1964 Goodwood F1

The main event in the B.A.R.C. Easter holiday programme was the 42-lap Formula One race for £350 and the News of the World Trophy, but before this took place the large crowd around the edges of the Goodwood airfield circuit were treated to a couple of 10-lap races. The first was for Formula Three cars, in which there was a depressing number of non-starters, and Stewart driving Ken Tyrell's 1964 Cooper-B.M.C. ran away with the event; the spirited driving of Fenning in the Janspeed Engineering Lotus-B.M.C. prevented the race from being a Tyrell/Cooper benefit, for he kept his red car at close quarters with Banks in the second Tyrell car and took second place on the last lap. The second 10-lap race was for saloon cars and provided another runaway victory, this time for Jack Sears in the WilIment-entered Ford Galaxie V8. Brabham was due to challenge the Willment car, driving Alan Brown's Galaxie, but in practice a tyre deflated going into Madgewick and the vast American car rolled over and over with a crashing and banging, the like of which had never before been heard on the Sussex circuit. It finished up on its wheels rather the worse for wear and Brabham undid his safety harness and stepped out unmarked. Being on his own, Sears "wuffled" round in full command of the race, but in his rear-view mirror was a works Ford Lotus-Cortina, driven by Jim Clark, that was doing some pretty acrobatic balancing acts and keeping up with the big V8. Among the rest of the field a collection of Lotus-Cortinas was led by Arundell, with Frank Gardner in hot pursuit, and a horde of B.M.C. Mini cars pounded round and were embarrassed by a lone Ford Anglia 1200 belonging to Superspeed Conversions and very ably driven by M. Young. The Mini battle was a three-cornered affair between rival "speed-shops," the Alexander Engineering car finally leading from Downton Engineering, and both vanquishing the works Cooper entries, but that Ford Anglia was ahead of them all!

After these diversions we came to the serious business of the Formula One race, over a full 100 miles distance, and sixteen cars lined up on a dummy grid down near the chicane. In the front row were Brabham with a brand-new 1964 Brabham-Climax V8, basically as last year, but modified to take 13-in. wheels and the new "fat" Dunlops, and having re-positioned radius arms at the rear to make it possible to remove the cylinder heads from the Coventry-Climax V8 engine more easily; the latest 5-speed Hewland gearbox was fitted, and in practice a time of 1 mm. 21.0 sec. had been recorded, which was 1 sec. quicker than the existing lap record. In the centre of the front row was Clark in the Lotus 25B with Climax V8 engine that he had raced at the wet Snetterton meeting, and alongside him, on the outside, was Graham Hill in the second of the 1964 B.R.M. fully stressed-skin cars; with the latest Dunlop-built 13-in, wheels and tyres. This was the car that should have been ready for Ginther for the Snetterton meeting, but as Hill wrecked the first 1964 car at that meeting he took Ginther's car for Goodwood. The American driver could not get away for this Easter race, so a second B.R.M. was entered for R. Attwood, recently co-opted into the B.R.M. team. The second row of the grid comprised Arundell in the Lotus 25B he raced at Snetterton, and Ireland with the Snetterton-winning B.R.P. monocoque. In practice Ireland had tried out the latest 1964 B.R.P. monocoque car, with B.R.M. V8 engine, B.R.M. 6-speed gearbox and Lotus suspension units, and this new car followed the general principles of the 1963 B.R.P. but with improved methods of construction and even slimmer and tidier lines. The left-band-operated gear-lever worked in a gate that was an integral part of the monocoque construction, the single long control rod running rearwards inside the stressed-skin box of the frame. The suspension had been laid out to take the new 13-in. Lotus wheels and "fat" Dunlop tyres. With Ireland in this car, Trevor Taylor was to drive the 1963 B.R.P. monocoque, but last-minute engine trouble on the new car meant that the drivers "moved down one," Ireland taking the 1963 car and Taylor taking the team's Lotus 24-B.R.M. V8. In row three were McLaren and Bonnier with 1963 Coopers, both using Climax V8 engines, and Trevor Taylor, and behind them Attwood in an early B.R.M. V8 which Centro-Sud had last year, and Baghetti in one of the present Centro-Sud cars. The rest of the field consisted of John Taylor in Gerard's 1964 Cooper F.3 with 1500 Ford engine, Raby with his Brabham-B.R.M. V8, Revson with his Lotus-B.R.M. V8, Collomb (Lows-Climax V8), Pilette (Scirocco-Climax V8), and right at the back was Hailwood with one of the Parnell Lotus 25-B.R.M. V8 cars.

The field moved up on to the proper starting grid, everything was orderly, the flag dropped, and away they went, with Clark snatching a brief lead but Graham Hill was better placed for the first corner and got ahead. The new B.R.M. appeared to be going splendidly and Hill had the measure of Clark, who was followed closely by Ireland and Brabham, but things soon settled down in the order Hill, Clark and Brabham, with Ireland leading the next group, but he was being hard-pressed by Arundell, and McLaren was just behind and watching closely. Another splendid three-cornered dice was developing between Atwood (B.R.M.), Trevor Taylor (Lotus-B.R.M.) and Bonnier (Cooper-Climax), the new B.R.M. team member driving very smoothly and confidently. As far as the first three cars were concerned there seemed a stalemate developing, and while no one was challenging anyone, equally no one had the legs of anyone. In the next trio it was a different state of affairs, for Arundell was obviously thinking he could go faster if Ireland was not in front of him and on the ninth lap he squeezed by, and he, Ireland and McLaren all arrived in a tight bunch and it was Ireland who was caught on the wrong foot! The B.R.P. spun and by sheer mischance it clouted McLaren's Cooper, which was already taking avoiding action, and the two cars struck the earth bank, the B.R.P. bent about the nose but the Cooper in a sorry state with suspension units broken off front and rear. Neither driver was hurt and as they walked away Arundell re-appeared and as he went by, now safely in fourth place, he looked at the wreckage in mild surprise! A much more tidy trio was Attwood, Taylor and Bonnier, and they swapped positions, each taking a turn at leading, but keeping close station all the time. John Taylor was having a lonely but fast drive, well ahead of the also-rans, but not in sight of the "big boys," and at the back Baghetti, Raby and Hailwood were having fun together, while Collomb and Pilette seemed almost stationary by comparison.