25 / 32
25
One Championships. I had a quiet contemplative
beer with Jack beside his headstone (adjacent to
Bruce McLaren’s) that’s only 50 metres from the
track, with Stirling, Jackie and John only a similar
distance away mingling in the pits and then noted
with some surprise that Black Jack and my deceased
sister shared the same birthday.
The racing for cars and bikes was brilliant with no
holds barred, no matter what the value of the
machine, in attempting to win. Saturday’s drenching
rain just added to the excitement (and damage) with
drivers and riders struggling for grip and control. The 25 minute two-rider Barry Sheene
Memorial Trophy race for motorcycles up to 1000cc was eventually cancelled because of so
many riders dropping their machines. Unfortunately my hero Kevin Schwantz didn’t turn
up to ride his allocated 1951 Norton Manx.
Amongst others, Freddie Spencer, Troy Corser
and even MotoGP’s Cal Crutchlow’s father
Derek were riding.
On the car front, this year also featured for the
first time a series of very close races over the
three days of Austin A30/35s, all identically
prepared with 1275cc motors, driven by expert
drivers such as Jean Alesi, David Brabham,
Rowan Atkinson, Tif Needell, Rauno Aaltonen
and David Coulthard. The final Sunday race got
overly desperate as the slipstreaming and cutting
apexes continued with one of the Austins barrel
rolling.
https://www.goodwood.com/grrc/event-coverage/goodwood-revival/2016/9/
video-austin-a35-barrel-rolls-four-time/
shows the action.
The other huge attraction is seeing in various races with such absolute 50s and 60s classics
as GT40s, Lister Chevrolets, Alfa Romeo Disco Volantes, Aston Martin DB3s and DBR4s,
Ferrari 246, 250LM & GTO, 275 and 555s, Jaguars C, D and Lightweight E types, Maserati
250Fs and A6GCS, plus various Coopers, Allards, HMWs, McLarens, Lolas, Lancias and
Scarabs, and, and! One race was reputed to have £75,000,000 worth of cars in it!
From my accidental parking in an obscure car park
opposite the Lavant corner, I became aware of the
huge F1 type infrastructure in the form of parked
motorhomes and mobile workshops that back up
these extraordinary race cars. There is seemingly no
shortage of money for some people!
The other strong appeal to me is the number of
aircraft on display or flying into the middle of the
race track airfield (Goodwood was used as an
airfield in WW2). On Friday and Sunday(Sat flights
were cancelled due to very low cloud), we enjoyed
the sound of Merlin engines as a Spitfire, Hurricane,
a Mustang and the world’s only operational Blen-
heim bomber were flying overhead in a steeply
Could have
been her
grandmother in
1966.
Fettling a
Vincent
Coming at a Ferrari from two directions