Oliver Impresses on Goodwood Revival Debut

Oliver realised his long term wish to compete in the Goodwood Revival meeting with sterling performances in three cars over the first weekend in September. Widely renowned as the best historic race meeting in the world, Goodwood hosts an epic motor racing event each year. This year was no exception as 110,000 spectators turned out to catch up with racing how it used to be in the 50’s and 60’s.

Madgwick Cup

Oliver started the weekend off well by qualifying his Lotus XV on pole position in the 30 car grid for under 2.5litre sports cars. This was 0.2s faster than the second place Lola of Rob Hall with a 1m26.6s lap and an average speed of 100mph. The race was blighted by a fuel pressure problem that forced Oliver to lift off the throttle on the straights in order to retain fuel pressure. This caused Oliver to drop back on the straights but he pushed hard through the corners to maintain ground and was dubbed the "Master of St Mary’s" by the commentators as he was able to claw back several car lengths on the Cooper Monaco of Frank Sytner thought the tricky left hander. 3rd place was a satisfying result considering the problem. "I am pleased with third because I didn’t think I was going to make in to the finish as the fuel pressure was refusing to return on some laps towards the end!" commented Oliver after the race.

St Mary’s Trophy

In this two-part race, Oliver was sharing the Plymouth Barracuda with sportscar driver Jean-Marc Gounon. The car lined up second for both races with Jean Marc driving in the first. The main rival was the Sir John Whitmore driven Ford Mustang whose challenge ended in the gravel after sliding on someone else’s oil. The Cuda’ crossed the line 9 seconds in the lead at the end.

Oliver started the second race on the front row but slipped to 3rd as the field entered Madgwick. The race was then stopped due to oil on the circuit. At the restart Oliver made a better start and slotted into second behind the Mustang of John Young. Oliver kept pressuring John and on the penultimate lap he made his move at the end of the Lavant straight and slipped into the lead to the delight of the 100,000 strong crowd. However John Young carried more speed through Fordwater and was able to position his Mustang on the inside for "No Name", Oliver was unable to turn in and had to concede the position, knowing that victory was not needed to bring the Gounon/Bryant pairing the aggregate win. This didn’t stop him attacking and John Young defended successfully on the run to Woodcote to win by 0.1 seconds at the flag.

Oliver and Jean-Marc won on aggregate by 31seconds from the Ford Galaxy of Jackie Oliver and Sean Lynn.

RAC TT Celebration

The most exotic race on the Goodwood calendar, featuring £30 million of desirable GT cars.

Oliver would be sharing a 1964 AC Cobra with his father Grahame. Qualifying 1 was hampered by a tyre problem as it rotated on the rim causing the wheel to become severely imbalanced. This caused a violent vibration, which was very disconcerting. Oliver sensibly brought the car in after posting the 5th quickest time 1m29.0s.



The problem was rectified and Oliver started qualifying 2 slowly to find some clear space on the track. He then went for it and posted a blisteringly quick time for a Cobra of 1m27.9s to put the car third quickest in the session. After a cooling down lap, he started another hot lap which was considerably faster in which he carried more speed thorough Fordwater, but as he came bearing down into Woodcote chasing the pole position car of Michael Vergers, the pair caught 3 slower cars. This forced Oliver to abort the lap as all chances of an improved time had gone. He pitted to hand over to Grahame to complete the rest of the session to get up to speed.

The combination of the 2 sessions lined the car up 4th on the grid with Grahame taking the start. He was hanging on well and with only 2mins of his stint left to run before handing to Oliver, the tyre problem reoccurred and the vibration contributed to a mistake which put the car out into the gravel at Lavant. Much to the disappointment of Oliver and the boys at Spirit Automotive, their run in the 2007 Royal Automobile Club Tourist Trophy Celebration was over.

Oliver would like to thank Spirit Automotive for preparing the AC Cobra and Plymouth Barracuda and RW Racing Services for the Lotus XV.