Dynamic demos: special Porsches and F1 ‘V10s’
Regular Le Mans 24 Hours attendees of a certain age spectating on Goodwood’s main straight at dusk on Saturday were transported back to the 1980s when 20 or so Porsche 956 and 962Cs took to the track. It was difficult not to be reminded of a period in those halcyon days when the German manufacturer’s Group C design ruled the French enduro as the pack burbled past behind a pace vehicle in the first of two demos over the Members’ Meeting weekend.
Porsche brought both the 1982 Le Mans-winning 956 and the victorious 962C from 1987. Also out on track was the famous Newman-sponsored 956 that claimed victory with Joest Racing in the great race in both 1984 and 1985 (above, right).
Among the drivers for the demonstrations that celebrated the 40th anniversary of one of the most iconic sportscars ever were sometime Porsche factory driver John Watson, making a rare appearance at the wheel of a racing car, and Anthony Reid.
The Porsches’ gruff turbocharged flat-sixes heightened the shrill note of ‘V10 era’ F1 engines.
Two beautiful Jordans ran: Steve Griffiths’s Peugeotpowered 195 and American Michael Fitzgerald’s 194 (with Judd instead of Hart motivation). Alastair Mccaig made sparks fly in a Damon Hill Brabham-judd BT60B, while Jon Hughes’s run in Jamie Constable’s Tyrrellyamaha 021 was a 60th birthday treat.
Bruno Senna returned with uncle Ayrton’s Honda V10-engined 1990 Mclaren MP4/5B (below, leading) and Matt Wrigley exercised an MP4/7. British Touring Car racer Jake Hill made his ‘F1 debut’ in Fred Fatien’s Footwork Arrows-mugen Honda FA14, but had to be patient since it wouldn’t start on Saturday.
“John Watson made a rare appearance at the wheel of a racing car”
time in Craig Davies’s five-litre Mustang – the first 100mph MM touring car lap – shaded Alex Buncombe and Olly Bryant in 5.7-litre Chevrolet Camaros. It didn’t disappoint, Davies showing who was boss in the Sub-zero Wolf Mustang before Buncombe’s partner Jack Tetley blasted past at Fordwater in Grant Reid’s Chevy, the brakes of which Crowne Racing’s crew finished replacing just minutes before.
The race was thrown into confusion when 2009 Le Mans winner David Brabham,“blinking”to bring John Saunders’s Rover SD1 into the pits, was clobbered by Phil Keen, completing his out-lap in the Escort RS2000 started by Jason Minshaw. The Rover nailed the tyre wall and spun luridly back broadside into the track, whereupon – with a brave marshal in attendance and cars passing on both sides – the obscured pit entrance was temporarily closed and the Porsche safety car was deployed for four laps. Gone already was Darren Turner, who parked the Bryant Camaro at St Mary’s, and Steve Soper’s Ford Capri V6.
Once Plato was in the maroon Mustang, leader Buncombe set a startling record lap as the BTCC hero went after him, only to retire at Madgwick with a broken throttle cable. Andy Priaulx, finishing Fred Shepherd’s Mustang, now led the chase, with Gordon Shedden third in John Young’s Camaro, pursued spectacularly by Jake Hill in Ric Wood’s Capri. The British Touring Car star had shaken off Sam Hancock in Ludo Lindsay’s ex-stuart Graham Faberge Brut Capri and James Wood in the Rover that Marino Franchitti had autocrossed away from the grid. The gallant Datapost Fiesta of Mat Jackson and
Simon Goodliff was a fine eighth, on the lead lap!
Tetley won Sunday’s‘owners’sprint finale from 15th on the reversed grid, outgunning Davies’s and Shepherd’s Mustangs and Padmore’s rorty UFO Jeans BMW 530. Former Goodwood staffer Tetley’s only moment came when his interior mirror, which had fallen off on the
warm-up lap, slid under the pedals. His lurid slide exiting the chicane for the last time was not showboating…
Kamm-tailed 1965 Lenham GTS sat 1-2 on Sunday morning’s Weslake Trophy grid, but poleman Ben Colburn’s quest to emulate brother James’s 2017 win ended when he spun into the gravel entering Lavant, triggering a full-course caution. Porsche Carrera Cup racer Charles Rainford in CCK’S John Britten tribute Lenham and early second place man Nick Padmore in Roland Lewis’s Rochdale Olympic – which underwent an engine transplant after practice – thus prepared to duke it out. At the green, sixth-placed Jon Mcdonald’s early Ashley Works GT shot off the chicane’s exit kerbs, speared across the track and clumped the bank, bringing the safety car out again. Rainford scarpered when signalled, but the ailing Rochdale fell prey to Mike Haigh (Lenham) and Mark Burnett, whose pacy Fletcher Ogle outdragged Dominic Mooney in Brian Small’s Ashley GT every time the combo edged ahead.
