The Royal Automobile Club Tourist Trophy Celebration race at the 2011 Goodwood Revival was held 16-18 September at the Goodwood Motor Circuit in West Sussex, England.
The Royal Automobile Club Tourist Trophy Celebration is the most celebrated race at the Goodwood Revival. The one-hour, two-driver RAC TT Celebration 2011 featured a spectacular grid of super-rare GT cars racing in anger, driven by great aces past and present. The grid once again offered a priceless array of internationally-renowned historic racing cars, including the Ferrari 250 GTO, GT SWB and 330 LMB; Aston Martin DB4GT, Zagato and Project cars; plus AC Cobra and the rare Shelby Daytona Cobra Coupe.
Tom Kristensen and Kenny Brack took an emphatic win in the 2011 RAC TT Celebration race aboard Daniela Ellerbrock’s Shelby Daytona Cobra Coupe.Former Indy 500 winner Brack stormed into the lead from pole position, establishing a 3.2-second cushion over second place man Martin Brundle – who was sharing Nick Mason’s Ferrari 250 GTO with two-time TT winner Mark Hales – by the end of the first lap.
Man on the move, however, was Derek Hill who was sharing Lawrence Auriana’s fabulous Maserati Tipo 151 with historics regular Joe Colasacco. Derek Hill, son of 1961 F1 champion Phil Hill and a former F3000 racer, moved up the order in imperious fashion until he closed in on Brundle on the eleventh tour. The Californian took second place with a stellar move at the kink before St Mary’s as the two chargers descended on a backmarker. Hill went to the inside, Brundle to the outside of the soon-to-be-lapped Aston Martin, with the Maserati twitching noticeably as Hill put the power down. Within a lap he had built up a two second gap to his pursuer but Brack was long gone.
At half-distance, the Swede had a ten-second lead but then the heavens opened, the Daytona Cobra spinning its wheels and snaking violently under acceleration as its tyres struggled to find traction. Hill pitted with 18 minutes left to run, a leisurely driver change with Colasacco saw the Maserati lose a place to Hales who had pitted a lap earlier. Le Mans superstar Kristensen took over the lead car with 17 laps already run and survived a grassy moment at Woodcote to take the chequer as the race was stopped five minutes short of its planned running time.
Goodwood Revival 2011 – Royal Automobile Club Tourist Trophy Celebration Race Results
1. Tom Kristensen / Kenny Brack, Shelby Daytona Cobra Coupe (fastest lap 1:39.032, 87.24 mph)
2. Martin Brundle / Mark Hales, Ferrari 250 GTO
3. Derek Hill / Joe Colasacco, Maserati Tipo 151
4. Jackie Oliver / Gary Pearson, AC Cobra Le Mans Coupe
5. Nicolas Minassian / Max Werner, Ferrari 250 GT SWB Breadvan
Goodwood Revival 2011 – RAC Tourist Trophy Celebration Complete Race Results
Similar to our Goodwood Festival of Speed 2011 coverage, photographer Tim Scott of Fluid Images also documented this year’s Goodwood Revival, including the following 300 pictures from the Royal Automobile Club Tourist Trophy Celebration race. To see more from Tim, visit fluidimages.co.uk.
Goodwood Revival 2011 – Royal Automobile Club Tourist Trophy Celebration Photo Gallery (click image for larger picture and description)
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[Source: Goodwood; photo credit: Tim Scott / Fluid Images]
Just how many GTOs are in this field? I lost count…it’s one thing to have a GTO class like at Monterey, but it’s well another to see them driven in such anger as they are at Goodwood.
And I take great pleasure that the Shelby Coupe took the win. Mighty impressed by all.
Great stuff gents. Thanks for the great pictures.
Were there any Griffith 400s entered? I though the McInerneys or Shipmans Griffiths would be entered, but then the Cobras and Jaguars wouldn’t look like champions.
At 2011 SPA Francorchamps, Sixties Endurance, the TVR Griffith of the McInerneys posted the fasterst lap of 2:50.835. The fastest Cobra, #27,who also won the race could only do 2:52.459. It was the Cobra of Hans Hugenholtz and David Hart.
See the race on U-Tube: 2011 SPA Francorchamps, Sixties Endurance, and see the light blue,#54, pass the fastest Cobra, #27, at around 6:12-16 on the time scale on the bottom. By the way, that Griffith passed a host of other marques on that course. See for yourself, and enjoy it, I did.