‘A magical step back in time’ is the strapline used to promote the Goodwood Revival. The atmosphere this year was indeed magical – the combination of motorsport history, theatre, fine weather and a real sense of involvement for both spectators and participants alike, contributed to a great sense of occasion.  First time visitor and FJ competitor from New Zealand, Chris Atkinson, summed it up as he later prepared to share the driving of Robin Longdon’s Lola Mk 1 in the Madgwick Cup – “.....don’t pinch me, I might wake up ”

The main stories of the Formula Junior  race, distilled, were Benn Simms v John Chisholm, oil everywhere, a safety car period, a big impact for David Gathercole and some often over exuberant driving....At the start, poleman, Sir John Chisholm led Benn Simms and Chris Drake into Madgwick. Almost immediately there was drama though as a fast starting Desire Wilson pulled out from fourth place in a cloud of smoke with a suspected oil seal failure in the Nota’s engine department. Although soon off the racing line, a great swathe of lubricant had been laid from the start and finish line making braking into the fast right hander a precarious business for the rest of the race. Another fast starter was Tim Bishop who made up five or six places off the line in his Sauter while David Gathercole, who’d started from the pits, also scythed through the pack in the first half lap or so.

It was not long before further drama occurred – Dan Collins lost his Lotus at St Mary’s causing Kevin Musson to visit the scenery in avoidance and then Ivo Göckmann dropped the Jolus into the Lavant gravel trap. This latter incident brought out the safety car for 3 laps but not before Simms had performed a masterful outbraking manoeuvre over Chisholm under braking into Woodcote to take the lead. Another potential front runner, Hans Jorgen Krag, retired his Lola at this stage with a suspected broken input shaft in his gearbox. Ivo meanwhile, having abandoned his car, hopped back in when it was recovered by the marshals and set off again well behind, and not classified, but at least getting some more laps in.

At the restart, Benn and John resumed their battle at the front whilst Chris in third place came under attack from John Milicevic’s Lotus which had started from an unusually lowly grid position following his gearbox problems in practice. The dice was short lived however when John succumbed to the oil now laid at St Mary’s and spun luridly, luckily without hitting anything. Further down the field, knots of cars had developed and it was within one of these, during lap 8, when a quite nasty looking incident occurred. David Gathercole appeared to brake too late at the end of the Lavant straight and tagged the back of Alex Morton’s Ausper before spinning backwards into the outer barrier on the entry to Woodcote. Luckily the driver hopped out promptly but this was a sizeable impact and the Lotus was a sorry sight afterwards with severe damage to its hindquarters. Alex was fortunate to be able to continue, albeit a little warily, after the impact on his nearside rear wheel. With yellow flags in the area, the first two cars came rapidly upon Duncan in Vernon Williamson’s Ausper leaving them both with some uncertainty about how to avoid overtaking him before the green flag, given the heat of the battle and the significant speed differentials.....Others to experience dramas during the race included Dietrich Merkel who spun whilst diving down the inside of Tim Bishop into Madgwick, apparently oblivious to the oil slick there and Peter Knöfel, Dan Collins and John Delane all of whom had retired with mechanical problems by lap 9.

There were times when it looked as though the lead would change as the Gemini proved faster around some parts of the lap but the Elva was dominant under braking into Woodcote before cornering with armfuls of opposite lock much to the crowd’s delight. Traffic also played a part and laps 10 and 11 were particularly fraught with the lead in the balance for several minutes. At the finish though, John sportingly attributed Benn’s win to a combination of youth and talent whilst Chris Drake was a comfortable and delighted third after John Milicevic’s spin left him relatively unchallenged. John recovered to fifth place behind Crispian Besley’s Cooper T56 which had been smoothly driven throughout.

Several drivers and cars warrant special mentions. A crowd favourite was the extraordinary Derossi BMC driven by Canadian Doug Elcomb and it was good to see Andrew Robertson’s Crossle achieve a creditable sixth place under the watchful eye of father-in-law and last years’ winner, Derek Walker. David Hall, Alex Morton, Jeremy Deeley and John Dowson deservedly completed the top ten after James Hicks spun his MkIII Caravelle on the very last lap. This was a another fine race for the large Goodwood crowd and although punctuated by a few incidents, it was to the great credit of the majority of FJHRA competitors that the high speed, oil lubricated track with the added ingredient of the ‘special occasion’ factor produced an entertaining spectacle rather than a safety car led procession.

Peter Anstiss