Behind the powerful Weber-carburetted cars, ex-formula Renault 1700 racer Rob‘pret A’manger in Peter Alexander’s Ashley GT won an epic tussle with Aston Martin Le Mans hero Darren Turner (in buddy Andrew Thornton’s Turner Mk1 950S) for Su-carbed honours by 0.6s.
A stylish Sopwith Cup 1950s saloon drive by James Colburn in Westbourne Motorsport’s Standard Vanguard Six ensured that the family team snared one gold. His task was eased when top qualifier Charles Rainford’s Nash Metropolitan wouldn’t go into gear. Everybody missed Rainford, who then tricycled the Americanstyled, British-built jelly mould back to second, but overheating precluded a victory tilt. Rowan Atkinson was overjoyed with an unprecedented third on the“notional podium”after a spirited run in his magnesium alloy-bodied Jaguar MKVII.
With 2.1s in hand over Steve Seaman in practice, Andrew Hibberd started the Historic F3 race cautiously, slipping to third. He passed Seaman’s Brabham BT21 into Madgwick and reigning champion
Jeremy Timms’s ex-reine Wisell Chevron B15 into Lavant on lap two of 14, then screamed to his third Derek Bell Trophy victory in the ex-chris Irwin Chequered Flag Brabham BT18.
Timms kept second, but veteran Peter Thompson (BT21A), Howden Ganley’s dapper protege Horatio Fitz-simon – who impressed on his Goodwood debut in Mike O’brien’s stunning Chevron B15 – and Simon Armer (March 703) enjoyed a slipstreaming fight for third. Thompson narrowly prevailed over HF-S. On Armer’s exit, Paul Kite (B17C) gratefully grabbed fifth from Swiss visitor Christoph Widmer in Australian privateer Wal Donnelly’s period BT18A.
“David Brabham’s Rover nailed the tyre wall and spun luridly back broadside into the track”
The double-driver Graham Hill Trophy GT race was punctuated by a lengthy safety car period after Gary Pearson couldn’t keep Carlos Monteverde’s AC Cobra out of the wall having left the chicane grossly on the opening lap. Rob Huff resumed ahead after marshals had restored the conveyor belting and the mangled car was removed, chased by another Jaguar E-type in the hands of Jon Minshaw, David Hart (Bizzarrini), Bentley’s 2003 Le Mans winner Guy Smith enjoying
Mike Whitaker’s TVR Griffith, and Marino Franchitti, first time out in Roelofs Engineering’s Ferrari 250GTO/64.
Minshaw relayed Phil Keen, who endured a second safety car (for the retrieval of Ian Burford’s inert Cheetah from Madgwick’s infield) for a comfortable victory. Huff’s partner Chris Lillingston-price emerged from the pits 3.3s adrift, but was swallowed by the pack. Nicky Pastorelli guided the Ferrari home second after rivals fell. Hart Jr and James Cottingham (AC Cobra) performed a‘double axel’into the greensward at St Marys, then Sam Hancock (in Historic newcomer Saif Assam’s Cobra) half-spun there on his own coolant, having just relieved Whitaker of third. William Paul/rory Butcher (E-type) were fourth ahead of the recovering Hancock and Hart, who had gyrated at Lavant.
The frenetic lead duel between master-twitchers Patrick Blakeneyedwards and Martin Stretton in British Racing Green Monoposti in the magnificent Fane Trophy Frazer Nash field looked set to go the distance when Paul Waine rolled his newly rebuilt Elektron Nash at St Mary’s, bringing out red flags (see National News). PB-E’S joy at his ex-fane twin-supercharged car’s success was thus muted.
Despite dropping to fifth with axle tramp at the start in Peter Neumark’s ex-philippe Etancelin Alfa Romeo Monza, PB-E doubled up in the Varzi Trophy race as the fast-starting Bugatti T35 of Duncan Pittaway broke, then challenger Tim Dutton parked his T51 alongside Rod Spollon’s example, used by Achille Varzi to win the 1933 Monaco GP and abandoned by Charlie Martin at Lavant. PB-E avoided oil from Marshall Bailey’s T35 to beat Ross Keeling’s Delahaye by a distance. Chris Mann’s Alfa closed on the French car towards the end.
Mastering his CKL Developments-run Lister-jaguar‘flat Iron’, an ecstatic James Thorpe resisted stout challenges from David Hart (Maserati 300S) and Gary Pearson (ex-jim Clark Jaguar D-type) to win the Peter Collins Trophy. Darren Turner’s early promise evaporated when his Hwm-jaguar’s water temperature gauge told him to stop.