Battle of the million-dollar cars - opening race at the Goodwood Revival
This is probably only conceivable in "good old England". Yesterday evening, over two dozen sports cars from the early sixties competed in a one-hour race with driver changes. It was about the "Kinrara Trophy", which was the first race of the Goodwood Revival.
Anyone expecting a horde of Healeys, Triumphs or MGs would not have believed their eyes.
A Ferrari 250 GT SWB and two Aston Martin DB4 GTs started on the front row. This front row alone would probably be worth over 10 million at an auction today, but it was followed by another two DB4 GTs further back and a total of eight 250 GT SWBs, as well as an Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato and two Ferrari 250/330 GTOs, complemented by a number of beautiful Jaguar E-Types, three Austin-Healeys, an AC Cobra and a Chevrolet Corvette C1. What a starting field! What a risk! Millions in value on the race track.
And the expensive cars didn't seem to bother the owners and guest drivers at all - there was an obligatory driver change.
After a brilliant start, it was down to the wire and you could see beautiful slides and very sporty driving, battles for position and hairy braking maneuvers. This could not go well and so, around the middle of the race, two of the three DB4 GTs thundered into the barriers within two or three minutes, one only hitting the track slightly, the other bending the beautiful bodywork considerably more.
These were not the only accidents and the safety car had to reorganize the field.
After the restart, the obligatory driver changes took place and an undaunted Tom Kristensen took over the Ferrari 250 GT SWB/C from his partner. And he set one best time after another on the asphalt, overtaking one car after another until he emerged behind the leading Jaguar E-Type a few laps before the end.
He was also able to overtake it elegantly and subsequently pull away slightly, while behind it there was a battle for second place, which was won by the Aston Martin DB4 GT of the Friedrichs-Hadfield pairing.
By now it had become dark and you really felt like you were back in the days of the Tourist Trophy or the Le Mans races of the 1960s - the disc brakes were glowing and the headlights were shaking through the night.
Fabulous and much better than looking at cars in a museum, but ...
