Great Goodwood Revival Races: 2024 RAC TT Celebration

Once Britain’s greatest motor race, the history of the original RAC Tourist Trophy held at Goodwood from 1958-’64 is honoured at Revival’s RAC TT Celebration with a grid featuring glamour machines like lightweight, low-drag Jaguar E-Types, Jaguar-Lister coupés, AC Cobras blending a lightweight British body with a thumping American V8 heart, curios like the Bizzarrini 5300 GT and Chevrolet Corvette-based Cheetah, as well as racing thoroughbreds like Porsche's mid-engined 904. 

But none of these cars would win on the day in 2024.

It looked like business as usual when the green flag dropped on a damp British September afternoon, and Adrian Newey's Jaguar E-Type took the lead away from the start, albeit after his car had lurched into action a split second before the flag had dropped. 

The matrix soon rebalanced, though, and by lap two Andrew Smith's #79 AC Cobra was leading, closely followed by Richard Kent's #88 E-type. While ordinarily the power of the Cobra would be a massive asset on a fast-paced circuit like Goodwood, in the rain the opposite was true, with Kent's E-Type side-by-side on lap four. The Cobra squirrelled away its power under acceleration, letting the Jaguar driver sweep around the outside of Madgwick and into the lead. By lap five, Kent had a three-second cushion.

But if Kent was putting in a stoic effort up front, Oliver Bryant's rise though the field in the #1 Cobra was nothing short of monumental. Starting from the back of the grid, by lap nine, he was in third place behind the #88 E-Type and second-placed #79 Cobra.

That the RAC TT Celebration features a mid-race driver swap adds another level of strategy to the contest, allowing owner-drivers and professional racers to whet their whistle in the same race. Kent handed control of his E-Type to Le Mans series Champion Alex Brundle, Smith made way for multi-time IndyCar Champion Dario Franchetti, and Bryant swapped with BTCC Champion Jake Hill. 

By lap 16, the dust from the driver changes had settled, revealing Brundle leading the AC Cobras of Hill (#1) and Franchetti (#79) 

One lap later, with the track drying, Hill could bring the power advantage of the Cobra to bear, lining up Brundle to pass for the lead as the pair negotiated backmarkers. Brundle's E-Type snaked under acceleration with the two cars side-by-side, making contact with Hill's Cobra as it went. 

Hill was lucky to escape the incident with no more than superficial damage, his Cobra going seriously sideways nudged under power by the Jaguar. Brundle, meanwhile, was even luckier, keeping the hard-charging Cobra at bay just long enough to be saved by waved yellow flags and the emergence of the safety car on lap 18. 

But while the battle for the win engrossed the crowds, Tom Ingram's #86 TVR Griffith 400, now in sixth — which Mike Whitaker started from the front row — had quietly posted the fastest lap of the race. A sign of things to come. 

As the safety car withdrew into the pits, Brundle nailed the throttle of his E-Type Jaguar out of the chicane, but it wasn't enough to hold off Hill's Cobra, which swept past into the lead on lap 21.

The standings now showed Hill in first place, followed by Brundle with Franchetti chasing him down. By lap 22, Franchetti was all over Brundle's bumper, and on lap 24, the pressure paid off as the Scotsman sneaked up the inside, closely followed by Andre Lotterer in yet another Cobra (#94).

Meanwhile, Tom Ingram's #86 TVR Griffith had been posting searingly hot lap times and he quickly caught up with Brundle's waning E-Type, passing it and the #94 Cobra in quick succession. 

Going into lap 26, Ingram was in third place, just over eight seconds behind Franchetti in second. But that gap wouldn't hold for long, and as the pair rounded the chicane onto the start/finish straight, Ingram was all over the back of Franchetti, flashing past at the end of the main straight like he wasn't there.

Now the hunt for the leading Cobra was on, Ingram looming in Hill's rearview mirror. As the leader stumbled over backmarkers, the gap between him and the TVR tumbled over the following laps to leave barely a second between them. 

Hill was in serious trouble, kissing the inside of the chicane at the end of lap 34, the TVR bearing down on him in the bends before the Cobra stretched the space on the straights. 

But by the start of lap 35 Ingram was almost in striking distance, following the Cobra through the chicane before slipstreaming it on the straight. Hill, who understandably was paying plenty of attention to his mirrors, tripped on a backmarker, handing the initiative to the TVR, which put almost four wheels on the grass to nip up the inside. The Cobra wasn't defeated yet, though, cutting across Ingram's rear bumper and coming right back up the inside to retake the lead.

Ingram waited until lap 37 to have another go, capitalising on Hill’s loss of momentum after getting out of shape exiting Lavant to sneak through and hold first place under braking for Woodcote. Out of Hill's dirty air, Ingram pulled a half-a-second lead to take the chequered flag two laps later, closely followed by Hill with Franchetti a distant third.

It had been an epic, one-in-a-lifetime drive, carrying the only TVR on the grid to victory against a grid packed full of more glamorous metal.  

But, while the TVR seemed an unlikely winner – surrounded by big names like the AC Cobra and Jaguar E-Type – its success shouldn't be a surprise. The Griffith was, in true TVR style, an absolute rocket and its inception goes a long way to explaining why. 

Jack Griffith was the man behind the Griffith 400 designed in 1965. The TVR mechanic had Gerry Sagerman’s MkIII Grantura in his workshop (Sagerman was TVR’s US importer) alongside TVR racer Mark Donohue's AC Cobra. Realising the potential, Griffith's imagination quickly got the better of him, and the unsuspecting Sagerman's Cobra engine was soon transplanted into Donohue's TVR chassis. 

Just how fast would the lightweight TVR with the fibreglass body and state-of-the-art unequal wishbone suspension be, fitted with a Ford V8? Very, was the answer. It was a fire-breather capable of 0-62mph in under five seconds and a top speed of more than 150mph. Quick today, you can only imagine how fast it felt in the 1960s...

Tickets for the Goodwood Revival are limited! Saturday tickets have sold out, so secure your Friday and Sunday tickets to avoid missing out on the world's best historic motorsport event.

Photography by Drew Gibson, Jack Beasley and Tom Shaxson.