In Goodwood’s heyday, the Chichester Cup was a race for Formula Juniors, which were a leap on from 500cc cars and, for serious young racers, a stepping stone to Formula One, much in the way Formula Ford and F3 have been more recently.
At the Goodwood Revival 2010, this continues to be a race for Formula Juniors (up to 1100cc), with the specific regulations varying from year to year. Races are run on a three-year cycle, catering in turn for the earliest front-engined cars (1957-1960), the last rear-engined cars with disc brakes (1961-1963), and for drum-braked rear-engined cars from the intermediate years (1958-1961).
The Goodwood Revival 2010 saw Ben Simms take a convincing victory in the Chichester Cup for pre-1962 Formula Juniors from early leader, Sir John Chisholm. The latter blasted ahead from pole position aboard his Gemini Mk3A only for Elva man Simms to scythe past on the inside into Woodcote corner.
At quarter-distance into the 20-minute race the order remained static as the safety car was deployed to attend to stricken cars. With racing resuming with ten minutes left to run, Chisholm and Simms resumed their private battle as they streaked ahead of the chasing pack. Simms was last of the late brakers as he fought to keep his twitchy short wheelbase car ahead of the faster Gemini. He held on to the flag to win by 0.4-second with Elva man Chris Drake fishing third some 29.7-second behind them.
“He didn’t make it easy,” said a delighted Simms. “The safety car bunched us up but it was close right to the end once we began racing again. There was a lot of oil out there which focused the attention.”
Goodwood Revival 2010 – Chichester Cup Race Results (12 laps)
1. Ben Simms, Elva 200 (1:29.444 fastest lap)
2. John Chisholm, Gemini Mk3A
3. Chris Drake, Elva 300
4. Crispian Besley, Cooper T56
5. John Milicevic, Lotus 18
Click for complete Chichester Cup Race Results
Similar to our Goodwood Festival of Speed 2010 coverage, photographer Tim Scott of Fluid Images also documented this year’s Goodwood Revival, including the following images from the Chichester Cup race. To see more from Tim, visit fluidimages.co.uk.
Goodwood Revival 2010 – Chichester Cup Photo Gallery (click image for larger picture and description)
[Source: Goodwood; photo credit: Tim Scott / Fluid Images]
