2015 St Mary’s Trophy

One of the finest examples of historic racing came at the 2015 Goodwood Revival, in the first of the weekend’s St Mary’s Trophy races for 1960-66 production saloons. There was a great range of machinery, from Minis to seven-litre Ford Galaxies, and British Touring Car rivals Gordon Shedden and Andrew Jordan were in Ford Lotus Cortinas. Shedden took pole, with GT ace Frank Stippler splitting them in an Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint GTA.

Come the race, the trio put on a masterful display of on-theedge, nose-to-tail combat. Jordan grabbed the initial lead, while Stippler had to recover from a moment and being overtaken by Andy Priaulx’s BMW 1800 TISA. Shedden passed Jordan on the Lavant Straight on lap two of the 17-lapper, by which time

Stippler had joined them in a three-car breakaway.

With Jordan struggling for power, the Alfa also went ahead before Stippler went around the outside of Shedden at Woodcote to lead. The positions remained the same for much of the race, but the three cars stayed locked together, lights ablaze, sliding and kicking up the dust on the edge of the track.

If this fight demonstrated car control at its best, the ‘box office’ appeal was provided by Tom Kristensen (below), who started from the back in Alan Mann Racing’s Ford Fairlane Thunderbolt. Having not seen the car before arriving at Goodwood, he charged through the field and into the lead in the final five minutes.

Shedden took advantage of Kristensen coming through to pass Stippler into the right-hand element of St Mary’s and the Alfa took to the grass when the German tried to retaliate at Woodcote. The final order was Kristensen-shedden-stippler-jordan.

“That was a great race,” recalls Shedden. “The three of us were on the ragged edge.”

Jordan agrees: “We were all pressing on and the cars were really moving around. They’re the sort of guys you can trust.”