Video: 2024 Peter Collins Trophy highlights | 81MM

15th April 2024

Ethan Jupp

The 81^st Members’ Meeting presented by Audrain Motorsport saw the return of the Peter Collins Trophy, for sports racing cars of a type that competed between 1948 and 1955. It was great to see these cars line up to race once again on our Motor Circuit for what was a glimpse into the past of Goodwood’s earliest sportscar racing era.

When the flag dropped, pole-sitter Richard Wilson compensated for a sub-par start with the sheer grunt of his Maserati 250S to make it to Madgwick first. Not that John Pearson was going to make it easy for him. He pedalled his Jaguar D-type hard and entered into a prolonged, place-swapping battle for the lead.

The red Maserati and BRG Jaguar were often sideways in their pursuit of first place, but were denied a scrap to the chequered flag when the D-type succumbed to a mechanical failure allowing Wilson an easy run to the finish line.

2024 Peter Collins Trophy Official Practice

The first chance to see these cars in action was during Saturday's qualifying session, the results of which were an apt demonstration of the variety of the grid. All five places on the two front rows were occupied by a different model.

It was the Maserati 250S of Richard Wilson that came out on top. He is joined on the front row by John Pearson (Jaguar D-Type) and Jack Rawles (Austin-Healey 100S). On the second row we have another Jaguar, this time a C-Type pedalled by Frederic Wakeman, and the Cooper-Bristol T25 of Malcolm Harrison.