REVIVAL THRILLER
Sam Hancock shines in epic duel at the Goodwood Revival. By Matt Kew
LAST-LAP SUSSEX TROPHY DECIDER A HIGHLIGHT OF GOODWOOD EVENT
Drivers at the Goodwood Revival often compete in three or even four races. Sam Hancock featured solely in the Sussex Trophy race for 1955 to 1960 world championship sports-racing cars, so it speaks volumes that he was comfortably the star of the entire meeting.
He missed out on the spoils to Roger Wills by just 0.275 seconds in the
25-minute encounter, but he dared overtaking manoeuvres in the Ferrari 246S Dino that are seldom seen.
In the race-long three-way fight with Wills and the Lister Knobbly of Jon Minshaw, the Ferrari was comfortably slowest in a straight line so Hancock made St Mary’s his hunting ground. He flung the car down the inside, around the outside – whatever took his fancy – to set up a grandstand finish.
Polesitter Wills’ charge was paused when Geraint Owen hit his Knobbly backwards into the tyres on the approach to Woodcote. After the lengthy safety car delay, just four minutes remained. Hancock bided his time at the restart and left it all until the last lap to make a play for the win.
He sent the Ferrari to the inside line on the approach to the St Mary’s lefthander, just about kept the car on the asphalt on the exit and dived past for first place. Wills put his Lotus 15’s superior straightline performance to good use down the Lavant Straight to repass, and defended sufficiently into Woodcote and then the chicane to thwart a last-ditch effort from Hancock to win the thriller.
An exuberant exit by the Ferrari gave Minshaw a chance on the run to the flag, and just 0.1s split the pair for a photo finish in Hancock’s favour, ahead of the Lister Costin of David Hart. Less than a second covered the quartet.
“It was such a great David-and-goliath battle,” Wills buzzed. “Hancock just had some amazing moves… I couldn’t figure out where he was coming from!”
A “gutted” Hancock added: “We all used the big characteristics of our cars to the best advantage.”
Gary Pearson also starred over the weekend, re-asserting his credentials as Goodwood’s most successful driver in the Motor Circuit’s second life, thanks to wins 13 and 14.
The first came in the curtain-raising Kinrara Trophy twilight race. Whereas in 2018 his Ferrari 250 GTO blew its clutch at the launch, this time he and Andrew Smith were comfortable victors. Pearson converted Smith’s pole to lead into Madgwick, while Darren Turner hung the Aston Martin DB4 GT he shared with Simon Hadfield around the outside to deprive Chris Milner of second in his Jaguar E-type.
Turner gave chase but Pearson upped his pace before the pit window to stretch his advantage to nearly eight seconds before diving in. Smith immediately got down to lap record pace and never looked under threat.
Hadfield consolidated second, while a late safety car – caused by Jack Young shunting his E-type at Woodcote – gave Remo Lips the respite he needed to hang on for third in the Ferrari started impressively by David Franklin.
Having been chucked out of qualifying for failing scrutineering, the 250 GT SWB shared by Joe Macari and nine-time Le Mans 24 Hours winner Tom Kristensen tore from last to fourth, TK being the only driver able to approach the GTO’S times in the closing stages.
Pearson closed the weekend with another victory in the Freddie March Memorial race, stroking his ex-jim
Clark Jaguar D-type to a win ahead of the similar car of brother John.
When second-starting Lukas Halusa was forced to take an early bath in his
300S owing to an ailing engine, Richard Wilson took on the Maserati mantle – finishing third in his ex-carroll Shelby/jim Hall 250S ahead of James Cottingham in the Ferrari 500 TRC.
The Royal Automobile Club Tourist Trophy has long been heralded as the blue-riband race of the event. Although it was another AC Cobra-dominated affair, this year it met the expectations.
Shaun Lynn’s visit to the Woodcote tyre wall turned the race on its head as the pitlane closed during the resultant safety car period. That meant the cars of early stoppers Darren Turner (hopping out for Oliver Bryant), Chris Wilson (swapping for top qualifier Andre Lotterer) and Bill Shepherd (handing over to Romain Dumas) were given a huge advantage.
During the second phase of the race, Lotterer was able to overhaul Dumas for the lead on the approach to Fordwater to secure victory.
The Bryant Cobra’s TT duck continued as Oliver crashed at Madgwick having just overcome Dumas, promoting the Lister Costin Coupe of Frederic Wakeman and Benoit Treluyer to third – accounting for eight Le Mans victories on the podium.
Although engine trouble ended their race prematurely, the Tojeiro of Olivier Hart and Nic Minassian proved the surprise new package. From second on the grid, Minassian had led by 2.5s over the TVR Griffith 400 of Mike Whitaker after the early battling as Wilson gradually fell down the order. Mike Jordan then guided the TVR to fourth.
Saturday’s racing began with a frenetic scrap for Fordwater Trophy honours between Robert Barrie and Nick Swift. In rare scenes, it was Barrie’s Lotus Elan S1 that proved to be the ‘power’ car as Swift’s Mini Marcos was far faster through the corners.
Despite Swift taking the lead briefly at St Mary’s, the Elan’s extra grunt took Barrie clear once more. After 20 minutes they were nigh on inseparable, but
Barrie defended his line into the chicane to win from Swift by 0.5s, with polesitter Josh Files bringing his comparatively large Triumph TR4 home in third.
Despite a brief scare as he skated on oil and clipped the gravel at Lavant, Andy Middlehurst was an otherwise composed winner of the Glover Trophy for 1.5-litre grand prix cars. Joe Colasacco’s visit to the pits denied a repeat of the epic Ferrari 1512 and Lotus 25 battle that played out last year. Simon Diffey finished runner-up in the Lotus 20/22.
In the Goodwood Trophy for 1930-51 GP and Voiturette cars, Alta 2 Litre
Single Seater pilot Gareth Burnett dominated to the tune of 40s over Nick Topliss’s ERA A-type.
Similarly, Peter de la Roche was the runaway victor of the 500cc Formula 3 Earl of March bout.