Goodwood Revival 2015: The 12 best things

The 18th Goodwood Revival Meeting was another spectacular sellout, with a record 149,000 people from all over the world - at least 95 per cent in period civilian, military or mechanics' costume to reflect the former RAF Westhampnett aerodrome's 1948-66 first racing heyday - making the pilgrimage to West Sussex to attend Lord March's event, which has grown beyond recognition since its inauguration on September 18, 1998.

Despite rather too much panel damage vexing the British Automobile Racing Club's senior officials over the weekend, the quality of the competition element of this multi-faceted festival (also covered comprehensively in AUTOSPORT magazine this week) was sensational as ever.

The ultra high-speed motor circuit, unchanged since the Woodcote chicane was installed in 1952, has always brought out the best in the most gifted drivers and inspired weekend warriors who share it with the aces.

Four of the finest racers whose sublime skills graced period Goodwood events - Sir Stirling Moss, Sir Jackie Stewart, John Surtees (who made his sensational four-wheeled debut there in 1960) and Jack Sears - were among the honoured visitors. All demonstrated wonderful cars from their youth, remembered their friend Bruce McLaren in a poignant homage and thoroughly enjoyed watching a posse of top professionals spanning the past six decades compete on track.

Having been blessed with the best seat in the house - the commentator's perch in the tower atop the pits - I would like to share a selection of personal highlights.

PERFECT PAGEANTRY

Like his petrolhead grandfather before him, Lord March takes immense pride in doing things the right way at Goodwood.

From track blessings and paddock communion on Sunday to perfectly-weighted homages to the heroic pilots and racers whose indomitable spirit made the place what it is, the Revival Meeting we love is a unique pageant full of noble pomp, yet never patronising.

Sunday's tribute marking the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain - in which 51 pilots of the RAF's Tangmere Sector (which embraced Westhampnett, Ford and Shoreham), 18 from his home field, gave their lives - was immensely moving.

In the presence of WW2 veterans transported to the grid in Jeeps, many tears were shed (even by eventgoers too young to have been there) when Charles' sister Nimmy March chillingly read the names of the fallen. And there was a standing ovation afterwards.

A '12-ship' Supermarine Spitfire salute was an extraordinary send-off and there were more Hawker Hurricanes flying alongside North American P51 Mustangs and Curtiss aircraft than most had seen since the war.

As RJ Mitchell's iconic designs wheeled-in overhead, in three waves of four, I wasn't the only person on the ground resolving to save £2750 for a flight from Goodwood in the back of Boultbee Flight Academy's two-seater Spitfire.

STARTLINE FEVER

Nothing in modern motor racing comes close to matching the start of a race at the Goodwood Revival Meeting.

Although RACMSA regulations preclude the 4-3-4 grid matrix run there into the early 1960s - and into the '70s at Silverstone - its 3-2-3 successor is wonderfully atmospheric.

Photogenic too, whether the image is captured from the outside of the circuit with the striking balconied pit complex (somewhat grander than the original) replete with prominent entrants' names signwritten over the counters, or from the inside as the race director drops the Union Flag and the cars charge past the packed grandstand in a flurry of tyre smoke.

The whole ritual which presages the cars being released from the wooden fenced assembly area, where mechanics make last-minute checks and drivers are patted on the back or given the 'thumbs-up' for good luck is wonderful.

A fanfare by trumpeters of the Royal Marines' band signals the gladiators onto the circuit where they are guided to grid slots with giant numbered lollipops.

Then the real fun starts...

RELAXED STAR DRIVERS

It was great to see seven British Touring Car Championship stars enjoying the Revival on a weekend away from the pressures of their day jobs.

Andy Priaulx, Matt Neal, Jason Plato and Andrew Jordan are Goodwood regulars, and their enthusiasm for the event can only have encouraged the likes of Gordon Shedden, Mat Jackson and Sam Tordoff to follow.

For 2012 champion Shedden, September has been a purple month. Hotfoot from annexing the points lead in this year's title race at Rockingham the previous weekend, 'Flash' became the first current BTCC ace to win a feature race at the Revival.

Having not finished a racing lap in an Austin A35 on his debut last year, when the St Mary's Trophy ran to its alternate 1950s timeline, the cheery Scot's brilliant second in Saturday's opening leg in the Team Dynamics Lotus Cortina (shared with Neal) proved that he had a handle on the demanding track. Tom Kristensen's sensational Ford Fairlane Thunderbolt was just 1.25 seconds ahead at the chequered flag.

