Minis and Formula 3 headline thrilling day of historic action at Goodwood
Some epic racing and outstanding battles made the 77th Members' Meeting at Goodwood the best edition yet since the event was revived in 2014
Victories for David Coulthard and Stig Blomqvist made the headlines as Coulthard won the Tony Gaze Trophy in the Mercedes 300SL 'gullwing' and Blomqvist came through to win the sprint race section of the Gerry Marshall Trophy in the Rover 3500 of Nick Jarvis.
A move to a later date after arctic conditions hit the 2018 event ensured better weather and the sell-out crowd was treated to some truly memorable racing.
The Betty Richmond Trophy for pre-66 Minis and the Derek Bell Trophy for 1-litre Formula 3 cars will remain two of the best races of the 2019 historic racing season.
Two of the best younger racers in UK historic racing went head-to-head in the race for 1-litre 'screamer' F3 cars in a contest of the highest order. The major players were Andrew Hibberd (Branham BT18) and Ben Mitchell, as Mitchell made his F3 debut in the Brabham BT28 owned by racing veteran Robs Lamplough.
They traded the lead numerous times until a late safety car prompted a two-lap final dash. Mitchell squeezed his slightly newer car out of the tow and down the inside into Woodcote for the final time for a hard-won victory.
"It was a brilliant race with Andrew: super close and super fair," said Mitchell. "That was proper racing and a fantastic drive by Ben," said Hibberd.
It was even closer in the Mini final after two action-packed heats on Saturday. The 30-car final came down to four cars on the final rush into Woodcote and Nick Padmore braked desperately late to fend off Nick Swift, Jonathan Lewis and Ian Curley.
Padmore looked to have got it, by ran wide mid- corner and bounced over the kerbs and onto the grass, just allowing Swift to dive ahead into the chicane.
"It's just an absolute privilege to race Minis round here with Nick," said Swift.
"I couldn't have lost to a better guy," added Padmore.
Jon Minshaw and Phil Keen bagged another Jaguar E-type win in the Graham Hill Trophy and Will Nuthall bagged the Parnell Cup with a typical hard-charge in his father's 1952 Alta Formula 2 car.
Ironically, the only real negative came in the race for the oldest cars and with the closest finish of the weekend.
In the SF Edge Trophy for Edwardian cars, Julian Majzub (Sunbeam Indianapolis) beat Tony Lees (Vauxhall Viper) by 18-thousandths of a second. However, Majzub was deeply unhappy about the on-track contest.
"The whole race was very unpleasant," said Majzub after a terse exchange of views in pare-ferme.
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