Although Goodwood isn’t used for any contemporary racing, it’s still a busy circuit for track days, car manufacturer testing and special events. From these untrained eyes it doesn’t look like it would need that much work to host newer series: surely going off at 120mph in a 1960s racer straight into a haybale is more dangerous than being enclosed in a nice, safe carbon-fibre monocoque… But, the public only seeing historics at Goodwood is hardly a limitation, especially when the racing at the Revival is this exciting. Modern series should take note.

In between each race a quartet of course cars tour the track – some apparently more for passenger rides than safety checks, but the driver of the Aston Martin and accompanying GT40 were never hanging about.

Before each race the grid girls mark out the starting spots – all dressed appropriately of course.

The Freddie March Memorial Trophy harks back to the Goodwood Nine Hours endurance race, which was run between 1952-55. It featured a stunning line-up of Jaguars, Aston Martins and Ferraris backed up by one-off examples of various smaller makes. One of the best places to spectate is by the famous Paddock chicane: cars would scrape through the right left flick, and plenty of marks were left on the (thankfully polystyrene) red and white walls. One of the great things about older race cars is the amount of body roll: you can really see the drivers struggling to get the cars turned in and through the tight squeeze, as with this Cooper Jaguar T33.

Not only do the cars have plenty of roll, but they’ve also go a whole load of pitch and yaw going on under braking and acceleration. The nose of this 1953 Aston Martin DB3S rears up when the throttle is down full for the short run from Woodcote to the final chicane.

The Ferrari 750 Monza was a 4-cylinder, 3-litre sportscar putting out around 250hp. Styling was by Pinin Farina.

Six Jaguar C-Types took the start. C-Types won twice at Le Mans, in 1951 and 1953.

Buildings and grandstands that are visible from the track are all sporting their original looks. A TV articulated truck was parked up on the in-field and covered with military camouflage netting to disguise it!  These three are battling on the short straight from the Woodcote corner to the final chicane: the race-winning Lagonda V12 Le Mans is about to fire up the inside of the Gordini Type 23S and Alfa Romeo 3000 Disco Volante.

Here’s the recently restored Kieft-De Soto V8 on track. It’s so great that people will spend huge amounts of money on restorations and then immediately get them out on track.

Looks like the HW Alta Jaguar had to be driven kart-style, hanging out of the cockpit!

With the Lagonda taking the win by seven seconds from a Jaguar C-Type, it was time for another GT40 course car run, and then onto the next race.

Along with the single bike race (run in two heats), there were three races for post-war single-seaters and one for pre-war. The Chichester Cup was a Formula Junior race, and this year it was held for the earlier front-engined cars. There were a number of Fiat-powered cars out, including this Apache.

Another car in the Chichester Cup was this Bond-Ford: one of only two built by a small English racecar manufacturer. Uniquely for the time the car used a stressed-skin monocoque.

The Goodwood Trophy for pre-war cars was a walkover for the British ERA marque, with five finishing in the top seven. A special parade was held to celebrate 75 years of the English Racing Automobile company.

The signature race at the Revival is the Royal Automobile Club TT Celebration. The race was won by the Jaguar E-Type Lightweight of F1 Red Bull designer Adrian Newey and Bobby Rahal – meaning a second historics victory in a month for Rahal, following on from his Classic Endurance win at Silverstone at the Le Mans Series race. I couldn’t make it to track-side for the race, which was disappointing, but I had been out for qualifying. Unfortunately a few cars didn’t make the start of the race, including this Ferrari 250 GT Lusso.

AC Cobras always look mean out on track: a quarter started the TT race, with one making it onto the podium. The TT is a two-driver, hour-long race, meaning pit stops were needed for driver changes. Of course, the pits are set up as they in period: just simple bays behind the concrete pit wall.

I settled in at the first corner for the Fordwater Trophy, the last race of the day on day two of the Revival. This race is for production-based GTs and was action-packed from start to finish. A quartet of cars broke away at the front: the leading TVR Grantura, closely pursued by an Austin-Healey 3000, Morgan +4 and Triumph TR4.

Four early Porsche 911s took part, with the best finishing 7th and 8th.

Although it seems a generally flat track, there’s actually more gradient than you’d think at Goodwood, usually around the brow of corners as well, making apexes that bit more difficult to hit. The #77 Lotus Elite finished fourth at the flag, almost catching the Morgan.

The first turn at Madgewick is slightly uphill and off-camber, making for hugely entertaining powerslides and plenty of scrambling to get through the double-apex. The more cars there are, the messier it got…

Most cars were three-wheeling through the second apex exit of the corner as they struggled to put the power down for the following straight.

Ginetta cars have recently undergone a massive renaissance, with the launch of the G50 racer and the revitalisation of the one-make Ginetta series, but the company name goes right back to 1958 – prime Revival territory. The fibre-glass bodied G4 from 1961 finished fifth.

The #21 Healey battled past the #29 Morgan and managed to take the TVR late in the race, only to then run wide at the corner and lose the lead in the dying seconds!

#60 was a 1961 Warwick GT 350 – this was made by yet another of the many post-war small British car companies, and was powered by a light alloy Buick engine.

MGs have always been popular lightweight racers: MG-Bs won at Sebring in 1964 (which led to the MG Sebring special) and finished well in class at Le Mans between ’63-’65.

Compared to today, where most racing versions of cars sprout huge wings and bodywork mods, it used to be so much simpler – cars just didn’t look that different from the road to the track. With less technology to distract, teams concentrated on making things lighter above all else. So, all you had to do with take out the seats from the Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Speciale that was in the paddock, put a racing stripe and a few stickers on and you’re ready for the track!

It is a shame the races don’t run further into the evening, as the atmosphere would be amazing. Spectating on night racing is always special: the Grand Prix at Pau in France is probably my favourite event of the year for that reason.

As the sun begun to set over the circuit and the race finished, vintage planes were taking off and making their way back to their home airfields. On the slowing down lap the fourth-place Lotus is behind a Marcos Fastback GT. The end to another great weekend of racing at Goodwood.

Goodwood Revival

Whitsun Trophy startline crash video

Fordwater Trophy race footage

Jonathan Moore