The Fordwater Trophy race at the 2011 Goodwood Revival was held 16-18 September at the Goodwood Motor Circuit in West Sussex, England.
The 2011 Fordwater Trophy featured a grid exclusively made up of Jaguar E-types, in celebration of the model’s 50th anniversary. It was a 45-minute two-driver race, with driver changes in the pits between 15 and 30 minutes. With a mixture of lightweights, roadsters, fixed head coupes and low drag coupes, it was a fitting tribute to Britain’s most popular sports car and its special relationship with Goodwood.
Martin Stretton and Jon Minshaw claimed Fordwater Trophy honours at the 2011 Goodwood Revival after 45 minutes of frenetic action.This mini-enduro saw Le Mans legend Emanuele Pirro make a brilliant start from the middle of the front row, only to be jumped by Minshaw as they headed into Lavant corner for the first time. The lead duo then ran wide in unison as they arrived at Woodcote, allowing third-place man Gerhard Berger to take the lead in Adrian Newey’s highly-developed ‘Lightweight’. While Minshaw and Pirro continued to squabble, with rarely more than a few feet between them, Berger disappeared up the road. After seven laps he led by 8.3 seconds. By lap nine, he was almost 12-seconds clear of Minshaw who pitted to swap places with Stretton two tours later.
Pirro set a searing pace but couldn’t make inroads on Berger’s massive lead. The Italian pitted after 18 laps to hand over to Desiré Wilson who had lapped half-a-second quicker than him in qualifying. One lap later Berger pitted to hand over to Newey. Wilson emerged from the pits in front of Stretton only to go off at Lavant corner in avoidance of a backmarker. Her Jaguar was stuck in a dangerous position, the pace car being deployed by which time the E-type was fired up and running once again. By this point, the lead Berger had build up had been wiped out and one lap after the restart – with 12-minutes of the 45-minute race still to go – Newey ran wide at Woodcote and Stretton pounced. Wilson crashed at the chicane after 25 laps had been run which resulted in the pace car being bought out once again. Racing resumed for just one flying lap but there was no stopping Stretton who led home Newey for a well-deserved win.
Goodwood Revival 2011 – Fordwater Trophy Race Results (29 laps)
1. Martin Stretton / Jon Minshaw, Jaguar E-Type Semi-Lightweight Spec #28
2. Gerhard Berger / Adrian Newey, Jaguar E-Type Lightweight #25 (fastest lap 1:26.004, 100.45 mph)
3. Gary Pearson / Jackie Oliver, Jaguar E-Type Lightweight #9
4. Alex Buncombe / Stuart Graham, Jaguar E-Type Lightweight #23
5. John Pearson / John Young, Jaguar E-Type Semi-Lightweight Spec #17
Goodwood Revival 2011 – Fordwater Trophy 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 160 pictures from the Fordwater Trophy race. To see more from Tim, visit fluidimages.co.uk.
Goodwood Revival 2011 – Fordwater Trophy Photo Gallery (click image for larger picture and description)
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[Source: Goodwood; photo credit: Tim Scott / Fluid Images]
Perfect pictures and coverage. I always look forward to Tim’s photos and these were tops. One has to wonder about these “Lightweight Spec” E-Types though. Do they even remotely resemble period race cars? They make for exciting racing though, so who’s to complain I suppose?