Shedden's drive in Sunday's blue riband RAC TT Celebration was world class. "My instructions to Chris [Ward] were to hand me a massive lead," he grinned before the race, but while the Jaguar E-type had a narrow cushion to Andrew Smith's AC Cobra as the pit window opened, JD Classics' crew magnified that advantage at the changeover and even the redoubtable Ollie Bryant could make no real impression on the flying Scot.

DAYTONA COBRA SIX APPEAL

Not even Shelby American's designer Pete Brock had seen all six Daytona Cobra Coupes in one place at any time, so a reunion of the set, 50 years after they won the World Sportscar Championship's GT manufacturers' crown, was another world first for Goodwood.

Dan Gurney and Phil Hill raced a pair of the muscular 4.7-litre (289ci) Ford V8-powered aerodynes in Goodwood's final TT event of 1964. Gurney finished a GT class-winning third in chassis CSX2299 - behind the Ferrari prototypes of Graham Hill (330P) and David Piper (250LM) and Phil 11th in CSX2287.

Brock - charming when interviewed and totally blown away by the magnitude of the Revival event - explained how each of the metallic blue Coupes, handmade by a small team in California, is subtly different.

While five are restored and polished to a high gloss, the other remains resolutely patinated with an almost matt finish. It drew perhaps the most attention in the garage block built to house them and several AC Cobra roadsters.

SURTEES AND MOSS IN FERRARIS

Enzo Ferrari's 1964 Formula 1 world champion John Surtees drove the Commendatore's V12-engined sports prototypes concurrently and was delighted to be invited to demonstrate a 250LM over the weekend.

Surtees, 81, looked relaxed in the cockpit of the Scuderia Filipinetti car, a sister to Jochen Rindt and Masten Gregory's 1965 Le Mans winner.

It was one of three at the circuit, indeed quintuple Le Mans winners Derek Bell and Emanuele Pirro raced Clive Joy's example in the RAC Tourist Trophy Celebration.

On Sunday, Surtees lapped in unison with Sir Stirling Moss, 85, back at the wheel of his 1960 TT-winning 250 GT Berlinetta (SWB), now owned by Ross Brawn.

Moss won the last four of his record seven TT titles consecutively at Goodwood: for Aston Martin with DBR1s in 1958 and '59 and in different Ferrari SWBs entered by Rob Walker and Dick Wilkins in 1960 and '61. They ran as #7 in Walker's familiar blue and white livery, in which Moss won the first F1 grands prix for the Cooper and Lotus marques in 1958 and '60 respectively.

AFFECTION FOR McLAREN

If New Zealand intuition could be bottled, the clever marketeer would make a fortune.

Bruce McLaren spearheaded a stream of highly gifted drivers, engineers and mechanics who headed for Europe to further their careers from the late 1950s.

He was 21 when he made his F1 debut with Cooper in 1959 and by season's end, recently turned 22, had scored the first of his four world championship grand prix victories at Sebring in Florida.

A brilliant motivator and fearless innovator, McLaren founded his eponymous marque on the back of success with the Cooper-based Zerex Special, but his driving skills were still sought by others. Le Mans victory in 1966 with fellow Kiwi Chris Amon in a seven-litre Ford GT40 was a huge achievement, but McLaren and '67 F1 world champion Denny Hulme's total domination of the Can-Am Cup for four successive years funded the fledgling McLaren F1 team's efforts.

McLaren raced and tested at Goodwood many times, and was hosted regularly at Goodwood House by Freddie March, who treated him like a son.

It was therefore the more ironic that he should lose his life testing an M8D Can-Am car at the estate's motor circuit on June 2, 1970.

I remember the day well, thus felt another lump in my throat as McLaren family members - including daughter Amanda, who drove a roadgoing M6B on Sunday - gathered with Sir Jackie Stewart, Howden Ganley, Wal Wilmott and former employees, standing in silence as Lord March delivered a warm tribute to a quite extraordinary man.

1965 OUTRIGHT LAP RECORD TRIBUTE

Anybody present at Goodwood on Easter Monday 1965, would have been privileged to witness Team Lotus' Jim Clark setting a new outright lap record of 1m20.4s (107.46mph) in the Sunday Mirror Trophy F1 race, then his friend Jackie Stewart equalling it moments later in his BRM.

