“Glorious Goodwood”, well it certainly was as far as the Formula Junior race was concerned. FJHRA fielded 30 cars for the Chichester Cup, this year being for disc braked cars 1960 to 1963, although Goodwood’s unique interpretation of their own wording includes Lotus 20s which are of course drum braked, but never mind that.

As usual all imaginable and even unimaginable costumes and uniforms were being worn by the thousands. Everything from Soho spivs to Russian Generals; although there was probably not a lot of ethical difference between them c.1960s.

The spectacle seems to grow larger by the year and we had a motorcycle scramble area in the outfield at Lavant, the course being pegged out at 6am on Friday by Brian Edwards, one time FJ Gemini Mk2 owner, who was a scrambles expert in period.
Not only does the spectacle itself grow larger but so does the number of people attending Thursday set up ~ at the cricket match tea party the Pimms ran out, but at least the Spitfire beat-up was well up to standard. However, for your scribe the best part of Thursday is lunchtime when our Swedish F3-500 friends Hakan Sandberg and Peter Kumlin host an informal pickled herring and schnapps party, which is not for the faint hearted or those of a delicate disposition, this year attended personally by the Earl of March and his Aide-de-camp.

Formula Junior was in the usual place adjacent to the airfield with cars looking perfect in the sunshine and even drivers new to the event looked reasonably relaxed as technical scrutineering was conducted with exemplary brevity.
The yellow mark on each tyre signifying that finally all was well followed by a tiny orange dot on the windscreen as confirmation for the assembly area marshals.

The airfield enclosure staged a superb collection for close examination including a Supermarine floatplane from the 1931 Schneider Trophy contest plus a small tent displaying some aero engines from Le Rhone, Napier & Rolls Royce.
Your scribe was much taken with the seven de Havilland aircraft displayed comprising a Gipsy Moth, plus the Puss, Fox and Leopard variations and the ubiquitous Tiger. Additionally from the Canadian arm of the company were a Beaver and a Chipmunk; FJ Lola racer Ian “Jumbo” Robinson enjoys flying one of the latter.

With the event timetable in some disarray the practice session for the Chichester Cup started an hour late at 1.30pm but it was pretty exciting when all the cars filed out on to the track. All except that is for poor Stephane Rey’s, whose Lola Mk5A starter motor jammed solid. However he managed his obligatory few laps in the F1-1500 session later, as did Kim Shearn in his Lotus 20/22 which was badly misfiring in the FJ session.
Paddock gossip put money on pole position for Jon Milicevic or Sam Wilson in their Cooper T59s given their superiority in the national races of late but in fact it was Stuart Roach who turned in a 1:27.288 lap to claim pole position in his Alexis Mk4 from Wilson and Michael Hibberd’s ex Peter Arundell Lotus 27. Only 0.6 secs covered all three, an exciting prospect for the race on this very fast circuit.
Unfortunately the engine in Pete Morton’s Lightning Envoyette ran a bearing immediately without even completing a lap. Although Stuart Roach had very kindly offered to do an engine rebuild overnight it was after much heartache that the decision was taken that with the entire oil system and engine full of detritus, a repair was not feasible. Another engine blow up and possibly thus ruining the race for everyone was a risk he was not prepared to take. Milicevic had a spark plug earth electrode burn off after only 3 laps so he would start from 5th place and John Dowson’s Brabham BT6 gearbox chewed some teeth on his 5th tour. John Fyda, now thankfully recovered amazingly quickly following his broken ankles at Donington earlier in the year, had bad luck when his Lotus 22 crankshaft nose piece & pulley detached and Anthony Binington’s Cooper T67 suffered a blown oil filter seal. During the wait in the assembly area prior to qualiyfing it was noticed that Robin Longdon’s Lola Mk5A had required some air in the front right tyre a couple of times and it was assumed that a slow tyre puncture was the cause. He qualified mid field, unexpectedly low for him and afterwards it transpired that it was in fact a split in the wheel which was loosing the air. However a spare wheel was fitted before the race on Saturday and along with Milicevic, Fyda, Dowson and Binnington who also effected repairs it was only a distraught Pete Morton who was sidelined.

