Arundell Cup, featuring Taylor Trophy
The European Formula Junior season kicked-off at the 82nd Goodwood Members Meeting where the combined Arundell Cup for disc-braked cars and Taylor Trophy for rear-engined drums was the only single-seater race on a card that seemed heavily slanted towards touring cars and recent GT3s.
Numerically Lotus dominated the Arundell Cup with the 27 of Danny Baker and 22 and 20/22s of reigning Lurani champion Clive Richards, Chris Goodwin, Lukas Halusa in the ex-Martin Walford ex-Peter Arundell Lotus 22-J-02, Katsu Kobota and Lee Mowle. The main challenge would most likely come from the Brabham BT6s of Alex Ames and Richard Wilson but the Cooper T59 of Sam Wilson was sure to be a front runner. He was joined by Lawrence de Bruyne’s T59 whilst the other discs were Emanuele Guglielminetti’s Wainer, Callum Grant in John Sykes’ Merlyn Mk5/7, Richard Ferris (Donford) and the Lola 5A of Tony Lees.
The Taylor class was very diverse, including as it did both FJHRA class C and D cars. Multiple Goodwood winner Andrew Hibberd was favourite with his white Lotus 20 with Stuart Roach’s Alexis Mk3 and Peter de la Roche’s BMC Mk2 the most likely threats. Cooper T56s were to be peddled by Crispian Besley, Tim Metcalfe and Tim Gray with Jeremy Deeley in his very neat T52. Robin Longdon had his Lola Mk3 and the class was completed by Christian Lange (Envoy), Nic Carlton-Smith (Kieft), Gary Thomas (Mark Haynes’ Elva 200), Richard Bishop-Miller (Caravelle Mk2), John Chisholm’s Gemini 3A, totally rebuilt onto its original chassis frame by Nick Finburgh, after it’s Copenhagen 2023 accident, Pierre Guichard (Lynx), Keith Pickering (Britannia) and Stuart Monument (Lotus 18) – variety indeed!
Saturday qualifying was held in the warm and dry spring weather that England had been enjoying for several weeks. Many of the quicker cars were first out of the assembly area and a high-speed bunch was soon taking advantage of the empty track ahead to post fast times. Alex Ames did 1’26.215” on lap 2, improving it to 1’25.473” on lap 3, with Sam Wilson immediately clipping this to 1’24.888”. Surprisingly, no-one improved upon this time during the rest of the session so when the grid was published Sam was on pole with Alex (1’24.957” on lap 4) and Clive Richards (1’25.059” on lap 5) making up the front row. Row 2 was Chris Goodwin (1’25.481”) and Lukas Halusa (1’25.892”). Richard Wilson had been bottled-up amongst the drums but broke clear to whittle away his time to sixth (1’26.057”) on his last lap. Fastest drum-braked was Stuart Roach with 1’27.210”, 0’357” faster than Andrew Hibberd.
The session was relatively trouble free, but we lost the BMC Mk2 with an oil leak; the crank case oil seal had moved out, and although, with Mike Fowler’s help, they made brackets to hold it in, this proved insufficient to stop the flow, and Christian Lange was also to non-start with head-gasket trouble. Tim Metcalfe’s Cooper T56, using a spare engine borrowed last minute from Crispian Besley was overheating and the Elva 200 driven by Gary Thomas had a raft of issues, including a misfire, loose bodywork and poor brake balance. Both were able to race, however, the Elva had required much overnight work that saw Gary’s race times nearly four seconds better than qualifying. Crispian Besley’s red T56 was hampered by new brake shoes which weren’t adjusted correctly which meant that “they were binding on and the car felt like it was towing a caravan all the way around during qualifying which compromised me and led to a lowly qualifying position”. This was partly, but not completely, remedied for the race.
The 20 minute race was at 10 a.m. on Sunday (why does Goodwood always schedule what is invariably one of the best races of the day before many of the spectators have arrived?). The weather was still dry but a very chilly wind from the west and some cloud meant that it was much colder than Saturday, especially if you were watching from the Woodcote grandstand with the full “benefit” of the wind in your face!
Into Madgwick, Ames led Sam Wilson and Richards and at the end of the opening lap these three plus a rapid starting Callum Grant were in a bunch, around a second clear of Chris Goodwin with a further second to Lukas Halusa, followed by Richard Wilson, Stuart Roach, Lee Mowle and Andrew Hibberd, then a wonderfully varied and colourful train of cars. After several unsuccessful attacks on both sides of the track, Sam was still behind Alex on lap 3 but Callum was now third. On lap four the Merlyn executed a stunning move at Fordwater/St Marys to pass both the Cooper and Brabham to lead from Sam and Alex. Next time round Sam was in front and this remained the order of the very tight foursome until Alex took second on lap 8, only to be repassed by Callum on the next tour. However, he reclaimed the runner-up spot on lap 10 and this proved to be the last change with Sam winning by 0.6” from Alex, then 0.3” to Callum, then Clive fourth, having lost touch amongst backmarkers. However, Callum was unlucky to receive a 10” penalty post-race due to contact with the chicane so third and fourth were reversed. Chris Goodwin was a steady fifth, never in touch with the leaders but, equally, never challenged. The remaining top ten were Richard Wilson, Lukas Halusa, Danny Baker and Andrew Hibberd.
Hibberd, Roach, Halusa, Mowle and Baker had been engaged in a good battle for 7th to 11th. Lukas twice ran onto the grass at Woodcote but still came out ahead. Hibberdwon the Taylor Trophy, some 6.5” ahead of Roach with Carlton-Smith third.
As usual, there were scraps all down the field with Keith Pickering (Britannia) and Richard Bishop-Miller (Caravelle) being particularly entertaining, swapping places several times during the first half of the race. Perhaps due to a colder track surface than in qualifying, Woodcote caught out several people in addition to Halusa. After making a great start gaining six places, Crispian Besley found it particularly challenging, running wide at least three times as the car was jumping out of gear. Deeley locked up and cut the Chicane on one lap. Gary Thomas also had a “moment” before later spinning off at Lavant. The only other retirements were Emanuele Guglielminetti (hole in the block), Tim Metcalfe (mechanical, probably overheating) and Richard Ferris whose car sounded to have a misfire.
It was a brilliant race and one about which the commentary team, including John Watson, was rightly very complementary.
Richard Page