Tales From The Cockpit - The Richmond Trophy, Goodwood 2011

Front row of The Richmond Trophy Grid, Goodwood Revival 2011. Image courtesy of goodwood.co.uk

  The HWM team were frequent visitors to the Goodwood circuit in the 1950s and as we are the fortunate owners of one of the three remaining single seaters we have been invited to race at the Revival meeting a number of times.  To race at the Revival is a real privilege but it can also be extremely nerve-racking.  You are frequently up against seasoned racers such as Gary Pearson, Rick Hall, Nick Wigley etc who probably cover more racing miles at the Revival than I have over the last 5 years. In the early days of the meeting our HWM used to qualify for the Goodwood Trophy for Formula 1, 2 and libre cars from 1948 to 1955.  The dates for the grids have been slightly adjusted so now we are in the Richmond Trophy for pre 1961 Grand Prix cars.  This results in the speed differential between some of the cars being extreme and as the HWM is one of the oldest cars on the grid it's unlikely we'll be dicing for the lead with BRM P25s and Ferrari Dinos.  The Revival is a unique event in the racing calendar and the anticipation before it is intense, the atmosphere and crowds can easily fool us amateur drivers in to thinking we are real racing drivers for three days!

Goodwood circuit with its fast sweeping corners

 The circuit itself is wonderful to race on and so very different to the modern British club circuits.  The fast sweeping corners tempt ever greater speeds but with run off areas at a minimum it can be unforgiving.  Saying that, nothing can beat the exhilaration of accelerating up the start / finish straight with the grandstands full and the noise from the stub exhausts bouncing off the period pit buildings.

HWM exiting chicane (image courtesy of sportscardigest.com)

The current gearing on the HWM means you can always gain a few places at the start. After our formation lap there seemed to be some confusion on the grid as Rick Hall had stalled his Ferrari Dino on the front row. Willi Balz stalled his 250F as well and then a Gordini cut his engine just in front of me.  Eventually the 3 minute board was shown and just as I was taking it out of gear the union jack was unfurled and dropped.  I hastily grabbed 1st gear, gave it four thousand revs and dropped the clutch.  The HWM snaked its rear tyres from the line and I was conscious of passing a couple of cars as well as the stalled ones further up the grid.  The mistake is to try and rush the change of the Moss gearbox but thankfully I hooked up third and was swiftly through Madgewick and into top and up to 6000 rpm, I felt the engine could have pulled more but that was my red line for the day.

HWM in a  Maserati 250F sandwich with the Vanwall and Jolley's Lister Monza just looming behind (image courtesy of Shannon and Fee)

I fell into a great dice with Niamh McGuire in her Cooper Bristol, we were evenly matched in the corners but the HWM had the legs on the straight.  We picked off some slower cars but I was painfully aware of my lack of track time and race technique.  As the brakes warmed they were beginning to grab so this forced me to keep my foot away from the centre pedal as much as possible.  Along the Lavant straight we were quickly gaining on David Clewley in the Cooper Alta.  He kept left and gave us plenty of room but disaster struck, I didn't see him but Hubert Fabri was on a hard charge coming up to lap us. He had decided to go on the other side of David and clipped the Cooper Alta's front wheel.  This threw the Aston into a spin and he thumped the bank hard and span back on to the circuit.  The race was immediately red flagged.  I was relieved to be honest as I was rapidly dropping back due to the grabbing brakes.  On the slow lap behind the safety car we passed Fabri's damaged Aston which was a sharp reminder of the potential danger of racing these cars but thankfully Hubert was fine after a hospital check up.

David Clewley in the Cooper Alta. Image courtesy of Jane Sanders)

The race came to a disappointing end behind the safety car with Gary Pearson taking the winner's laurels in the BRM P25.  We were far from finishing on the podium but the high one feels after racing at the Revival certainly lasts for weeks if not months.  I always come away promising myself to get more track time in and may be a day's tuition from one of the 'hotshoe' drivers but some how work, family and paying a mortgage get in the way.  I hope I'll have another opportunity to race at the Revival but even if I don't I feel very lucky to have experienced driving the HWM at such a prestigious event.

I have attempted to credit images which I've taken from the web.  If you do not want them to appear in this post please email me and I'll happily remove them.