Goodwood Revival Friday

Gregor Fisken will begin the race before Kristensen takes the wheel.

Engines are revving and drivers are donning their helmets, so action should resume shortly here at Goodwood Revival.

Mario Araujo de Cabral in the Derrington-Francis-ATS at the 1964 Italian Grand Prix. Photo: LAT.

Finally, we have the 1964 Derrington Francis-ATS 100GP.

ATS, otherwise known as ‘Automobili Tourismo e Sport SpA’, was formed out of two separate disputes featuring ex-Ferrari mechanics and staff. After Enzo Ferrari fired a sales manager, Carlo Chiti and Giotto Bizzarrini left the team with some other staff. Working with Count Volpi, they aimed to rival their former employer, but raced with little success, and Chiti and Bizzarrini clashed. Volpi kept the Serenissima name the outfit were competing under, Bizzarrini worked as a consultant, and the rest formed ATS.

With a Chiti designed V8 engine, the ATS Tipo 100 raced in the 1963 Belgian Grand Prix, but neither car entered finished as they weren't ready to compete. The team fell apart and its cars were sold on, with one coming to Britain. That was merged with the Derrington Francis car, hence creating the Derrington Francis-ATS 100GP. Unfortunately while it qualified for its debut at the 1964 Italian Grand Prix, it didn’t make the finish.

So back to obscure Formula 1 trivia!

There were two Scirocco-BRMs in the Glover Trophy too, SP-1 and SP-2.

The first Scirocco built, SP-1 was the car created specifically for Tony Settember. He raced it at a variety of events during the 1963 season until a lack of success and funds prompted to financier Hugh Powell to terminate the effort. The original Scirocco eventually followed the pair to the United States, where it at one point was fitted with a Ford small-block V8 for sand racing.

Laid down for Ian Burgess, chassis SP-2-63 was considerably narrower than the first Scirocco and may well have been the slimmest Formula 1 car of all time. Burgess had little luck in the car as he retired at both his outings after qualifying 20th and 19th respectively. For the 1964 season, it was re-engined by Tim Parnell's team for Teddy Pilette to race. The Belgian racer also only campaigned the car twice, failing to qualify at his second and final outing.

One of those is the 1964 LDS-Climax F1.

LDS stood for Louis Douglas Serrurier and these cars were racing specials built for the South African Formula 1 Championships. It is possible the car competing this weekend only raced at the 7th Rand Grand Prix on December 12th 1964 at Kyalami. In that race Doug Serrurier finished eighth in heat one, seventh in heat two and sixth in the aggregate standings.

The chassis could also have raced at the Rhodesian GP on November 29th 1964 at Kumalo, as an LDS-Mk2 Climax. That chassis also failed to qualify at the 1965 South African GP at East London.

We'd go into the paddock to find out, but left our kayak in the car...

While we wait for track action, it seems a good opportunity to delve into the history of some of the more exotic cars that were out in the Glover Trophy.

The Sussex Trophy for World Championship sportscars from 1955-1960 is due next on track, but one suspects there'll be a bit of a pause for the rain to relent before anything heads out.

Properly wet out there for the Glover Trophy. Photo: Samarth Kanal

This session is likely to be stopped you would think, as the heavens open and track conditions are extremely difficult.

Andy Middlehurst is the man to beat in this field, and he is currently fastest with a 1m 52.629s, 3.255s ahead of Martin Stretton.

It's not just Formula 1 who sit through dry breaks, as the heavens have opened again. Conditions are very difficult for these 1.5-litre Grand Prix cars from 1961 to 1965 - the very types that would have raced here at the time.

The clean-up has been made even longer as there's not just standing water on track, but oil.

One of our 'pace cars' for this weekend. Photo: Samarth Kanal

Marshals are clearing huge puddles off the track as the Glover Trophy field awaits.

1962 French Grand Prix at Rouen-les-Essarts. Tony Maggs (Cooper T60-Climax) leads Masten Gregory (Lotus 24-BRM), Jo Bonnier (Porsche 804), Jackie Lewis (Cooper T53-Climax), Jo Siffert (Lotus 24-BRM) and Trevor Taylor (Lotus 25-Climax). Maggs finished in 2nd position. Photo: LAT

Lola-Cosworths, Brabham-Fords, BRMs and the Ferrari 1512 are among the runners in this next qualifying session.

Times are going up to the 2 minute boundary now. It's definitely getting wetter out there but drivers are sliding around with aplomb.

The chicane, forming the final two corners of this circuit, is deceptively difficult in the wet. Exiting needs a smooth application of power but these cars have nothing to aid the drivers on that front. It's wheelspin galore down at the final corner.

Below is a screenshot of that red flag incident which paused this RAC TT practice session.

The E-type is firmly beached off the track and when we resume there will be 17 minutes remaining of this RAC TT practice.

Matt Neal had spun just before that but narrowly missed the E-type. Would've been an expensive crash had the Sunbeam Lister Tiger hit the Jag.