It is customary to keep a lookout for members of the Grand Prix Drivers Club racing at the Goodwood Revival and as usual, a number of our members took part including long-time regulars Richard Attwood and Jochen Mass.
This year most of them were out of luck as far as prizes are concerned but we did have one outright winner and it was appropriate that it should be one of our newest members, Karun Chandhok who had a convincing win in the Whitsun Trophy for unlimited sports prototypes.
Karun was racing a McLaren M1A sports car and he won by a scant 1.6 seconds from Mike Whittaker’s Lola T70 and Cameron Jackson’s Crossle Oldsmobile. ( If you want to see an edited version of this race try (https://www.goodwood.com/grr/event-coverage/goodwood-revival/2019/9/video-2019-whitsun-trophy–highlights/)
In the St Mary’s Trophy touring car race it looked as though Emanuele Pirro might have a chance against much more powerful cars but eventually the car had to retire in the second race.
The largest number of members in one race was in the RAC TT Celebration Race and included our member Dario Franchitti having his first competitive race since his disastrous accident at Houston in Texas in an Indycar race six years ago. Up to now Dario has been careful not to race but decided that he would set that aside and race, not one, but two cars at Goodwood. In the TT Celebration race, he shared An AC Cobra with fellow Scot Gregor Fisken and was as pleased as punch not only to finish sixth in the race but one place ahead of his younger brother Marino Franchitti who was sharing another AC Cobra with Hong Kong-based Philip Kadoorie. However, the highest placed member in the race was current President Emanuele Pirro who shared the lightweight Jaguar E type owned by Nicolas Halusa and finished fifth.
E types were popular for in eighth place came David Brabham who shared the driving of Spaniard Joachim Folch-Rosinol ‘s car followed by Tiff Needell in tenth place and Jochen Mass in 12 place also in Jaguar E Types then finally Henri Pescarolo in 15th in yet another Jaguar.
Members who fell by the wayside in this race were Derek Bell ( Porsche 904 GTS) and Karun Chandhok ( AC Cobra Le Mans Coupe).
In the Kinrara Trophy, Dario Franchitti was out with the Ferrari 250GT SWB and finished 8th.
The Glover Trophy was for 1.5-litre grand prix cars which underlined to a modern audience how small and fragile looking those grand prix cars looked compared to cars in later years. Richard Attwood brought out his immaculate BRM P281 and finished a good 8th overall. Richard was out again in the Fordwater Trophy for production road cars but was well down the field in a Porsche 911.