Some of the interest vanished from this year's R.A.C. Four-Hour T.T. race, held at Goodwood by the B.A.R.C. under the sponsorship of the News of the World, when Ferrari withdrew his entry and, because they then lacked transport facilities, Equipe Nationale Beige couldn't bring their 3-litre Ferrari. In addition, Ecurie Ecosse withdrew one entry, leaving only their D-type Jaguar, the Equipe Nationale Beige's Lister-Jaguar was withdrawn following mechanical maladies and the little Osca was crashed on test in Italy, while to this list of absentees was added Tavano's 2-litre Ferrari, of which nothing had been heard. Consequently, although the weather on September 13th was perfect, with hot sun, the attendance wasn't impressive—one heard it estimated at 20,000.
During practice the main anxiety was how long tyres would last, while drivers found some of the resurfaced sections of the course on the slippery side. On lap times the team of three DBR1/300 Aston Martins could dispose of the lone Lister and Jaguar opposition and interest centred on whether the smaller cars would he able to heat them on pit-stops, the race being on a scratch basis. On the Friday, in hot sunshine, it was thought that the smallest cars might go through without a tyre change, whereas the "middle class " would stop at least once, maybe twice, and the Aston Martins were expected to come in for fresh Avons three or, perhaps, four times.
Before the start Aston Martin changed their driver combinations to Moss/Brooks, Shelby/Lewis-Evans, Salvadori/Brabham. Moss had already unofficially broken his old sports-car lap record, doing 1 Min. 32 sec. against 1 min. 33.4 sec. Salvadori had been but 0.2sec. slower. Hill's 2-litre Lotus-Climax did 1 min. 34.4 sec, beating the works 550A/1500RS Porsches, and fastest 1,100 was Stacey's Team Lotus, in 1 min. 37.6 sec.
