The Royal Automobile Club Tourist Trophy Celebration race at the 2013 Goodwood Revival was held Sunday, September 15th at the Goodwood Motor Circuit in West Sussex, England.
The Royal Automobile Club Tourist Trophy Celebration, for closed-cockpit GT cars in the spirit of the RAC TT races of 1960-1964, is annually the most celebrated race at the Goodwood Revival. The one-hour, two-driver RAC TT Celebration 2013 featured a spectacular grid of super-rare GT cars racing in anger, driven by great pilots past and present.The grid once again offered a spectacular selection of internationally-renowned historic racing cars, including the Ferrari 250 GTO, 250 GT SWB and 250 LM; Aston Martin DB4GT and Project cars; Jaguar E-types and E-Type Lightweights; Maserati Tipo 151; among others.
Former Grand Prix star Jean Alesi rocketed into the lead from the front row aboard Anthony Bamford’s Ferrari 250 GTO/64, although he was later penalised for making a jump start (which he denied). Alesi soon tumbled down the order as David Hart put in some searing laps up front in his AC Cobra. However, a safety car period 12 minutes in bunched up the field as repairs were made to the chicane ‘brickwork’. Racing resumed with 43 minutes left to run, with the Lister-Jaguar of Chris Harris taking the lead. The journalist held on to the top spot until pitting shortly before half-distance, just as the safety car was deployed after Tom Kristensen dropped his Jaguar E-Type into the Lavant gravel trap.
However, heavy rain descended at three-quarter distance, with Simon Hadfield coming seemingly from nowhere in the Aston Martin Project 212 to drag himself onto the tail of the twitching Lister-Jaguar which was now being driven by Anthony Reid. Hadfield seemed oblivious to the appalling conditions, and took the lead with two minutes left to run, Reid spinning at Lavant just moments later. The Scot got going again, only to lose it once again coming out of the chicane. Hadfield and the car’s owner Wolfgang Friedrich shared the emotional victory, the first time an Aston Martin claimed the top step on the podium at Goodwood’s headline race. The Lister-Jaguar team of Anthony Reid and Chris Harris recovered for second place, with father and son duo Graeme and Oliver Bryant taking third in their pole-sitting AC Cobra.
Simon Hadfield commented after the race, “It was just fantastic. The Project 212 is a very special car.”
Second place finisher Anthony Reid said, “I gave it my best shot. At one point I thought it was someone else who was a lap behind so I let him go past, but then I got the hurry-up call from the team.”
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Similar to our 2010, 2011 and 2012 race photo galleries, Senior Photographer Tim Scott also documented the 2013 Goodwood Revival, including the following pictures from the headline RAC Tourist Trophy Celebration race. We split up Tim’s 420 pictures into two galleries. The first gallery starting below features our favorite images, all displayed in the full-width view of Sports Car Digest, while the second gallery and race results can be found on the last page of the article and gives a comprehensive view of all the photographs. To see more from Tim, visit fluidimages.co.uk.
Goodwood Revival 2013 – RAC Tourist Trophy Race Featured Photo Gallery
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Goodwood Revival 2013 – RAC Tourist Trophy Race Main Photo Gallery (click image for larger picture and description)
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Goodwood Revival 2013 – RAC Tourist Trophy Race Results
1. Aston Martin Project 212, Friedrich / Hadfield
2. Lister-Jaguar Coupe, Harris / Reid
3. AC Cobra 289, Bryant / Bryant
4. AC Cobra 289, Hart / Coronel
5. Jaguar E-Type, Folch-Rusinol / Schryver
[Source: Goodwood; photos: Tim Scott]
