Goodwood Revival a real eye-opener for Richards

A legend of Australian motorsport, Jim Richards has been around, driven it all and seen it all in the Antipodes, but invited to the UK as a special guest driver, this year’s Goodwood Revival was bigger than anything he’d ever experienced.

A magical step back in time to revel in the glamour of the golden era motor racing, the Revival is the world’s most popular annual historic motor race meeting.

The sell-out crowd was treated to a spectacular array of vehicles from 1940’s, 50’s and 60’s driven around Goodwood’s hallowed tarmac by motor racing stars old and new.

The 2010 Revival also commemorated the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain which included impressive demonstrations from Lancaster bombers and spitfires.

Contesting the two-part St Mary’s Trophy race featuring some of the most popular saloon cars of the 1950’s, Richards was among the celebrity drivers to take the wheel on Saturday, followed by the owner-drivers on Sunday, with the result declared on aggregate the pair came ninth in the 1956 Morris Minor.

Richards was also called upon to drive in the one-hour RAC TT Celebration race sharing a Ford Cobra with Rob Hall in which the pair narrowly missed a podium position and finished fourth.

Leaving the UK tomorrow, Richards will return home to prepare for round five of Touring Car Masters presented by Autobarn at Mount Panorama, Bathurst (NSW) on 7-10 October.

JIM RICHARDS:

“It was absolutely terrific. The event is massive. Each day it was absolutely chockas, there were people everywhere. We think we have big crowds in Australia, but it’s nothing like this.

“A big part of this year’s festival was the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain and they had spitfires and Lancasters doing demonstrations, too. It was quite amazing.

“The thing you don’t realise is that there are so many of the genuine cars here, where we may have one or two, there are so many of the original race cars at this event.

“We finished ninth in the Morris and fourth in the TT race in a 289 Ford Cobra. I only found out last Tuesday that I was racing in the TT event. We had a few problems with the Cobra, but the little Morrie ran fine. It was a fantastic experience.”

Via: www.touringcarmasters.com.au

Images: Goodwood Revival