Alex Brundle balances family history with Goodwood Revival preparations

My TV work on the Formula 1 European season means there hasn’t been any racing for me in the past few weeks, but there has been a significant milestone…

I finally ran Dad and ‘Unc’ (Martin and Robin Brundle) in the Toyota Celica we’ve been rebuilding, at Snetterton of course – exactly where they raced as young guys in the Willhire 24 Hours. I turned up with fingers and toes crossed because the last time I drove it, it had decorated the windscreen with coolant and the tyres with brake dust.

A deadline was missed, but with the stiffest of British upper lips, I was sure that it was nothing a water pump – from Australia – couldn’t fix. We’d been struggling to find one for months, so defunct are they in Europe, but after a few months of Google translating Japanese auto part websites, it finally arrived, like a pizza delivery, in a van, from the other side of the planet.

My uncle had not been on a track since the 1990s, so a road-licensed track day was going to be the pinnacle of our exploits. He drove it steadily but brilliantly and I could tell that the emotion of the days of Brundle ‘family’ racing had come flooding back. On the flipside, MB’s 150-plus grands prix left him marginally overprepared for a mid-week Snetterton fun day. I listened to the very commercial drivers’ briefing while watching him with quiet amusement: “One spin and you’re in, Dad.”

As if the day couldn’t get more ‘Brundles of Norfolk’; I also sold it, an outcome which I suppose was to be expected if you leave three whole car dealers in a garage all day. We had bolted it up tight but, despite their respectful driving, my day was caught between the joy of watching the family elders slide out of Coram Curve, and trepidation at having to explain why it had conked out, to the fella who would shortly own it. All was well.

This little event lived amid two days at Donington. First, I tested the Lola T70, above, that I’m racing at the Goodwood Revival 2026. Why not test at Goodwood, you say? Because the massive silencers you need to keep it down to the Chichester noise limit are so large they change the power delivery and weight balance, meaning it’s better to go elsewhere first to make sure it runs properly. Distributor failure cut our day short, so it looks like we’ll be digging out the big mufflers after all for the Goodwood tests.