In a sign of what wasn't quite to come, the opening day started bone dry as competition got underway with Office Practice for the Freddie March Memorial Trophy. A qualifying session it may have been, but drivers were giving it their all with near misses and spins as competitors squeezed the last ounce of performance out of beautiful machines like the Jaguar C-Type and Ford Battlebird.
Battle birds of a different variety took to the sky as two Spitfires chaperoned a Hurricane, before it was back to business on track with Official Practice for the motorbikes of the Barry Sheen Memorial Trophy. Sheene's tribute was closely followed by Official Practice for the Goodwood Trophy, where competitors balanced huge pre-war racers from the likes of Frazer Nash and Maserati through the corners on their spindly tyres .
Of course, the Revival always has more to it than just the racing. We had parades dedicated to Jim Clark and Alfa Romeo, plus workshops on gilding and sign writing over at the Revival Style Village before returning to the (now damp) track with the 1960s sports-racing cars of the Madgwick Trophy.
More Official Practice sessions for the touring cars of the St. Mary's Trophy presented by Motul, 1950s and 1960s GT cars of the Fordwater Trophy and the racing prototypes of the Whitsun Trophy followed.
By the middle of the afternoon the rain was now falling, a familiar theme of this year's Revival, as drivers of the Stirling Moss Memorial Trophy quickly realised when an Aston Martin GT4 slid off the road and into the gravel.
While much of the day was taken up by drivers getting their first runnings on the Motor Circuit, the real highlight of the opening day was saved for last with the Freddie March Memorial Trophy.
This hour-long race saw 1950s sportscars battle the elements (and an oil slick) with grit and style, as night began to fall and heavy rain lashed the circuit, bringing a dramatic and unforgettable close to the first chapter of this year's Revival.
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