Incredible grid to battle for Mini glory at Revival
How do you fit two, fully-grown racing drivers, into a Mini? You hold a 45-minute race to celebrate the Mini Cooper’s 60th anniversary and have a driver change in the middle. Which is exactly what Goodwood will do at the 2021 Revival in the John Whitmore Trophy presented by Sure.
The race will take place on the Saturday morning of the Revival (18th September) and features a quite extraordinary grid of modern motorsport talent. Where else would you be able to see nine Le Mans winners, six world endurance champions, four ex-F1 drivers, two British GT champions and BTCC, Formula E and W Series drivers all stuffed into Minis to do battle on track?
Named after Sir John Whitmore, who won the British Saloon Car Championship in a Mini in 1961, his very first year in the competition, this one-off race will see 30 of the iconic little cars battle on track over three-quarters of an hour.
The new addition follows the mighty success of the all-Mini Betty Richmond Trophy at the 77th Members’ Meeting, a race which saw nearly 60 minis battle for glory through two heats and a final. While the Revival’s will only see a single test for Minis, the two-driver, 45-minute format should guarantee a race that no one should miss.
While the sheer number of top-level drivers will hit the headlines, some of the individual stories inside the race should not be missed. This will be the first time that the Brundles, father and son Martin and Alex, have raced against each other at Goodwood. Former F1 driver and Le Mans winner Martin will be partnering Nick Paddy in his 1962 Cooper S, while current European Le Mans Series racer Alex is set to race with Giles Page in the latter’s ’65 car. Alex is no stranger to racing a Mini at Goodwood, having piloted one in the St. Mary’s Trophy at Goodwood SpeedWeek presented by Mastercard in 2020. Martin will also be up against his Sky F1 colleague, and fellow ex-F1 driver, Karun Chandhok.
Other highlights include a vast number of Le Mans legends, including 2017 and ’20 winner, and former Torro Rosso F1 driver, Brendon Hartley, five-time winner Emanuele Pirro and triple winner, and Goodwood Hill outright record holder, Romain Dumas, fresh from racing at Le Mans with Glickenhaus.
Also racing against each other from the Le Mans-winning family are the triple champions Andre Lotterer, Benoit Treluyer and Marcel Fässler. The trio won the great race together for Audi in 2011, ’12 and ’14, but will race against each other in cars very different to the R18 e-tron quattros they drove at Le Mans.
The race will also feature double Formula E champion, and confirmed Peugeot LMH factory driver, Jean-Eric Vergne. “JEV” will join other Formula E racers including Neel Jani and Lotterer on the grid as well as rock god Brian Johnson and W Series racer, and The Grand Tour driver Abbie Eaton.
Some tickets for the 2021 Goodwood Revival are on sale now, visit ticketing.goodwood.com for more information or to purchase.
John Whitmore Trophy
Revival
Revival 2021
Mini
