Henry Hope‑Frost's Top 10 75MM moments

Franchitti proves his Porsche point

Self-confessed Porsche nut Dario Franchitti was thrilled to sample the 1998 Le Mans 24 Hour-winning Porsche 911 GT1-98 during Sunday’s GT1 parade. The uber-enthusiastic Scot, who won the Indianapolis 500 on three occasions and secured four US IndyCar titles, joked that he’d had to ‘remove the child seat’ left there by his friend and countryman Allan McNish, who took the flat-six twin-turbo beast to victory at La Sarthe alongside Laurent Aiello and Stéphane Ortelli in Porsche’s 50^th anniversary year.

BMW hero Ravaglia back in Schnitzer M3

Thirty years ago, the sight and sound of a BMW Motorsport-striped E30 M3 pedalled by an Italian dude called Roberto Ravaglia was, for many, touring car nirvana. And that includes me. When BMW’s multiple European- and world-title-winning 59-year-old Venetian appeared in period attire aboard the Schnitzer-run four-pot homologation special, it was suddenly 1987 again. Predictably, Ravaglia was ‘on it’ in the daily Group A demos, enjoying a spirited battle with Jason Minshaw in the ex-Roland Ratzenberger Demon Tweeks machine. “I diced with – and got past – a World Champion. Now that’s cool!” enthused Minshaw.

Berger's Bavarian Bahnstormer

Roberto Ravaglia wasn’t the only mid-’80s BMW star to turn the clock back for the Group A demos. His friend and former team-mate Gerhard Berger returned to the wheel of a BMW Original Teile-liveried 635 CSi similar to the one that the pair and Swiss ace Marc Surer took to victory in the Spa 24 Hours in 1985. By then, of course, Berger was an Arrows-BMW F1 racer and would go on to win 10 Grands Prix for Benetton, Ferrari and McLaren. When I doorstepped him on camera ahead of Sunday’s demo, he was at his cheeky and chirpy best – pointing out that it was he who’d persuaded Ravaglia to come – and happy to remind everyone how much he loved the whole Goodwood thing. Too cool.  

Swift by name, Swift by nature

Regulars at Goodwood’s Members’ and Revival Meetings will know all about the exuberant Nick Swift and his big-car-bating antics aboard his Mini. The Swiftune racer was at his giant-killing and arm-waving best during this year’s two-part Gerry Marshall Trophy – in both Saturday’s two-driver, pro-am feature race with BTCC ace Andrew Jordan and Sunday’s owner-only, reversed-grid sprint – as he battled a power disadvantage with deft, momentum-carrying moves all around the lap. There’s a jolly good reason why we fill Nick’s car with Go-Pros: he brings a whole new level of entertainment to the events and we love him for it.

Hailwood and Honda in emotional tribute

The appearance of David Hailwood on his legendary father Mike’s 1966/’67 500cc Honda RC181 Grand Prix bike at the front of the Hailwood Trophy pack struck an emotional chord for me. I was thrilled that he accepted my invitation to demo the beautiful machine on which ‘Mike The Bike’ twice finished second in the World Championship just before a smoky pack of 250cc and 350cc two-strokes battled for the Hailwood Trophy. What a brilliant way to catch up with a guy I hadn’t seen since school days in the late-’80s. The poignancy of the moment is brought into sharper focus when I remember that yesterday (March 21) was the 36^th anniversary of David’s sister Michelle’s death in a road accident, aged just nine, and tomorrow (March 23) is the date their hero father succumbed to his injuries in the same tragic crash. David was in the car that fateful Saturday evening in 1981, aged six…