It proved to be the circuit's last F1 event - the 1500cc regulations were superseded by a new three-litre formula from 1966 - and as big-banger sportscars did not return in the truncated final season the Scots' efforts stand in perpetuity.

Last Sunday, Stewart (in the tartan-banded helmet he wore that day, and for his maiden Grand Prix victory at Monza that September) and Clark fanatic Dario Franchitti, celebrated the record's 50th anniversary by demonstrating BRM P261 and Lotus-Climax 25 respectively.

Carried on the breeze, the wail of those high-revving V8 engines stirred the souls of Revivalists of all ages. Not least that of octogenarian Bob Dance who prepared Clark's winning car half a century ago and got stuck into changing the gearbox on the 25 that Franchitti 'ran-in' prior to Andy Middlehurst's fifth successive Glover Trophy victory!

500cc F3'S TRIUMPHANT RETURN

A day after his 19th birthday, Stirling Moss dominated the 500cc race at Goodwood's opening event in a Cooper-JAP, beating poleman Eric Brandon and Curly Dryden.

The field comprised five of Cooper's cars, Marwyns for Lord Strathcarron and Don Truman (a popular BRSCC clerk of the course in later life), George Hartwell's tiny Monaco and Frank Bacon's FHB.

Since 1998 the Revival Meeting has been the catalyst for the F3 class's re-emergence on the historic scene under the aegis of the 500 Owners' Association. Out for the first time since 2011, the field of 28 motorcycle-engined featherweights embraced a fine selection of Arnott, Bardon-Turner, Bond, Effyh, Emeryson, JBS, JP, JR Terigi, Kieft, Mackson, Martin, Petty, Revis, Smith, Smith-Buckler and (Erskine) Staride chassis.

In the presence of Moss and Mike Cooper (grandson of marque founder Charles and son of John, both of whom raced at the circuit in the 1950s) the racing was sensational too, 17-year-old Goodwood rookie Peter de la Roche escaping from the lead bunch then teetering round the outside of George Shackleton's works-entered Cooper Mk11 at the final corner to snatch an audacious victory in mentor Mike Fowler's Cooper Mk5.

Shackleton crashed heavily on the sprint to the chequered flag, without major injury, promoting team-mate David Woodhouse (design director of Lincoln cars) and Gordon Russell in the Mackson to second and third.

Darrell Woods' Staride was the first JAP-powered finisher in fifth, but Triumph and Vincent-motivated singletons fell by the wayside.

ERAS RECALL DAY ONE

English Racing Automobiles have drawn adulation from racegoers since Raymond Mays and Peter Berthon's voiturettes from Lincolnshire first hit the tracks in 1934. But they enjoy a very special following at Goodwood, having played key roles in populating grids in the immediate post-war years.

Nine ERAs - R1A, R2A, R5B 'Remus', R7B, R9B, R10B, R11B, R14B and R8C - were there on September 18, 1948 when Freddie March opened the motor circuit.

R5B's engine broke in practice, leaving John Bolster (AUTOSPORT's founding technical editor in 1950, and later a regular Goodwood commentator with a rare turn of wit) to race R11B.

Peter Walker finished second in the supercharged single-seater race in R7B (now with Julian Wilton). Later, Bob Gerard (R14B), David Hampshire (R1A) and Cuth Harrison (R8C) finished 2-3-4 in the Daily Graphic Goodwood Trophy feature, behind Reg Parnell's state-of-the-art Maserati 4CLT/48.

Sixty-seven years on, first of the Goodwood '48 veterans home was R11B 'Humphrey', fifth in the hands of former Team Lotus mechanic David Morris. Irishman Paddins Dowling (ex-Whitehead brothers R10B, driven by Graham on opening day) placed ninth, Heinz Bachmann (ex-Geoffrey Ansell R9B) 11th, Charles McCabe (R5B) 15th and Wilton (R7B) 17th.

PICK OF THE OBSCURATI

Historic racing fanatics have it tough at Goodwood. From ERAs to Lola T70 Spyders, via the finest Alfa Romeo, Maserati and Ferrari race cars of the pre-1966 era - and equivalents from a plethora of British manufacturers of a golden age of automotive artistry - it's difficult to know where to turn next, particularly if you have a paddock access badge and can get up close.

