Lukas Halusa and Andre Lotterer’s one-second victory in the Royal Automobile Club TT Celebration brought the 28th Goodwood Revival to a spectacular conclusion on a gloriously sunny Sunday afternoon.
The Halusa family’s ex-Peter Lumsden/Peter Sargent Jaguar E-type lightweight low-drag coupe 49 FXN – the Sami Klat-designed Playfords-bodied car, the most beautiful of all iterations on an already gorgeous theme – was first seen at Goodwood in 1963, then extensively modified for its 1964 pre-Le Mans shakedown debut in the Sussex Trophy. Relayed from second by Halusa, whose 1m25.882s best lap Lotterer pared back to 1m25.318s, the German stalked Andrew Jordan in Matthew Holme’s Shelby Cobra and negated a 3s penalty for his team-mate’s (marginally) out of position start five laps from home.
As the duellists encountered traffic in turn, the result was in doubt until the chequered flag. UK-based Austrian Martin Halusa’s team was elated, for not only was it son Lukas’s first win in the prestigious feature race, but the performance erased the iconic Jag’s previous best in the 1963-1966 GT showcase, Ludovic Lindsay/Gerhard Berger’s second in 2005.
“I didn’t know about the penalty but thought there must be a reason why I was being shown a P2 board,” said Lotterer, Audi’s three-time Le Mans winner. “The car was fantastic, like the event. You fall back in love with your sport when you come to Goodwood.”
Lumsden and Sargent’s earlier Le Mans entry, the unique spaceframe Lister-Jaguar coupe – thrice previously a TT Celebration podium finisher – was third in the hands of American owner Fred Wakeman and his illustrious compatriot, seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson.
Jack Tetley’s lurid early cross-track spin exiting St Mary’s put paid to 1m24.585s (102.14mph) pole-setter Tom Ingram’s hopes of a hat-trick of victories in different cars. Nonetheless, the double British Touring Car champion bounded back to fifth in their AC Cobra, behind his 2024 winning partner Mike Whitaker in the TVR Griffith finished by 2005 victor Dario Franchitti. Whitaker had led, but Franchitti was frustrated when its Ford V8 would not refire in the pitlane until it was push-started. Thruxton owner Alex Thistlethwayte and Romain Dumas (Shelby Cobra) completed the top six.
This year’s Revival was skilfully imbued with a wonderful Italian flavour, going back way beyond the Maserati ‘Celebrazione’ honouring the marque’s centenary and 80 years of waspish Vespa scooters to Roman times, with a remarkable edifice housing the Rolex Drivers’ Club.
Photo by: Jeff Bloxham
A remarkable 1-2 for Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Monzas in Saturday’s Brooklands Trophy showcase, plus victories for Maserati and Ferrari cars ramped up the pathos. Add in wonderful daily tributes to the gifted multi-tasking triple Formula 1 world champion Jack Brabham 100 years after his birth, and demos of the Ford GT40 Mk2s that finished 1-2-3 at the 1966 Le Mans 24 Hours – down to their infamously choreographed finish – and the event’s breadth has never been greater.
Seventy-eight years to the day since Stirling Moss won the 500cc race at Goodwood’s inaugural race event, a day after his 19th birthday, the motor circuit’s homage to the circuit’s most successful driver was doubly poignant. Just as Moss won the 1960 and 1961 Tourist Trophy races – his third and fourth at the former RAF Westhampnett – in Ferrari 250 GT Berlinettas, Alexander van der Lof and Yelmer Buurman’s resounding victory in Friday night’s Stirling Moss Memorial Trophy race into darkness was achieved in a sister ‘SWB’. The parallels do not end there, for Moss and Dries van der Lof, Alexander’s father, contested the first World Championship Dutch GP at Zandvoort in 1952, in ERA G-type and HWM-Alta respectively.
