Goodwood Report

Hegbourne (Lola) and Burnard (A.C.-Bristol) Lead in the MOTOR SPORT Brooklands Memorial Trophy Contest  – Lotus Cars Win Five Out of Seven Races

In perfect weather conditions, before a small crowd, the 52nd Sports-Car Meeting at Goodwood produced the customary close and exciting racing.

The first race was a mixture of F.J. and non-s/c. 1100-c.c. sports cars and was led all the way by Berrow-Johnson’s F.J. Lotus-Ford, the only challenge coming from Beckwith’s sports Lotus-Ford. There was a splendid “ding-dong” between Heathcote’s F.J. Lotus-Ford and Hegbourne’s sports Lola-Climax but although the latter pushed past at the chicane, they finished third and fourth in the foregoing order. In demolishing all the wattle fencing out of the chicane Fletcher (F.J. Lotus) established a precedent for the remainder of the meeting. Prince drove his F.J. Lotus so slowly that he was lapped by Berrow-Johnson by half-distance.

There was much wild driving, with a F.J. Lotus at stake, in the “Veedol” Scratch Race, commencing with a collision between Eva’s M.G. and Fletcher (Lotus), which caused the latter to retire. Eva continued with bits trailing, driving as well as ever but irrevocably delayed. Free from all the slides and spins and wattle-levelling behind him, Cole led all the way in his Lotus-Ford, winning from Soley’s D.R.W.-Ford – but only just, for these two were side by side out of the chicane on the last lap. Cole won, in fact, by 0.6 sec.

Leading from start to finish became a feature of the meeting, for Beckwith did this in the 10-lap G.T. and sports-car race, although Hegbourne’s Lola did its best, but lacking the speed of the Lotus along Lavant straight. Lord Angus Clydesdale upheld the promise he displayed at the previous meeting by bringing his Lola home third, after Williams had thrown this position away by motoring his Lotus on the grass, for which they penalise you 60 sec. at Goodwood. It was instructive to see three small cars finishing ahead of Danny Collins’ big Chevrolet Corvette, which, incidentally was on Goodyear Sports-Car tyres. But the throaty Chevrolet finished just ahead of Coundley’s Lister-Jaguar and beat Skidmore’s Jaguar D. What would happen if someone brought one of the really “hot” American “stock-cars” over from the States and raced it in England?

Entwistle deservedly pulled off the Marque Scratch Race in the compact T.V.R. although pressed very hard indeed by Burnard’s A.C.-Bristol. These semi-standard sports cars proved notably unreliable, Bosshard’s TR3 breaking its gearbox, Redgrave’s Sunbeam Alpine breaking its throttle-linkage, Hampsheir’s M.G.-A stopping with fuel starvation, Jones’ Morgan Plus Four overheating, while Eva’s Twin-Cam M.G., which has previously proved unexpectedly reliable, now went the way of most of these M.G.s, retiring with lack of oil pressure when Eva was lying second a lap from the finish, thus losing his lead in the Brooklands Memorial Trophy Contest.

After Green’s TR3 hard-top had won a 5-lap Handicap from Dence’s open Morgan Plus Four, Adlington’s Lotus took the 1,200-c.c. push-rod sports-car Scratch race, closely pressed by Porter’s Lotus, which failed to get round the chicane on the last lap, demolishing the trellis wall and forfeiting second place to Manfield in Soley’s D.R.W. The day’s racing concluded with another 5-lap Handicap which Hicks’ Lotus-Climax won fairly easily from Yeates’ Aston Martin DB3S and Skidmore’s Jaguar-D. – W. B.