Quick Pre-66 GT cars reined in by organisers
A Jaguar E-type victory in the Graham Hill Trophy Pre-1966 GT race at the Goodwood Members’ Meeting suggested the Goodwood Road Racing Club’s measures to rein-in the performance of the quickest opposition – AC Cobras and TVR Griffith
400 and Bizzarrini 5300GT singletons on this occasion – had achieved its aim.
Jon Minshaw and Phil Keen triumphed by 15.398 seconds over Marino Franchitti/
Nicky Pastorelli (Ferrari 250 GTO/64) and 2003 Le Mans victor Guy Smith and Mike Whitaker in the latter’s TVR, the 2017 race winner.
New regulations initially stipulated a maximum rear anti-roll bar diameter of 19mm on the frontrunning cars, with one specified bump rubber on the dampers but no packers to restrict suspension droop. Following extensive testing of the quickest Cobras, preparers sought a compromise of 25mm ARBS, which brought them back into contention, although rival cars were affected less.
Keen’s 1m24.900s pole shot was 0.503s quicker than Olivier Hart (Bizzarrini), with Rob Huff (E-type) and Sam Hancock (in historic racing debutant Saif Assam’s Cobra) in the Dutchman’s wake. Second to sixth were covered by 0.584s, which looked good on paper as the top nine averaged over 100mph.
“You have to say Keeny is worth half a second round here,” said Gary Spencer, whose Classic Racing Cars team prepares several of the quickest Cobras, “but two days of testing with Sam proved that the original restrictions were too much, hence we requested the change. He’s been consistently in the
24s before. Now that looks beyond reach.”
In the race, Keen’s 1m24.831s was 0.432s better than Hart’s. Huff also lapped in the 25s, but the Cobras of Hancock and 2016 winner James Cottingham – who set a 1m23.981s then – were in the 26s.
Hancock was philosophical, saying: “It’s OK, but they have taken the edge off our lap times. The changes are not ‘one-size-fits-all’, but we’ll find a new balance.”