Van der Lof’s start from the middle of the front row was electric. To a delicious three-litre V12 soundtrack the scarlet coupe hurtled clear of polesitter Chris Harris (in Richard Kent’s hooded Jaguar E-type roadster) and Michael Gans’ two-litre Coventry-Climax FPF-engined Lotus Elite, evolved with the intention of contesting the 1960 Le Mans 24 Hours but not raced there.
“If there was an award for rear of the year the Ferrari would win it – I followed it for 16 laps and it’s gorgeous,” said Harris, having relayed Kent, who emerged from the pits after leaders Buurman and Horatio Fitz-Simon, finishing the Elite, had passed.
Fitz-Simon – the 2023 Lurani Trophy Formula Junior champion – set a sub-90 seconds fastest lap, but the Flying Dutchmen’s Ferrari was uncatchable and the chequer was thrown early with visibility reducing rapidly, although the top pair must have drunk carrot juice having run on sidelights for most of the way.
“Alexander did all the work,” said son-in-law Yelmer afterwards. Gans and Fitz-Simon were ecstatic with the sublimely balanced Elite, while Harris/Kent had to be satisfied with third, a distance ahead of Joe Macari/Tom Kristensen’s Ferrari SWB.
Poleman Romain Dumas’s hulking Ford Galaxie 500 was only fourth into Madgwick at the start of Friday’s St Mary’s Trophy’s pro leg. When leader Frank Stippler’s tail-happy Alfa GTA flicked P3 qualifier Jenson Button’s Cortina Lotus onto the grass, however, the Frenchman unleashed V8 power to blast past Gordon Shedden’s Cortina and regain the initiative down the incline to Fordwater. Stippler reeled Dumas back in, eventually, but ran out of time to reverse their order, then attracted a penalty for nerfing Button.
Photo by: Gary Hawkins
Following protracted duels between Shedden and Tom Ingram in Cortinas and Alfisti Andrew Jordan and Rob Huff, with Button closing in, Jordan somehow rounded Huff into Woodcote on the final lap, Rob having locked a brake momentarily into Lavant and compromised his momentum. With Ingram top Cortina in third overall, Button snatched sixth from Shedden on the line. First Mini home was Jenson’s early tail-gunner Alex Buncombe’s in ninth, but the absorbing battle was between those of Tony Jardine, Patrick Watts and Kiwi legend Greg Murphy. They finished in the opposite order.
Fred Shepherd’s victory in Sunday’s owners’ race was never in doubt, ensuring a fifth overall St Mary’s win for ‘Equipe Franglais’ – “we speak the same language,” said Fred – with double Le Mans winner Dumas. Max Chilton, taking his turn in the family car and Button’s partner Richard Williams led the chase, with Nick Swift’s Mini fourth. The three-abreast moment at Woodcote (pictured above) when Swift circumnavigated Tarek Mahmoud’s Galaxie as Chris Ward (Jaguar Mk2) lunged inside the lumbering leviathan was the highlight. Alas Ward subsequently retired.
Alexis racer Stuart Roach left rivals floundering in the Chichester Cup rear-engined drum-braked Formula Junior race. Last year’s front-engined victor in the Mk2, the Hampshireman qualified the Mk3 on pole and, on “in-betweeny settings” on a drying track following overnight rain, lapped everybody up to and including ninth.
But for a sharp intake of breath lapping Martin Aubert grassily into Madgwick, Roach made it look simple. Illustrious pursuers Andrew Hibberd (Lotus 20) and Joe Colasacco (RAM-Fiat) and quadruple FJHRA champion Nic Carlton-Smith (20) were nose-to-tail more than a minute down onto the last lap. UK points leader Nathan Metcalfe (20) salvaged fifth from notional class winner Keith Pickering (Britannia) after a spin.
Patrick Blakeney-Edwards’ Brooklands Trophy race superiority was not what Friday’s 2.501s qualifying advantage suggested, having “killed the brakes” of the French blue ex-Phi Phi Etancelin Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 entered by Peter Neumark’s daughter Rebecca Wassell. Roderick Jack shot out of the box magnificently, belying his pre-war debutant status in the Hon Brian Lewis’ British Racing Green version by leading initially. Robert Beebee (Frazer Nash TT Replica) also led as the trio’s tussle intensified.