Whilst Friday had been warm and sunny there were showers overnight followed by a very heavy rain squall at around 10am on Saturday. Michael Hibberd decided that his gearing was slightly too tall for a track which he thought might be slower than on Friday so he made a minor gear alteration but Stuart Roach was undeterred and decided to retain his Silverstone Classic ratios.
The timetable was again in some disarray on Saturday and the FJ Chichester Cup started well over an hour late at 5.12pm, but what a dramatic start, as Roach had noticed on the warm up lap coming up the Lavant straight that his oil pressure was dipping.  He decided to take the start anyway, in the hope it may have been a temporary dip, however it was not to be and after the first corner he decided to pull off before too much damage occurred; what terrible luck.
 As the Union flag went down Chris Chilcott’s Lotus 20 snapped a drive shaft joint, blowing up the brake drum in the process, and a lot of jockeying ensued for the cars behind his mid grid place. Wilson didn’t make a particularly good start and Milicevic tucked up behind Hibberd who led into Madgwick and Tonetti had shot up to lie 3rd having made a fantastically good start in his Brabham BT6. However, Milicevic passed Hibberd for the lead on lap 1 but then Tonetti got through and was leading the race, which he continued to do for the next 3 laps.
This was getting pretty exciting already and there was more to come. Wilson lay 4th on the first lap, over a second behind the flying Tonetti, but he worked away passing Hibberd on lap 3 and then Milicevic the next lap. Wilson then closed right up on Tonetti, forced him to defend St Mary’s and then nipped through Lavant on a better line and into the lead on lap 5.
Already the lap times were faster than on Friday and battle continued to rage between Wilson and Tonetti, with Milicevic right on Tonetti’s gearbox.
Philipp Buhofer’s Lola Mk5A dropped a place at the start but he passed Hibberd on lap 3 moving into 4th place which he retained for the remainder of the race.  Count Manfredo Rossi di Montelera, Lotus 22, and Longdon both made dramatic progress after the start moving up five and six places respectively and Rossi finally got the better of Longdon on lap 4. Rey started last on the grid having not set a practice time  in the FJ session, but he quickly moved up four places on the first lap and was 17th by lap 6. Unfortunately the Gemini Mk4 of Ollie Crosthwaite blotted its copybook with fuel starvation on the fast parts of the circuit, which is most of it of course, and he stopped completely after only 3 laps. Anthony Binnington was in trouble right from the start, his Cooper T67 having been jumping out of gear then decided to lock itself into gear and with only 4th to play with he struggled on for 12 laps before retiring.  Tommaso Gelmini’s Branca also stuck in gear, a pit stop cured the problem but only temporarily though and he too was out after lap 10.
However, a couple of laps earlier Col Bob Birrell slammed his Brabham BT6 into the unforgiving wall at Madgwick ripping off the entire left side of the car. Bob was extricated by the quick acting marshals and whisked off to the medical centre, mercifully sustaining only a ripped ankle tendon but his Brabham was wrecked.
Bill Hemming was a winner in the starting melee behind Chilcott’s stationary Lotus and gained six places on the first lap. Unfortunately this situation didn’t last and his Elfin Catalina quickly fell back into the company of Shearn’s Lotus, both of them having started at the tail end of the grid.  Tony Simmons, Brabham BT6, fared best of our antipodean visitors although he was swamped on lap 5 by firstly Rey, then Brian Mitcham in one of the Wainers and finally Binnington. Steve Smith’s Cooper T59 renumbered from his usual 77 to 8 for this race didn’t prove to be a lucky change because on lap 8 he missed a gear and spun off away deep into the infield approaching St Mary’s, with the camera angle comically showing him nearing the aircraft. He did manage get back onto the circuit but lost 5 places.
Meanwhile the leading cars of Wilson and Tonetti were often side by side, first one was a nose ahead and then the other, but always Wilson leading, right through to lap 11 when Tonetti came out best as they both avoided Mitcham who was having a grassy moment all by himself at Fordwater. However Wilson was not done for yet and he fought tooth & nail to repass Tonetti on the next lap and all the while the crafty Milicevic was waiting only inches behind them setting a new lap record 1:25.738 (100.77mph) on the last lap. However this was not quite sufficient as Wilson kept his cool and it was his Cooper which flashed over the line after 14 furiously hard fought laps to win by 0.183 secs from Tonetti, with Milicevic taking 3rd place.
A great Goodwood debut win for Sam Wilson and yet another showcase race for Formula Junior which together with his nail biting win in the F3/500cc Earl of March Trophy race in Charlie Banyard-Smith’s ex Parker Kieft, resulted in Sam being awarded Driver of the Weekend and receiving a magnificent Rolex wristwatch from Lord March on Sunday at the end of another “Glorious Goodwood”.

Peter Jackson,  the Cooper Cockpit Correspondent,   20th Sept 2011