfa Romeo
At the Goodwood Revival, every race is a treat in itself for enthusiasts of this scene. However, the St. Mary's Trophy for touring cars, in which racing professionals from all over the world and from all kinds of championships show off their skills, is the annual highlight on Saturday. In the rain training session, Alex Buncombe, who otherwise mainly drives modern GT cars, put in a dream lap in an Austin Cooper S, securing pole position by almost three seconds. The soon-to-be 72-year-old Steve Soper, once a gifted fighter in the DTM, touring car and FIA GT World Championship, also proved his unbridled ambition and the potential of a small, front-wheel-drive Mini in the wet by finishing second in practice. The actually favored Ford Galaxie 500 of US star Jimmie Johnson, BTCC champ Gordon Shedden and André Lotterer were of course unable to exploit the V8 power of their battleships in the rain and only found themselves in the back rows of the grid, so they hoped for better conditions on race day, as did the excited spectators.
Unfortunately, it was still drizzling slightly, which didn't suit even the fastest minis as much as on the completely wet previous day. And so it was Frank Stippler's turn, who started the 25-minute race in the Alfa Romeo GTA in third place alongside the two British Coopers. Immediately after the start, Jake Hill's Plymouth Barracuda, which had started from P4, was hot on the heels of this year's overall winner of the Nürburgring 24 Hours. However, "Stippi" kept the upper hand and won ahead of the current leader of the British Touring Car Championship, who also performed sensationally.
Romain Dumas, who started from the back of the field in the fourth Galaxie 500 and almost caught Hill at the finish line, delivered the chase of the day. In June, the Frenchman won the famous Pikes Peak hill climb in the USA for the fifth time, before the two-time Le Mans winner was also the fastest driver in the Hill Climb Shootout at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in July in the electric Ford super van. The other Galaxie drivers finished in 8th, 9th and 11th place (Lotterer) and must have wondered how on earth Dumas managed to make such a brilliant advance.
Because Neel Jani had missed the practice session with a BMW 1800 TISA due to canceled outward flights, Marcel Fässler was the only one to represent the Swiss colors in this field. The three-time Le Mans winner also put in a terrific performance as the best driver alongside four Brits in a Ford Cortina Lotus Mk1, fighting his way up from twelfth on the grid to fourth place without suffering any retirements. His joy was correspondingly great: "That was my best race since I was invited to the Revival. I've been third here before in an Austin A40, but the Cortina was much more fun."
The next day, Bill Shepherd drove his Galaxie to victory in the second part of the St. Marys Trophy in sunny conditions ahead of two Cortina Lotus, meaning that Dumas and Shepherd won the overall classification of the St. Marys Trophy for the fourth time in a row. Sixth behind five Brits, Alex Furiani in his Alfa Romeo GTA did not do quite as well as Stippler on Saturday, but the Germans finished a highly deserved second 20 seconds behind.
Second victory for Oliver Bryant
In the Madgwick Cup for small-displacement sports cars from 1955 to 1960, the British were again mostly among themselves. Miles Griffiths won in a Lotus-Climax 11 ahead of two Lola-Climaxes. The drivers from the host country also set the pace in the Whitsun Trophy with their large-volume sports prototypes, which were slightly slowed down by the persistent fine drizzle. In his 1966 Lola-Chevrolet T70 Spyder, Oliver Bryant celebrated his second revival victory of the year with a large lead over two McLaren-Chevrolet M1s.
The first day concluded with the Stirling Moss Memorial Trophy for GT cars, in which the dream pairing of Jimmie Johnson/Dario Franchitti in an Aston Martin DB4 prevailed against the three fastest AC Cobras and two best Jaguar E-types. Johnson's starting lap was impressive, in which he sprinted from P9 to the top. The three expensive Ferrari 250 SWB/Cs and the sole 250 GT Lusso of Nick Padmore and Christopher Stahl had no chance against the British cars.
Are we at a motorboat race?
Shortly after the start of the first race on Sunday morning, the heavens opened their floodgates again, with rays of sunlight flashing through to create an eerily beautiful atmosphere. Soon the 29 drivers in their Formula 3 racing cars with rattling 500cc motorcycle engines felt like they were in a boat race, whereupon the safety car first intervened before race control brought the swimming festival to a premature end.
After a short wait, the GP racing cars from 1954 to 1960 resumed their sprint race behind the safety car as the rain subsided. Polesitter William Nuthall immediately took command and went on to take a commanding victory ahead of the fast transgender woman Charlie Martin (she is an activist), both in Cooper-Climax T53s, and John Spiers in the best Maserati 250F. Fifth place went to Rudi Friedrichs in the same lowline model as the winner, but Austrian Thomas Schlereth was unable to exploit the traction advantages of his Ferguson P99 (ex Moss) (13th).
A TVR pulls the fangs out of all Cobras
The Royal Automobile Club TT Celebration Race for GT cars from 1963 and 1964, as they once ran at the RAC TT at Silverstone and Goodwood, fully lived up to its reputation as the annual highlight of the Sunday. After being disqualified in practice, Oli Bryant started last with his AC Cobra and worked his way into the leading group on a drying track until the driver changeover. Jake Hill then looked set to extend his lead, but Tom Ingram was closing in on him from behind in the cute TVR Griffith 400. One and a half minutes before the end of the hour-long race, Ingram took the lead to thunderous applause from the spectators and then secured the brand's first victory since the birth of the Goodwood Revival in 1998. There was a standing ovation for this breathtaking duel before the podium ceremony.
Third place (Franchitti/Smith) and fourth place (Lotterer/Verdon-Roe) also went to Cobras, 26 and 27.1 seconds behind. The Jaguar E-type of F1 star designer Adrien Newey and his son Harrison, which started from pole, dropped to 9th place in the course of the race. Chris Ward and Swiss driver Neel Jani put in an excellent performance in the underpowered Porsche 904 Carrera GTS in 13th place, leaving numerous V8 cars behind them. This also included Jani's compatriots Marcel Fässler in a Corvette Sting Ray (18th) and Simona de Silvestro in her debut in one of the many Cobras (19th).
Almost a Formula 1 victory for Ferrari
The Glover Trophy for GP cars from 1961 to 1965, which held the Goodwood lap record with Jackie Stewart and Jim Clark until the launch of the Revival, also generated enthusiasm. Under sunny skies, Andy Middlehurst in the Lotus-Climax 25 from Classic Team Lotus put himself in the best light as the winner after the race had to be interrupted to clean the track. It was Middlehurst's ninth win in this race since 2011!
Joe Colasacco also put on a great show in the red Ferrari 1512 (1.5-liter twelve-cylinder), fighting his way up from 13th on the grid to second position. He was next to the Lotus on several occasions, but was unable to get past and crossed the finish line just 0.038 seconds behind. Swiss driver Philipp Buhofer finished a good but lonely sixth in his BRM P261.
Good Bye Goodwood, we'll be back
The final of the 2024 Goodwood Revival was contested by sports cars in the spirit of the 9-hour race of 1952 and 1955. After finishing second in the touring cars, Jake Hill still managed to take his first Goodwood victory in an HWM Jaguar. Josef Rettenmaier (Maserati 300S) and Wolfgang Friedrichs (Aston Martin DB3S) also cut a fine figure with 6th and 8th place respectively.
In the best evening light, the last of the active participants and the audience, who held out until the end, then took their leave in all directions. Many will return to the Revival 2025 and will once again be treated to the best Historic Racing on a slightly later date (September 12 to 14) - but then please no longer in typical English weather...
