Oliver Bryant Racing

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29th September 2014

Pole But No Cigar For Olly at the Goodwood Revival

Olly Bryant enjoyed a weekend of mixed fortunes at the 2014 Goodwood Revival. Sunshine bathed the circuit for 3 days and the event attracted another record crowd of 148,000 over the 3 days. Olly was invited to drive the ex- Ecurie Ecosse Tojeiro Jaguar in the Sussex Trophy by old friend and fellow historic racer James Cottingham. The car had just undergone a bare chassis rebuild and testing was limited, but a 10th place qualifying position was a respectable effort in the competitive field. The race was into the sunset on Friday evening and provided an amazing spectacle. A lengthy pitstop to fix a small technical issue and then a safety car hampered the pairs chance of a decent result, but they came home 13th in the 1 hour race.

Olly also drove the mighty Plymouth Barracuda for the first time at Goodwood since 2007. Olly was sharing the car with 2013 British Touring Car Champion Andrew Jordan in the Shelby Cup, a two-driver race for small block V8 touring cars. Olly set the time in qualifying to line the car up 8th on the grid, just 1.4 seconds behind the much lighter and much more powerful Ford Falcons. Andrew settled in well and most of the session was spent acclimatising to the new car, something very different from a front wheel drive Honda Civic! The race got underway with Olly taking the start, battling in the top 6 before a safety car spoilt the fun. Mayhem descended in the pit-lane as the massive cars squeezed into the narrow Goodwood pit-lane. Bryant and Jordan came off badly, as they got blocked in costing valuable time and positions. Andrew set about a charge back up the order and did a great job recovering to 6th position at the flag with some great overtakes on the way.

Goodwood’s highlight race is the RAC TT Celebration which takes place on Sunday afternoon for closed cockpit GT cars that raced at Goodwood in period. Olly is twice a podium finisher in this race and repeated last year’s effort by planting the famous ex-Salvadori AC Cobra on pole position. Olly was sharing the car with fellow Ecurie Ecosse BMW driver and outright Goodwood lap record holder, Andrew Smith. The pair were confident of a good result and pole position was the best place to start. Andrew took the start and was outgunned to turn 1 by David Hart in his AC Cobra. Andrew ran 2nd until the pitstops, which were early due to safety car intervention. Olly climbed aboard and set off after Van Der Garde (Sauber F1 driver) who had taken over from Hart. At the safety car restart Olly applied immense pressure on the opening lap and Van Der Garde ran wide at Lavant allowing Olly through into the lead. With his head down Olly set a brace of fastest laps to build a lead of over 3 seconds. However, with 20 minutes to go, disaster struck, the engine dropped a valve and started to loose power. Olly waved Van Der Garde through and set about nursing the car home in second position. Unfortunately, with one lap to go, the car gave up and Olly coasted to a disappointing halt on the infield. He will have to return to Goodwood to have another crack at the infamous TT!

Olly would like to thank Clive Robinson and Shane Foreman for their efforts in preparing the Plymouth Barracuda, Steve Gilbey for the Cobra preparation, and James Cottingham for the drive in the Tojiero.