Why the 2025 RAC TT Celebration will be the most competitive ever

There’s more to it than that, though, because the RAC TT Celebration is often the most exciting and hard-fought race of the Revival weekend. It’s the one time where the gloves come off as teams and drivers engage in a meaningful battle for a win that genuinely matters. Hell, 2009 Formula 1 World Champion Jenson Button has bought a car with the sole purpose of taking the chequered flag on Sunday afternoon.

That’s going to prove quite the task, because the 2025 edition of the RAC TT Celebration promises to be the most competitive yet.

The 30-car field includes seven previous winners among a host of hugely experienced and quick historic racers, not to mention Button, who enters alongside a host of the world’s greatest drivers.

The RAC TT Celebration regularly draws the sport’s biggest names over the years, winners of the Le Mans 24 Hours and the best from the world of touring cars, but more recently we’ve seen an influx of stars from across the Atlantic.

Dario Franchitti has been a regular at Goodwood for several years now, and gradually he’s been coercing his rivals from IndyCar to come and enjoy the fun.

This year he’ll be joined on track by fellow IndyCar champions Scott Dixon and Tony Kanaan as they make their TT debuts, while seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson returns to give it another go in Shaun Lynn’s AC Cobra.

They’ll be thrown into the mix alongside the likes of Gordon Shedden, a three-time BTCC champion and three-time winner of the TT, most recently in 2022. Last year’s winner Tom Ingram returns with new machinery; he swaps the victorious TVR Griffith 400 for a Jaguar E-type Fixed Head Coupé. The TVR will be taken up by 2011 winner, and nine-time Le Mans winner, Tom Kristensen.

Ingram overthrew fellow BTCC star Jake Hill in the dying stages of last year’s race, and Hill will be gunning to right that wrong this time around at the wheel of the Buick-engine Tojeiro EE Coupé.

Other previous winners include Andre Lotterer, who claimed back-to-back wins in 2019 and 2020, Darren Turner, who alongside Olly Bryant will look to repeat their 2021 success, and Andy Priaulx, the 2023 victor.

Of course, when it comes to closed cockpit racing, you can never rule out Rob Huff, the 2012 World Touring Car champion who has been ever present in the TT for many years and is surely due a win. Likewise, Romain Dumas, the reigning Festival of Speed presented by Mastercard Timed Shoot-Out champion, who is responsible for many of the greatest individual driving performances we’ve ever seen here at the Goodwood Motor Circuit.

Aside from all those prestigious drivers, there is one more debutant who goes into the Revival as an unknown quantity. The 1997 F1 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve has reinstated his race license in preparation to climb back behind the wheel of a racing car and show us all he’s still got it.

The 27^th running of the RAC TT Celebration has all the ingredients to be the most exhilarating yet, the list of cars and drivers has never been so awash with legends, and at this stage there is absolutely no way of picking a winner.

Changeable conditions could yet play a vital part, but any of these drivers could feasibly find themselves at the front of the field. We can’t wait to find out what unfolds over three incredible days at the Revival. The flag drops for this year’s RAC TT Celebration at 14:15 on Sunday 14th September, and if you aren’t able to attend in person, then you can watch the full race as it happens on our live stream right here on GRR.

Tickets for the Goodwood Revival are limited! Only Sunday tickets remain, so secure yours now to avoid missing out on the world's best historic motorsport event.

Photography by Jordan Butters, Dominic James, Tom Baigent, Nick Dungan, Drew Gibson, Jochen van Cauwenberge, Tom Shaxson and Michael Pospisil.