Vintage Car Racing: Goodwood Revival 2010 – Part 1
The Goodwood Revival 2010, to be held 17-19 September on the celebrated West Sussex motor circuit, is set to be a very special weekend, with mouth-watering grids, scintillating on-track action and a number of significant anniversaries to celebrate.
The 2010 edition of the Goodwood Revival is set to build on the success of last year’s event, when a record-breaking 134,000 people attended over the weekend. Due to this phenomenal popularity, spectator numbers are being more tightly controlled this year with the aim of keeping the event comfortable and not too crowded. More grandstand seats have been added too, as well as an enhanced pedestrian flow with an additional access tunnel into and out of the inner circuit paddock areas.
As ever, the Goodwood Revival offers visitors of all ages a chance to revel in the romance and glamour of motor racing as it used to be. It is the only sporting event in the world set entirely to a period theme, and every year spectators and competitors take a magical step back in time by getting into the effervescent Goodwood atmosphere. The majority of visitors enter into the spirit of the event, dressing in appropriate clothing from the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s.
The lovingly restored circuit is unchanged from its heyday (1948-1966), and great lengths are taken to ensure that everything on the site is exactly as it was. No modern vehicles are allowed within the circuit perimeter throughout the weekend – period vehicles provide all essential services and competitor support. Bands play 1950s music, the corn stooks on the infield are made from a specially-grown crop with extra-long stalks for hand cutting rather than combine harvesting, and even the food has a 1950s flavour.
This September’s event will offer an action-packed weekend of historic motor racing and period theatre, highlighted by the following on-track races:
Royal Automobile Club TT Celebration race (one hour, two drivers): For closed-cockpit GT cars in the spirit of the RAC TT races, 1960-1964 – The one-hour, two-driver Royal Automobile Club TT Celebration race remains the jewel in the Revival’s crown. Nowhere else in the world will you see such a spectacular grid of super-rare GT cars racing in anger, driven by great aces past and present. The grid will once again feature a breathtaking £100 million array of internationally-renowned historic cars. Expect to see Jaguar E-type lightweight; Ferrari 250 GTO, GT SWB and 330 LM/B; Aston Martin DB4GT, Zagato and Project car; and AC Cobra. Drivers taking part include Le Mans winners Derek Bell, Jochen Mass, Emanuele Pirro, Martin Brundle, Tom Kristensen, Vern Schuppan, Richard Attwood, Henri Pescarolo, Andy Wallace, Hurley Haywood and Jackie Oliver; F1 aces Sir Stirling Moss, Brian Redman and Gerhard Berger plus Red Bull team manager Christian Horner; and touring car heroes John Fitzpatrick, Anthony Reid and Stuart Graham.
Madgwick Cup (45 minutes, two drivers): For sports-racing cars under 2.5-litres of a type that raced between 1955 and 1960 – The Madgwick Cup is a name synonymous with Goodwood and the Revival, Madgwick Cup Trophy at Goodwood Revival 2009and this year for the first time it will be expanded to be a 45-minute two-driver race which offers a diverse grid of small-capacity sports-racing cars from the mid to late 1950s. These lightweight and streamlined baby racers were the mainstay of sports car racing at Goodwood, forging a thriving industry of ‘production’ race cars for many enthusiastic customers. At the forefront was Colin Chapman, with his sleek Lotus 11 and Lotus 15, main rival John Cooper with his T39 ‘Bobtail’ and T49 ‘Monaco’, plus cars from Elva and Lola. The continent also produced many exotic cars including the Porsche 550 and RS-60, plus Ferrari 196 SP Dino and Maserati 200S and 250S. Expect to see these and many more variants in action this year!
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