The 2018 historic racing season got off to an unseasonable start this weekend at the Goodwood Members Meeting with snow plaguing play as the weekend’s on track action got underway.
With heavy snow persisting throughout Saturday morning and into the afternoon, conditions looked treacherous as the Costin Lister and Lister Knobbly headed out onto track to qualify for Sunday’s Salvadori Cup race. Although a short 15 minute session, many cars fell victim to the unpredictable weather with many running wide and going off course in the slippery conditions. Driven by Derek Hood and Andrew Smith respectively, both JD Lister’s successfully negotiated a tricky session to qualify in 14th and 5th place.
Its racing debut for JD Classics, the Shelby Daytona Cobra of Andrew Smith fresh in its new grey livery quickly set the pace within the 15-minute qualifying session for the Gurney Cup. Returning to Goodwood following its Whitsun Trophy victory at last year’s Revival, the GT40 of John Young was also in hot pursuit with both cars matching the pace in the top half of the field. Amongst a competitive field of sports racing prototypes such as Lotus’, McLaren’s and fellow Cobras, Andrew Smith maintained a fastest lap time of 1:45.7 to claim pole position 2.6 seconds ahead of the Cooper Maserati of Ollie Bryant. The JD GT40 also performed consistently to qualify in 10th place.
Last of the JD Classics line-up to qualify was the Jaguar MK2 racer of Chris Ward. Pitching a selection of late 1950s/early 1960s saloon cars against one another, competition was fierce and with weather conditions continuing to test drivers, Chris Ward managed to complete the session to qualify the JD Classics car in 7th place overall ahead of Sunday’s 20-minute race.
Overnight snow dealt Sunday even more inclement weather for the final day of racing at Goodwood’s 76th Members Meeting with the planned JD Classics passenger rides cancelled due to the slippery conditions. However, with racing continuing as scheduled, the Salvadori Cup field lined up on the grid for Sunday’s mid-morning 20-minute race. Starting from 5th place, Andrew Smith’s Lister Knobbly got off to a flying start having moved his way up into 2nd place by the first corner as the field headed down into Madgwick.
With the front four cars all running closely together, Jon Minshaw’s Knobbly ran wide dropping the car down the field and with Martin Stretton’s Knobbly now ahead of the JD Classics car so claimed the front of the grid and began to slowly pull away from the rest of the field. Despite this, the race very much remained on for position as both Lotus Climax’s of Roger Wills and Ollie Bryant nipped at the heels of Andrew Smith in a bid to claim 2nd place. Having qualified in 14th, the Costin Lister of Derek Hood maintained a steady mid field race to cross the finish in 14th place with a 10 second lead over the chasing Jaguar long nose D-Type of Ben Eastick. In its competition debut for JD Classics, the Lister Knobbly of Andrew Smith crossed the finish line in a respectable 4th place.
Sunday afternoon and with the track drying out, the Gurney Cup race got underway as the Shelby Daytona Cobra of Andrew Smith led away from the start line however an impressive start from the GT40 of David Hart quickly change the lead. Nevertheless, the JD Cobra was in hot pursuit. Having qualified in 10th place, a technical issue on the parade lap meant that John Young and the GT40 were relegated to the back of the grid ahead of the start; this did little to deter the former Goodwood winning car as John Young was soon working his way through the group.
As the race entered its latter stages, the leading GT40 managed to ward off the Cobra’s advances to take the chequered flag with Andrew Smith claiming a comfortable second place ahead of the fellow Daytona Cobra of Olivier Hart. Having started at the back of the 21 car field, the JD Classics GT40 of John Young charged its way through to claim an impressive 8th position in this year’s Gurney Cup race.
Last but not least, the MK2 racer of Chris Ward lined up in 7th place on the grid ahead of the weekend’s final race, the Sears Trophy. A lively start to the race was short lived as after just three laps the safety car was deployed when the Lotus Cortina of Shaun Lynn suffered a big accident into St Marys which saw the field group back up. After 4 laps behind the safety car, the race continued with Chris Ward running in 11th place and hot on the heels of the fellow MK2 of James Dorlin. As the race reached its 20-minute duration, the race win was taken by the Lotus Cortina of Andrew Jordan with fellow Cortina’s completing the top four. Having ran well throughout the weekend, Chris Ward crossed the finish line in 15th place.