The art of noise

When motorsport’s unique super-hero John Surtees died just over a week before the Motor Circuit opened for the 75^th Members’ Meeting, thoughts turned immediately to how we would honour the only man to win world titles in the saddle and in the cockpit. Big John’s four-wheeled career began at Goodwood, of course, with tests for Vanwall and Aston Martin and his first race, in a Formula Junior Cooper on March 19^th, 1960. How apposite it was that the anniversary fell on Members’ Sunday, 57 years on. By way of a tribute to John, Lord March climbed aboard Mike Whitaker’s ex-Team Surtees Lola T70 Spyder and rumbled the lap-record-holding car around ahead of the final race of the weekend, the Surtees Trophy for Can-Am machines. While he did so, cars and bikes in the paddock were fired up to create a minute’s noise. And all this after period FJunior ace, Le Mans winner and Goodwood friend Richard Attwood had paraded the very same Cooper used by John on that day in 1960. We’re confident Big John would’ve heartily approved. 

RS500 aces reunited for Ford fun

With their bewinged bodywork, flame-belching, side-exit exhausts and whistling wastegates, the Ford Sierra RS500s were the star turn of the two-part daily Group A demos. And when they had period aces Steve Soper, Robb Gravett and Karl Jones to pedal them round, the late-’80s flashbacks were complete. Soper was back in his Texaco-liveried Eggenberger machine, while Gravett saddled the ex-Chris Hodgetts car and Jones sampled the Lui-branded version raced by Manuel Reuter in the German DTM series. All were effusive about the experience, which matched the reaction of the fans who witnessed it.  

Eastwood's Gulf scream

Young Charlie Eastwood has a bright future ahead of him, possibly with Porsche. The 21-year-old Irishman, already under the German marque’s tutelage via success in the Carrera Cup GB, was wide-eyed and open-mouthed at the prospect of driving the iconic Gulf 908/3 in the demo for 3-litre prototypes. The lightweight, open-top sports-racer was drafted into World Sportscar Championship duty for the Targa Florio and Nürburgring 1,000km in 1970, on the basis it was more nimble than the 917, and won both races. Perma-smiling Eastwood grasped the historic significance of the moment and drove the powder-blue-and-orange racer rapidly yet respectfully.

David v Goliath, Edwardian style

Back by popular demand, the Edwardian leviathans that enlightened and entertained in the inaugural S.F.Edge Trophy at the 74^th Members’ Meeting again stunned onlookers. The variety of ages, shapes and sizes among the pre-1923 machines was wonderful. And, once Patrick Blakeney-Edwards, who was on pole in the GN Curtiss by a significant margin, came to the grid with an intermittent misfire, the race became a classic. PB-E see-sawed up and down the order, even visiting the pits in an attempt to cure the malaise. Having charged back to catch and pass leader Matias Sielecki in the mighty V12 Delage, only to drop back again, he engaged in a superb David versus Goliath scrap, losing out to Argentinian youngster Sielecki by half a second. 

Privileged passenger rides

I’ve been hugely fortunate to ride around the Motor Circuit in McLaren M1B and Lola T70 Spyder Can-Am missiles, courtesy of race-winners Chris Goodwin and Nick Padmore respectively, and my latest adventures from the passenger seat of important competition cars were again sublime and ridiculous in equal measure. Ahead of the event, I came down to Goodwood in an ex-Kremer Racing/Larbre Compétition/G-Force Racing Porsche 911 GT1 alongside successful historic racer Joe Twyman. The awesome flat-six, twin-turbo GT1 finished third in the 1998 Daytona 24 Hours and remains in its FATurbo Express livery from the American endurance classic. The stunned looks as we passed through West Sussex towns and villages in chassis 104 were priceless. During the event itself, it was a privilege to receive a last-second offer to join Andrew Keith-Lucas in an ex-Briggs Cunningham Lister-Chevrolet ‘Knobbly’ for a few demo laps ahead of the Scott Brown Trophy. The 1958 V8 muscle car, chassis BHL115, was twitchy, noisy and hot and as we wafted around the circuit, I could only imagine what it must have been like to witness disabled genius Archie Scott Brown at his very best.

Images courtesy of Drew Gibson and Jayson Fong