Each year, the Goodwood Revival hosts the greatest historic racing on the planet. The joy of the racing has everything to do with the obvious effort the drivers put into every race, but much of the charm also comes from the glorious mishmash of competitors that take the grid.
This year was no different, and the grids were even more jumbled thanks to the rains that plagued qualifying on Friday. So it was for the two St Mary’s Trophy races, which celebrate 1960s saloons. One unlikely candidate, a 1963 Ford Galaxie Lightweight, won the event against long odds, earning the admiration of everyone along the way.
Lightweight Mini Coopers had dominated in the low-grip conditions of qualifying. A 1964 example driven by Alex Buncombe sat on pole, looking positively minuscule compared to the 1965 Plymouth Barracuda driven by Jake Hill, looming behind it on the second row, in fourth.
While the track itself was still damp at the beginning of the race, and the skies threatened throughout, the track stayed mostly dry during the race itself. As grip became easier to find, the Minis lost their advantage to bigger, stronger machines. Ultimately, a 1965 Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint GTA won the first of the two St Mary’s Trophy races.
Bigger action took place further back in the field. Two-time Le Mans champion Romain Dumas hadn’t been able to participate in qualifying – he was called into action too late to make it to the UK in time for Friday’s sessions – so he and his 1963 Ford Galaxie Lightweight started at the back of the pack in the first race. Together, they did something magical.
The 7-litre, 425bhp Galaxie is owned by Bill Shepherd, who runs a shop in Surrey bearing his name and specialising in classic V8 Fords. This one is particularly special: It is one of the few “R-code” Galaxies built by Ford in the ’60s as drag racing weapons. With fibreglass bodies and lightweight frames, the massive sedans weigh hundreds of pounds less than their more pedestrian cousins. Though initially designed for drag racing, a few were campaigned in the British Saloon Car Championship, where they found success. Today, they’re incredibly rare. Their values have skyrocketed of late, along with the rest of the Galaxie market.
The Galaxie is such a large car that it required extra concessions in the Goodwood paddock. While the rest of the racers all backed straight into their open-air work stalls, all the Galaxies competing over the weekend had to back in at an angle, taking up two spaces.
For Saturday’s first race of the St Mary’s Trophy, Dumas made a charging start and, within a few laps, had passed half the field. The cameras started to pick up the massive machine as it sliced its way through the crowd. Despite being lighter than an average Galaxie, the machine pitched and rolled with every input from Dumas.
That drama was nothing compared to what was happening inside the car. Dumas worked like a mad organist playing a ribald fugue, right arm moving to its full extent to shift from one gear to the next, left foot dancing on the brake pedal again and again on the front straight while his right foot was hard on the accelerator, priming the brakes ahead of the extended, tricky braking zones that create so many great passing opportunities at the Goodwood Circuit.
Despite his liberal application of the brake pedal mid-straight, Dumas still roared past the competition, climbing all the way to third position by the end of the race, just 0.008 seconds behind the second place car.
On Sunday, for the second part of the race, car owner Shepherd took over driving duties. Starting in fourth position (unlike Dumas, Shepherd had qualified), Shepherd passed fewer cars but was nevertheless exciting to behold. He barged his way into the lead at the start and just managed to hold off a storming Max Chilton in a 1965 Lotus Cortina Mk I to take the win in the second race.
The two-day performance of the Galaxie was unparalleled, and the overall victory well deserved, but Dumas’ run through the field on Saturday was such a marvel that even fans of the little Minis were won over.