Among the manifold joys of the Revival for me is the opportunity to see some weird and wonderful machines - many also-rans in their sets - that selectors have winkled-out to form their 'dream' grids.

I call these wacky racers 'obscurati' but their invitation gives insight into what keen, often underfunded, aspirants were knocking-up in their sheds because they could not afford a proprietary steed, or preferred to do it themselves!

The 500cc F3 movement's return to the event is spotlit separately, but its contribution to my list included the 1950-spec front-wheel-drive Bond-Triumph restored by Charlie Banyard-Smith over three years for Formula Junior circus ringmaster Duncan Rabagliati; the fish-like 1950 JR Terigi (also Triumph-motivated) of Gilbert Lenoir and Martin Sheppard's unique Brynfan Tyddyn Special, based on a Swedish Effyh.

Matthew Collings' Cadillac-powered HWM made its Goodwood debut 61 years late, having run its bearings en route to the Easter Monday meeting in 1954! Supplied to Tony Page - present to witness Friday's Freddie March Memorial Trophy race - the Formula 2-based car, wearing HWM1's original body, was the only chassis supplied by Hersham and Walton Motors with a V8 engine. Exported to New Zealand in 1956 it is now back home, fresh from a multi-year rebuild by Auto Restorations of Christchurch, NZ.

Perhaps the strangest racer to catch my eye, however, was Warren Kennedy's Healey Duncan Drone, one of 15 chassis from Donald Healey's workshops fitted with relatively inexpensive utilitarian open bodies by coachbuilder Duncan Industries from the late 1940s. Jaguar expert Grahame Bull raced it in the Fordwater Trophy GT event.

SETTRINGTON CUP

Perhaps inspired by the ACO's Vingt-Quatre Minutes du Mans, in which youngsters 'raced' scaled-down Ford GT40 and Ferrari 330P prototypes before the 24 Hours marathons of yore, the Settrington Cup races for Austin J40 pedal cars introduced a brilliant junior element in 2012.

More than 32,000 J40s - initially priced at £27 plus £6 purchase tax - were built in a factory employing disabled coal miners in South Wales, from 1949-71. Such is the popularity of the Goodwood event, populated largely by sons, daughters, nephews and nieces of 'senior' racers, that mint examples have changed hands for several thousand pounds!

Following strict scrutineering (you would not believe how seriously some entrants take it!), competition is fierce. Not least among the mums and dads who run alongside the 0.14-mile pit straight course screaming encouragement. Commentator Barry Nutley (the motorcycle guru, following Murray Walker's lead) whips the audience into a frenzy as 40 children - rejoicing in names like Horatio and Lachrymosa - pedal frenetically for glory.

First to funnel through the chicane and reach grand marshal Sir Stirling Moss on the finish line both days this year was Lord March's nephew Archie Collings. He thus completed a family double, brother George having won the first Settrington Cup (decided on aggregate times) in 2012.

GOODWOOD GASSERS

Dollars were scarce in the USA after WW2, but driving ambitions ran high among its youth.

Fortunately V8 engines were in plentiful supply and could be bought for a song. For most, nailing them into an old body/chassis was the only affordable way onto the road. With a little ingenuity the practise fuelled the birth of a great sport.

Saturday night straightline match racing quickly became de rigueur in neighbourhoods across the States and 'Gassers' (as the petrol-guzzling bolides became known) were souped-up increasingly as rivalries intensified. By 1951 the sport of drag racing had been formalised under rules set by the National Hot Rod Association.

Drag racing did not arrive here until the early 1960s, but Gasser culture has long fascinated V8 nuts on this side of the pond.

The inclusion of daily demos for a superb selection of wild machines - including iconic 1955 and '57 Chevrolets, three and five-window coupes, a '64 Ford Falcon and old pal Julian Balme's extravagantly-liveried Kandee Twist '57 Ford station wagon put new hues in Goodwood devotees' palettes.

While unconventional, Goodwood has never been afraid to explore new avenues of entertainment. The daily show, featuring snaky burnouts in a pool of water laid on the startline, warmed appreciative onlookers up for the circuit racing programme ahead.

With commentator 'Big Al' from Daytona Beach, Florida, calling the tyre-frying action over the PA it proved a big hit.