Great Goodwood Revival Races: 2013 St. Mary's Trophy

Drama in the 2013 race started the instant the flag dropped. Stephan Peterhansel's cherry red Mini punted David Richards' Lotus Cortina off the track and into the banking, desecrating a hedge and leaving a flurry of leaves in its wake. Automotive scrapping like this is what St Mary's racing is all about. 

Up front, Jackie Oliver's #9 BMW led Johnny Cecetto in the #8 BMW, with the ominous sight of Jochen Mass' gargantuan #70 Ford Galaxie filling both their mirrors. Mass' Galaxie had started the race way back in ninth, but its 7.0-litre Thunderbolt V8 engine was living up to its name, shooting through the pack like a lightning strike.

Mass briefly jostled with Oliver Gavin's Mini, which had started from the front line of the grid only to drop back, but despite Gavin's speed in corners the Galaxie's power quickly brushed the Englishman aside.   

In these early stages of the race, the leading BMWs walked the handling-performance tightrope just right — light enough deal with the scurrying Minis but powerful enough to handle the Galaxies on the straights. Oliver's BMW began to increase the gap between himself and the chasing Cecetto.

It didn't take long for things to change, though. Mass buried his throttle into the Galaxie's bare metal footwell and its V8 went into warp drive, hoovering up its surroundings – including Cecotto's BMW. Mass was now in second place, and he hadn't even completed the first lap. While Oliver was still in the lead, it was a safe bet that the order wouldn't stay like that for long. 

Mass wasn't the only driver having a dream start. Frank Stippler's #33 1600 Alfa Romeo GTA, rose from 15^th to eighth, the Alfa’s headlights blazing in the dusk of a late British summer as it nipped past Tom Kristensen's Ford Galaxie and Gavin's Mini into sixth.  

Next on Stippler's hitlist was Anthony Reid's Mk2 Jaguar, sweeping outside to pass his target on the start/finish straight and entering Madgwick with relative ease. Stippler was carrying so much speed he almost kissed the rear bumper of Steve Soper's stalling BMW, dispatching it before they had even reached Fordwater. Stippler was now fourth and looking like he could be the one to stop the powerful Galaxie. 

Back at the front, Mass was expectedly taking chunks of time out of Oliver's lead, soon enough searing past the #9 BMW on the Lavant Straight with pace the German machine had no answer to. 

The problem with going very quickly is eventually you have to slow down. Scrubbing speed from a hulking mass of Detroit metal is easier said than done, and as quickly as Mass had taken the lead, Oliver regained it as the Ford tripped itself up into Woodcote. 

Minutes later Mass was leading again, amazingly achieved under braking. Cue a heart-in-mouth move into Woodcote: a Galaxie on the limit, wheel locked, smoke puffed, throttle buried. Mass was back in charge. Replays would show Oliver missing a gear, an unwise move with a Galaxie on the hunt. 

But Mass was the least of Oliver's worries. Their duel had cost him time conceded to the Stippler GTA, which was now a couple of car lengths away from snapping at his heels. 

Worse still, Tom Kristensen’s Galaxie was towing in the Alfa Romeo's wake. Not much more than a lap later, Stippler was in second, taking advantage of the Alfa's sweet handling chassis to pass Oliver's BMW between Madgwick and Fordwater. Kristensen was past seconds later. 

Up front Mass was finding the tides had turned. Having swept past all before him, he now found Stippler's Alfa chipping at the bit, its pace forcing Mass to lock up his inside front going through the chicane. The Alfa very nearly passed, before the Galaxie picked up its skirt and bounded away down the main straight. With almost 15 minutes of the race to go the Galaxie now looked like it might struggle to hold on. 

When the overtake came it was a bolt from the blue. The Galaxie had braked painfully early for Woodcote and the Alfa shot up the inside, locking a wheel deep into the corner and nibbling the grass as Stippler tried to correct the oversteer. He was now in the lead. 

Despite one Galaxie dispatched and flagging, Stippler didn’t have an eventless run to the finish line. Tom Kristensen's #83 Ford Galaxie arrived like cavalry cresting the horizon.   

In his Galaxie's natural habitat — a straight — he sneaked past Mass on the Lavant kink. Imposing itself on the leader, Stippler’s Alfa looked like a mouse trying to scurry away from the big-block lion. Soon they were again negotiating through backmarkers, and the Alfa Romeo looking ever more ripe for the picking. 

Kristensen didn't need to be asked twice. The leaders had only just cleared the pack when the Galaxie made its move, seizing a momentary lapse in Stippler's concentration. The job wasn't done, though. Kristensen almost lost it going very sideways at St. Mary's, before carnage ensued as the Renault 8 Gordini of Nicolas Minassian speared into the side of Derek Bell's Lotus Cortina, taking both drivers out. 

With the spectators’ attention momentarily drawn away from the battle up front, Kristensen's lead was starting to look comfortable. But just as the Ford's victory looked like a dead cert, it only took a few mistakes for Stippler to be glued back onto its bumper — the unruly Ford's big slides losing Kristensen time. A photo finish became a distinct possibility as the leaders headed nose-to-tail up Lavant on the last lap. 

As it was, the Galaxie took the chequered flag first by half a second, but its straight-line performance masked what had been one of the hardest-fought battles of the weekend. The race of the Revival? It would be hard not to agree. 

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