What more can you say about Tom Kristensen? He won the Le Mans 24 Hours more times than anyone else, he won the Sebring 12 Hours... more times than anyone else, he was World Endurance Champion, he won BTCC races, DTM races F3000 races, Formula Nippon races and even tested for Formula 1. But for us, some of his finest moments have come after his retirement from modern motorsport, those times he's turned up at Goodwood, jumped into what looked like a mid-pack car, and proceeded to drag it, kicking and sometimes screaming to the front. Here we find him in magnificent form, throwing what to all intents and purposes is a bus round Goodwood to carve through a pack of much more nimble racers.
One of the great things about the St Mary's Trophy is often the little v large battles, showcasing the variety of cars that were around in the '50s and '60s for us all to use as our personal transport. However, from time-to-time the sight of two drivers in identical cars doing battle can draw the breath. In 2017 former World Touring Car Champion Rob Huff and GT driver turned BTCC racer Michael Caine set about each other in Austin A40s in what must have been one of the greatest Goodwood battles... ever.
Little v large, it's that continuing theme. The big car has the advantage when you're in a staight line and grunt king, but back comes the little one as it gets twisty, able to carry much more speed through the bends and barely needing to touch the brakes. It's the very essence of motorsport. This video is no exception, Nick Swift is the subject of many video and article on this very site, and his furious harassing of the stunning Alfa GTA in his mighty Mini is a sight to behold every time we get to see it.
What more can you say about Tom Kristensen.... etc. In 2015 he jumped into another big, vaguely lumbering Ford and started from the very back of the field after issues in qualifying (noticing a pattern here?). After working his way past the entire field, he was left with just the leading trio, who had been battling all race long. These were no amateurs either, ahead of him lay GT racer and historic racing regular Frank Stippler, 2012 BTCC Champion Gordon Shedden (he would of course go on to claim the title that year too and again in 2016) and 2013 BTCC champ Andrew Jordan. So, of course he dispatched all of them in one lap. Mighty.
In 2016 we held the St Mary's Trophy entirely for 'academy' Austin A30 and A35s ready, we hoped, for a slipstreaming show to match the greatest. Race one was as wet as anything, but saw a great battle between the aformentioned Jordan and Shedden (the latter having to demist his windscreen periodically with a cloth). However race two delivered the slipstreamer we had hoped for; queue a train of cars heading almost nose-to-tail round Goodwood for 20 minutes, it was brilliant stuff. Oh, and one of them ended up showcasing how to do the perfect barrel-roll into the infield, who needs a spitfire to go flying?
Revival
Revival 2017
Revival 2016
Revival 2015
Tom Kristensen
Gordon Shedden
Andrew Jordan
Frank Stippler
Nick Swift
Michael Caine
Rob Huff
St Marys
2015
2016
2017