Video: When touring cars ruled the tracks

09th August 2020

Henry Biggs

We love touring cars of all eras at Goodwood Road & Racing. Perhaps of all racing formulas it is the one where we as the viewer can watch it and think ‘I could have a go at that’.

The everyday hero image of the series is reinforced by the rough and tumble racing, with no quarter given, and of course the resemblance to the machines in our own driveways. That trope of ‘win on Sunday, sell on Monday’ has started to fade in truth – greater performance and the aerodynamic aids that go with them have led to the cars looking further and further from their showroom counterparts. That could be one of the reasons why the St Mary’s Trophy has been such an enduringly popular part of the Goodwood Revival every year. The cars look like they are just a racing livery and a set of tyres away from the daily commute.

The race alternates year to year between the 1950s and 1960s eras. SpeedWeek this year will be the turn of the ‘60s sports saloons so a grid packed with lairy Lotus Cortinas, giant-killing Alfa Romeo GTAs and of course the giants themselves, the looming Ford Galaxie 500s.

The race is a huge favourite with the drivers as well, bringing together that stars of many different formats to try their hand in these intrepid tintops. In just this race from 2015 we have champions from Le Mans, Formula 1 and the BTCC doing battle.

Goodwood SpeedWeek is sure to attract the same big names and we’ll be announcing them closer to the event in October. Just a reminder that you will be able to watch the whole thing, live, on Goodwood Road & Racing and our social channels from 16^th to 18^th October.