PBE’s guile prevailed, but Jack’s best lap was 0.001s slower than the maestro’s as Pat repeated April’s Varzi Trophy victory. Alan Middleton was best of the rest in the ex-Dudley Folland Aston Martin ‘Red Dragon,’ raced here by Jack Fairman in 1952, having outrun Josef Rettenmaier’s ex-Giuseppe Campari/Luigi Fagioli Maserati 8C 3000.
Photo by: Gary Hawkins
The Lavant Trophy ‘Battle of Modena’ showcased Maserati and Ferrari sports-racers of the 1950s. Richard Wilson’s qualifying dominance translated into a solid victory in his svelte ex-Jim Hall/Carroll Shelby Maserati 250S.
The Ferrari fight for second saw James Cottingham in the DK Engineering four-cylinder 500 TRC just hold off Frank Stippler in Arnold Meier’s big three-litre V12 250 MM coupe, which survived a late ‘yumping’ moment at Madgwick. “I tried to see what a Cavallino Rampante would do on the grass,” said the German. Carlos Ulrich’s Maserati 300S was the other combo to go the full distance.
The smoky demise of Richard Bradley’s Maserati 4CL, second quickest in one qualifying lap, before Fordwater on the race’s opening lap left David Morris as Mark Gillies’ principal Goodwood Trophy rival. But Gillies and Dick Skipworth’s ex-works ERA R3A had the edge again.
“David kept me very, very honest,” said Gillies of his old pal. His eighth showcase win – the car’s and his own’s ninth at the Revival – headed a marque rout, with Michael Gans (R1B), Ben Fidler (R4D) and Canadian Brad Baker (R10B) next home, ahead of Pat Blakeney-Edwards’ rasping monoposto Frazer Nash.
With top qualifier Rudi Friedrichs’ ex-Jack Brabham 1960 F1 championship-winning Cooper T53 sidelined by a heavy qualifying shunt, the 2.5-litre Richmond & Gordon Trophies GP car race saw a dogfight between Will Nuthall (T53) and Miles Griffiths (in Max Smith-Hilliard’s Lotus 16) from opposite ends of the design spectrum.
As they traded the lead, Tom Waterfield hurtled Tim Ross’s ex-Roy Salvadori T53 from last on the grid, ignition gremlins having precluded a flying lap, to catch them. In faint drizzle, Waterfield’s stellar outside traverse of Nuthall at Madgwick merited a superb victory, cruelly snatched away when the invited car was disqualified for being of 1961 origin.
Nuthall thus became a six-time winner. Griffiths earned front-engined plaudits from initial leader Mark Shaw’s bellowing Scarab-Offy and Joaquin Folch’s Lotus 16.
Photo by: Jeff Bloxham
Saturday’s Sussex Trophy finale fell to the ex-Graham Hill/Alan Stacey 1959 TT Team Lotus 15 of Bonamy Grimes – who started like a rocket from pole and weathered a safety car – and Johnny Mowlem. Scot Gordon Shedden rewarded Ecurie Ecosse Lister-Jaguar Knobbly owner Saif Assam with his first Goodwood podium for second. Scott Malvern kept the tyres and gearbox of Nick Jarvis’s ex-Mike Anthony/Mike Pendleton Lister-Chevrolet Costin alive to stave off James Cottingham’s Tojeiro-Jaguar, started by Alasdair McCaig, for third.
Once faster starter Jenson Button’s sister Jaguar C-type was behind him, then retired with clutch issues, Sunday’s Freddie March Memorial Trophy Goodwood Nine Hours retrospective for 1950s sportscars was a formality for Chris Ward in Nigel Webb’s XKC 004. Ward’s set of pole, unique sub-89s fastest lap and second successive victory was emotionally dedicated to racing mentor Richard Peacock (of Aintree, Oulton Park and Anglesey Circuit fame), who died last week.
