Video: 2025 Sussex Trophy full race | Goodwood Revival

The first lap resembled a touring car contest rather than a competition for 1950s sports-racing cars, as Olly Bryant on row one stalled his #1 car away from the flag, sending cars darting left and right as they avoided his faltering Lotus-Climax.

Once the dust had settled, pole man Bryant found himself way back in ninth – a nightmare start that looked almost irretrievable. 

Back at the front of the pack, the #24 Lotus-Climax of Roger Wills led with car #26, James Wood in another Lotus, following in second and Chris Ward's #6 long-nose Jaguar D-Type close behind in third. 

Ward was pushing hard for second position — too hard as his D-Type hit a patch of cement from a previous incident, waggling its tail and allowing car #8, James Cottingham's Tojeiro Jaguar, to shoot up the inside. Ward was lucky not to lose more positions, just managing to hold off the #5 Scarab-Chevrolet, out-braking it before reaching the chicane.

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Roger Wills hadn't been so lucky, dropping into second position after Wood used the agility of his Lotus to overtake on the outside and nip in front into the chicane. The loss of momentum caused Wills to drop another position as Cottingham's Tojeiro Jaguar flew past on the straight.

With one lap done, Wood was in the lead, followed by Cottingham and Wills.

But, while the crowd's attention was grabbed by the ducking and diving of the lead cars, Bryant, more than 15 seconds behind the leader, had just set the fastest first sector of anyone.

The Englishman's chances of victory still looked slim but in a tussle that had more twists and turns than the Stelvio Pass, anything was possible. Here you can watch one of the Revival weekend’s most dramatic races to date, to find out how it all unfolded.