Goodwood celebrates its 20th Revival: The action starts here!

By Steve Wakefield

7th September 2018

Blue skies, many thousands of spectators and another stellar entry list: the Goodwood Revival proves once again it’s the best historic race meeting in the world. Friday, as usual, is for official practice but at the end of the day spectators were treated to a thrilling, wheel-to-wheel, hour-long dice between the Ferrari ‘Breadvan’ and an E-type Jaguar. Who would take top honours?

In the end it was the Italian car that beat the British, with the Halusa/Pirro Ferrari crossing the line only a length or two ahead of the grey, Keen/Minshaw Jaguar. All highly entertaining stuff that bodes well for the rest of the weekend.

The Goodwood events team has decided to celebrate the 20th running of the Revival with a sub-theme of… you’d never guess… trains. A ‘Message from the Station Master’ (the Duke of Richmond) welcomes spectators to the event, and there’s even a steam locomotive quietly smoking away by the entrance to the track. It’s different, we suppose, and completes the triptych Planes, Trains and Automobiles.

Elsewhere, it’s business as usual: Bonhams has a big marquee Over the Road, more of the trade stands are in semi-permanent ‘brick’ stage sets, BMW and Rolls-Royce once again have a 1960s-styled showroom. You can have your haircut, buy a cigar, enjoy a deckchair by the ‘seaside’ or try your luck against a card sharp. Which other event can match this?

In the paddock, the familiar high-quality race entries glisten in the sunshine. Some cars might be stunt doubles but in the film-set world of the Revival, who really cares?

Unusually, there are no Ferraris in the headlining RAC TT Celebration but the Friday evening Kinrara Trophy featured nine V12s from Maranello bearing SWB bodywork. We noted the arrival of the Porsche 904 Carrera GTS on the grid of the TT: there were three of them in practice today, including one driven by 1970 Le Mans winner Richard Attwood.

The cars of Rob Walker, including the one-off Ford GT40 entry from the 1965 Le Mans 24 Hours (below), are driven on the track during breaks in the action. And, as usual, the drivers number top professionals from across the worlds of F1, Le Mans and Touring Cars.