Fordwater Trophy Race, Goodwood 2010
at the Goodwood Revival
My planned convoy of Sprites to the Goodwood Revival didn't quite materialise as Stephen Bowen took his ex-Ian Walker car, WJB 707, direct to the circuit on the Friday accompanied by Michael Meerlo with his newly completed Sebring Fastback replica. We were therefore down to Susan and I in JJO accompanied by Ralph Whitmarsh in his Frogeye. It was a lovely morning so we stopped briefly on Ashdown Forest to take photos and arrived at Goodwood just an hour before the "big race", the Fordwater Trophy. The grid (see below) included seventeen very special Sprites, if you include James Willis's MG Midget Coupé. On the front row were Nick Swift in the rather strange-looking Mini Dart, Rae Davis in his MiniJem and Gordon Elwell in Meg (MEG 199 Sebring Sprite). Shaun Rainford was on Row 2 in his replica of John Britten's SS1800 Lenham GT alongside Richard Mein's pretty little Deep Sanderson. On the 3rd row were Antonio Bertini (Speedwell GT), Paul Woolmer (BXN) and James Willis's Midget. Sadly after weaving his way round the warm-up lap to heart up his tyres James' transmission gave up, leaving him without a race. On Row 4 were Mike Haigh's Lenham Le Mans, alongside Julius Thurgood's so-called Ashley GT. David Wylie was a welcome sight in the middle of Row 5 with his Speedwell ~ invited very late in the day. Behind him were the WSMs of Brian Arculus and Ivor Miller, and on Row 7 was Dick Skipworth's re-creation of the Ecurie Ecosse Sprite. Chris Clegg was on Row 8 with S221, and Clive Cocks's WSM was on Row 9. David Stubbings red Lenham GT was just behind and Martin Davidson in 7080AC on Row 11, having had problems with its rebuilt overdrive unit in practice. Neil Hardy brought out the blue Speedwell for the first time, but Tony Wilson-Spratt's WSM MGB failed to complete the warm-up lap. Jim Prentice's Le Mans Sprite doesn't appear on either the qualification sheet or the grid but somehow finished 8th in the race!? [I have since learned that the car's condenser failed between paddock and the collecting ring for practice. However as he had raced at Goodwood the year before the Stewards allowed him to start, ~ at the back of the grid ( MEI, Nov 2011)].
When the flag fell it was Gordon Elwell in MEG who shot away into the lead hotly pursued by Swift and Rainford, with Davis close behind, though all these 3 overhauled Gordon by the end of lap 2. The three leading cars were then swapping places lap after lap until Davis appeared to overdo it far out on the circuit following which he soon retired. Paul Woolmer gradually moved up the leader-board as did Wylie and Clegg who had his best race ever at Goodwood ~ dicing with the Deep Sanderson, and had a beaming smile on his face in the paddock afterwards. Sadly Jack Wheeler's car driven by his racing 'partner' Martin Davidson expired early on, which was a big disappointment to them both. If you look at the Speed trap figures you can see the leaders were achieving 120 m.p.h on the quickest part of this very fast circuit. At the end of the race Nick Swift led Shaun Rainford home by just over three seconds with Gordon 3rd, three seconds adrift. A thoroughly enjoyable event pretty well dominated by the good old Austin-Healey Sprite.