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2017 Goodwood Revival
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No dampened spirits
Over the years, the Goodwood Revival has been blessed with remarkable lovely weather but for this year's 20th edition of the magical step back in time, all visitors were reminded that the annual event is really held in England at the start of fall. Despite heavy showers on all three days, the spirits were not dampened and with the exception of one rescheduled qualifying session, 2017 Revival could continue without interruption. The virtually non-stop track activities included a pair of one-hour, two-driver races for 1960s GT cars. In addition to the familiar racing groups, the event this year celebrated the 1957 Grand Prix season and also celebrated the achievements of Ecurie Ecosse during the 1950s and 1960s. Auctioneer Bonhams also staged a sale on the Goodwood grounds on Saturday, headlined by the collection of the late Jack Sears.
Like the tens of thousands of visitors, our photographers braved the weather and captured all the activities with this 350-shot gallery as the action-packed result.

The 1957 Grand Prix season
The 1957 Formula 1 World Championship season represents a profound turning point in the sport. Juan Manuel Fangio won his fifth and final title and also scored the final Grand Prix victory for Maserati. Taking over the Vanwall that an injured Tony Brooks started, Stirling Moss also became the first ever Brit to win the British Grand Prix in a British car. It was the start of a shift to British dominance in Formula 1 that remains to this day with a majority of the teams based in England. Due to Stirling Moss' win with a mid-engined Cooper in the 1958 Argentinean Grand Prix, the 1957 season also became the final year that front-engined Grand Prix cars reigned supreme. This momentous season was celebrated at the Goodwood Revival with high-speed demonstrations on all three days with some of the cars that starred during the era. Among them was one of the very rare Vanwalls, driven on Sunday by Tony Brooks himself and the very Maserati 250F that was driven to a legendary victory at the 1957 German Grand Prix by Juan Manuel Fangio. On Sunday Sir Jackie Stewart took to the wheel of the car of what was his childhood hero. The sons of Fangio also made a surprise visit to Goodwood. To complete the circle, the Revs Institute in Florida also dispatched the very Cooper that Moss had driven to the first ever Grand Prix victory, in Argentina in 1958.

Ecurie Ecosse
That very same year, a Scottish team run from a small Edinburgh garage took a dominant victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. This was not a complete surprise as Ecurie Ecosse had already taken victory the year before, beating the factory teams, including Jaguar themselves, with their year-old Jaguar D-Types. Confident that Ecurie Ecosse was up to the task, Jaguar did not bother running a factory team in 1957 and the D-Types entered that year finished first, second, third, fourth and sixth with the two Ecurie Ecosse cars proudly placing first and second. Owned by David Murray and backed by several others, the team always ran on a shoestring budget but thanks to the inspired leadership of technical genius 'Wilkie' Wilkinson always punched above their weight. In addition to racing Jaguars successfully, Ecurie Ecosse also raced a variety of Tojeiros and created the unique Lister Monzanapolis single seater for the 1958 'Race of Two Worlds' on the banked Monza circuit. All these cars, and also the transporter made famous by a period toy were on hand to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the 1957 Le Mans win. Scottish flags were proudly shown on pit road and while the cars were lined up on the straight spectators wearing tartan were invited for a grid walk.

Great Grand Tourers
One of the headlining races during the weekend is traditionally the one-hour, two-driver Royal Automobile Club TT for GT cars of the 1960s. During the last few years the emphasis shifted to slightly later cars leaving legendary machines like the Aston Martin DB4 GT and Ferrari 250 GT SWB outclassed. To bring these back to the limelight, the new Kinrara Trophy was added to the roster in 2016. Staged on Friday evening and finishing as the sun set, the one-hour race this year attracted no fewer than eight 250 GT SWBs and five DB4 GTs. In damp conditions, the Jaguar E-Types entered proved the fastest in qualifying and also dominated the very wet race. Eventually the example shared by Phil Keen and Jon Minshaw crossed the line first. The TT race on Sunday also featured E-Types but in a further developed state. In qualifying the 2015 and 2016 winning E-Type of Chris Ward and Gordon Shedden just pipped the Ferrari 250 GTO of Andy Newall and Frank Stippler for pole but unfortunately the latter could not start the race with the GTO after a crash in practice. At the start Dutchman David Hart stormed to the head of the field with his Cobra. Ward had dropped down the order and used some less subtle tactics to fight his way back up the order but after Shedden escaped a penalty in 2016, the pairing were now penalised with 30 seconds added to their result. Hart's 18-year old son Oliver continued the charge with a beautiful drive but eventually had to retire with what looked like a blown engine. His valiant efforts did earn him the Rolex Drive of the Meeting. Thanks to the late retirement and the penalty, the coveted win was eventually scored by Andy Wolfe and Michael Gans, who shared Jason Wright's Cobra. It was Gans' second win of the meeting as he had also stormed to the fore with his ERA in the Goodwood Trophy, which was his first ever win at Goodwood after many years of trying.

Further highlights
Due to the changeable and often treacherous conditions, the 2017 Goodwood Revival Meeting demanded the very best from both cars and drivers. Accordingly, the spectators were treated to some absolutely stellar drives, especially those who stuck around for the final two races on Sunday. Run on an absolutely soaked track the Glover and Sussex trophies demanded almost superhuman skills to conquer. The former, for 1960s Grand Prix cars was won by Martin Stretton in a Lotus 24, while the latter, for big banger sports cars, saw Sam Hancock claim victory in the well honed Ferrari 246 Dino of Harry Leventis. Earlier that day, we also saw a masterclass of saloon car racing of Dickie Meaden and Mike Jordan in an fire-belching Alfa Romeo Giulietta and Austin A40 respectively. They virtually raced side-by-side throughout the second St Mary's Trophy but never touched. Eventually Meaden came out on top and his stellar drive was also awarded with the Will Hoy Memorial Trophy for the greatest drive in a closed cockpit car. On aggregate, the St Mary's Trophy was won by Jason Plato and Nick Naismith in their A95 Westminster, ahead of the Giulietta, which was driven in the 'pro' race by Steve Soper. Chris Ward did keep his nose clean with the JD Classics Ford GT40 in the Whitsun Trophy, which was run under very wet conditions to take his sole victory of the meeting. Rob Hall, meanwhile, used the very Aston Martin DB3 that had won the first of the Goodwood Nine-Hour races in period to score victory in the Freddie March Memorial Trophy.

Final thoughts
Rain or shine, the Goodwood Revival remains one of the very best events on the calendar. Not surprisingly, it was once again sold out before it started and despite the weather conditions most of the visitors still made an effort to dress up and become part of the event itself. What they were treated to can be found in our all-encompassing 350-shot gallery.

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Report by Wouter Melissen and images by Wouter Melissen and Pieter Melissen for Ultimatecarpage.com