Theo Hunt (HWM-Jaguar) led the pursuit from Bill Shepherd’s unruly and brakeless Ford Thunderbird ‘Battlebird’. Behind the American monster, a breathtaking fight – the scrap of the weekend – embroiled Jack Rawles (in Glen Cayley’s Austin-Healey 100M) and Richard Woolmer (HWM-Cadillac) before the Healey expired (pictured below).
Australian airman Tony Gaze, who inspired Freddie March, the ninth Duke of Richmond & Gordon, to open RAF Westhampnett for racing, and New Zealander Bruce McLaren are forever linked with Goodwood. James Davison, grandson of leading Aussie racer/team owner Lex – whose widow Diana married Kangaroo Stable sportscar racer Gaze – linked them again, repeating his 2023 Whitsun Trophy success in the ex-Peter Revson McLaren M1B, now owned by Texan Arturo Fuentes.
Davison cut a 1m18.749s (108.80mph) lap, the weekend’s best, to beat Alex Brundle (Lola T70) after Stuart Hall (T70) spun then retired. Birthday boy Harvey Stanley (T70) was promoted to third when John Spiers (M1B) was excluded for a safety car infringement.
Italian American Joe Colasacco’s taste of La Dolce Vita came in the Glover Trophy 1500cc GP car race. From eighth on the grid, he screamed Lawrence Auriana’s sublime Ferrari 1512 into the lead before a safety car for the removal of John Romano’s Brabham from the pitstraight with collapsed rear suspension, then overpowered game pursuer Stuart Hall’s four-cylinder Lotus 21 to repeat 2018’s victory.
After a couple of early herbaceous moments, poleman Lukas Halusa’s challenge in the ex-Dan Gurney Brabham BT7 evaporated, whereupon Nick Fennell jinked through to third, first of the V8s, in his Lotus 25. Colasacco was named Rolex Driver of the Event.
Photo by: Jeff Bloxham
2026 Goodwood Revival winners
RAC TT CELEBRATION
Lukas Halusa/Andre Lotterer (Jaguar E-type lightweight low-drag coupe)
STIRLING MOSS MEMORIAL TROPHY
Alexander van der Lof/Yelmer Buurman (Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta ‘SWB/C’)
ST MARY’S TROPHY: PRODUCTION-BASED SALOON CARS 1958-66
R1 Romain Dumas (Ford Galaxie 500).
R2 Fred Shepherd (Ford Galaxie 500).
Aggregate Dumas/Shepherd
CHICHESTER CUP: REAR-ENGINED DRUM BRAKED FORMULA JUNIOR
Stuart Roach (Alexis-Ford Mk3)
BROOKLANDS TROPHY: PRE-SECOND WORLD WAR & VINTAGE SPORTSCARS
Patrick Blakeney-Edwards (Alfa Romeo 8C 2300)
LAVANT CUP: 1950s FERRARI & MASERATI SPORTSCARS
Richard Wilson (Maserati 250S)
GOODWOOD TROPHY: GP CARS & VOITURETTES 1930-51
Mark Gillies (ERA R3A)
RICHMOND & GORDON TROPHIES: 2.5-LITRE GP CARS 1954-60
Will Nuthall (Cooper-Climax T53)
SUSSEX TROPHY: WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP & PRODUCTION SPORTSCARS 1955-60
Bonamy Grimes/Johnny Mowlem (Lotus-Climax 15)
FREDDIE MARCH MEMORIAL TROPHY: GOODWOOD NINE HOURS CARS 1952-55
Chris Ward (Jaguar C-type)
WHITSUN TROPHY: SPORTS-RACING PROTOTYPES 1960-66
James Davison (McLaren-Chevrolet M1B)
GLOVER TROPHY: 1.5 LITRE GP CARS 1961-65
Joe Colasacco (Ferrari 1512)
Photo by: Gary Hawkins
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– The Autosport.com Team
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