The Goodwood Revival – 2
Roy Salvadori Tribute The Goodwood Revival has a history of marking significant contributions to motorsport and the 2007 edition had two very special tributes, to two very different contributors. The first was to pay tribute to a real living legend, a phrase which is somewhat over-used, but one which is entirely appropriate as a description of Roy Salvadori. The modern era will surely see nothing like the record of Roy Salvadori: his F1 career alone saw him race for the factory teams of Cooper, Aston Martin, Vanwall, BRM and Connaught and in addition he also drove for F1 privateer entrants aboard Ferrari, Maserati, Cooper-Maserati and Connaught machines, his Grand Prix career peaking in 1958 when he finished 4th in the world championship, behind a trio of other Englishmen - Mike Hawthorn taking the title, with Moss second and Brooks third. In other formulae he drove for a myriad of significant entrants, including the longest spell in history as a factory Aston Martin driver (eight years), Cooper, Lotus, Tommy Atkins, John Coombs, Ecurie Ecosse, Border Reivers, Briggs Cunningham, Gilby Engineering and Maranello Concessionaires. His 98 race wins include of course the famous Aston Martin victory in the 1959 Le Mans 24 Hours, alongside Carroll Shelby, and he established an unmatched record in setting outright or class records for every circuit he raced on in England. Perhaps his greatest gift though was versatility. As an example, and most appropriately at the Goodwood International Easter Meeting in 1955, he won the F1 Glover Trophy race in a Maserati 250F, the Chichester Cup for F2 cars in a Connaught and the Sports Car race in an Aston Martin. Furthermore he was second in the other two races that he entered that day.  It’s no surprise therefore that Lord March chose to recognise Salvadori’s career in this, his 85th year, with a spectacular cavalcade of more than 40 race cars, all of which he had raced - from a 1934 Alfa Romeo Tipo B through to a 1967 Cooper Maserati T86, which Salvadori ran as team manager.
Between these two were examples of the F1, F2, Sports and Saloon racers that made up his career, but the whole cavalcade would be led off by the 1959 Aston Martin DBR1 with Salvadori himself as a passenger (giving him more opportunity to take in and respond to the crowd’s applause) and none other than Sir Stirling Moss as chauffeur! A forming up lap, to line up the whole cavalcade on the grid, followed by a pair of parade laps, were to prove very popular indeed with the enormous Goodwood crowd and in amongst the parade there was some spirited driving on display, not least amongst some of the saloon and sportscar racers, the Jaguar Mk 1 driven to second place by Salvadori in the 1959 Fordwater Trophy showing some wonderful sideways action and the 1964 AC Cobra 289, driven by Roy in the TT race of that year, being displayed beautifully by Oliver Bryant, the car now being owned by his father Grahame. Better still, the Cobra had a passenger on board, yours truly getting both a grandstand seat like no other and a rather warm rear end, the combination of no seat and a bare metal floor giving the deputy editorial backside a grilling! But I wouldn’t have missed this for the world, the big V8 howling, Oliver looking to stretch the car’s legs a little to ensure that a vibration caused by a tyre slipping on the rim during qualifying for the TT Celebration had been fully sorted: it had! And a few full throttle bursts and glorious powerslides proved it. All the while Oliver kept up a commentary: where the circuit was flat out - at times in places that any non-racer’s brain would be telling them that this wasn’t feasible - where the best passing places under power or braking were available, but all the while also soaking in the atmosphere of this extraordinary car, this amazing circuit, and this unique event. There was clear pride in Oliver’s voice as he explained the relevance of the history of the car for this cavalcade, and the fact that the car has been more or less continuously raced since its 1964 debut. Salvadori himself not only took the class win in the car at the TT at Goodwood, but also finished third in the supporting event for the British GP at Brands Hatch in the same year, whilst Chris Amon took it to second overall in the Guards Trophy too. It’s good to know that its current custodians value the car, both for its history and its still mighty ability: those three laps will stay with me forever.
GG | 
