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The third running of our WHO Goodwood Revival takes place on Saturday 21 September, just a fortnight after the actual event at nearby RAF Westhampnett. It's a day devoted to 1:32 scale models of cars that competed in the 1948-1966 era, when the Goodwood Circuit was active, with all our classes and formats based on the Revival race meetings that began in 1998. 1948-66 dress code is encouraged, even if it's just a retro T-shirt or a flat cap...

   

There's a re-jig of the format for this year - the club car rotation has been dropped, which give us time for all six WHO Goodwood classes. The pairs and team race are at the start of the day and the individual races at the end...

   

There are likely to be loaners for the Whitsun Trophy race (almost certainly Scalextric GT40s), but not for the Sussex and Richmond Trophies.

We keep the same track that Mike designed for the inaugural Revival in 2022. The layout is aimed at smooth running and exciting digital racing for these models of classic cars - and has elements inspired by the Goodwood Circuit.

   

A condition of entry is that drivers have completed at least one WHO Digital event - ideally one of the Nascar & Legends evenings that take place in January, February, July & August each year. This is not a day to jump in the deep end and learn the ropes of digital racing! All the races use the RCS64 software, including fuel & tyre simulations and a weather simulation for the six-car Kinrara Trophy team race.

   

Race fees are £6 for adults, £4 for under-16s. We do ask that racers aged 13 years and under bring a responsible adult with them. There is a short lunch break, but lunch is not provided. A Tesco Express and a chip shop are about 4-5 minutes walk away - and there is a fridge, microwave and hot water urn in the kitchen.

A detailed guide to all the classes and to our Scalextric digital hardware & software is available here as an eleven-page pdf document.

2024 Goodwood digital guide.pdf Size: 526.28 KB  Downloads: 59

   

We do aim to keep the classes and regulations the same for 2025, so you can also use this document to plan a trip to the Barn next year.

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We're not much more than a week away from the WHO Goodwood Revival. 

There's a lot of excitement and plenty of new cars being prepared. Because this is far more nerdy than any of our other events, the rules & regs are a bit more complex. You're probably okay with a Ready-to-Run (RTR) car - although please do check any tyre width / height restrictions for each class - but for those building a kit, using a 3D chassis in Kinrara or preparing a Slot.it / Policar Whitsun big-banger, please take special care over gearing and motor choice as per this public information announcement...

   

Of course, any questions, just ask.

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Not long to go now - so this is a reminder of some of the cars we're likely to see on Saturday...

       

       

       

Really looking forward to it

[Kevan]

Is the Ford Falcon Sprint a George Turner resin bodyshell?

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The Falcon is a full George Turner kit, chassis too. Won the St Mary's race on the Goodwood circuit at Gaydon this year. It's a perfectly proportioned car.

[Kevan]

It'd make a good Monte Carlo Rally entry too.

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Race Report - Part One: Morning session

Fourteen of us enjoyed a magnificently chilled day of Goodwood Revival racing at the Barn. With the format tweaked for the third running of the event, we lost the Club Car Rotation and now had six classes in a day, including two pairs races and a team race - all based on races at recent Goodwood Revivals at nearby RAF Westhampnett. That gave us a perfect day for Goodwood nerds, many of whom dressed up and delivered 47 cars to the various grids.

       

We were again using Mike's 133-foot layout, partly inspired by elements of the Goodwood Motor Circuit - including a single-lane chicane - but mostly designed to give these narrow and skinny-tyred models a most enjoyable day of racing.

Race One - RAC TT Celebration

The action started with a pairs race for ready-to-run (RTR) front-motored GT cars, using our Wednesday night Legends format: two qualifying heats, a semi-final and a Feature - all 8 minutes long. This would get all fourteen of us warmed-up and fully-orientated to the track...

   

Heat One saw four cars hit the track - Simon & Duncan sharing the Scalextric Aston Martin DB5, Alex & Oliver in the Revell Corvette Gran Sport, Isaac & Kev with their #5 Revell Cobra Daytona and Dean & Terry with their Scalextric Ferrari 250 GTO. All teams swapped drivers at half way - four minutes - the Gran Sport making just that one pit stop, the others making three. A combination of speed and frugality saw the Corvette romp home in first place, racking up 29 laps. The Ferrari was second, Cobra third and DB5 fourth.

   

Heat Two had Andy & Ash in the red Fly Ferrari GTO, Mike & John in a similar silver GTO and Pete & Ryan in the #54 Cobra Daytona. The red Ferrari struggled, leaving a great fight at the front - the silver GTO eventually prevailing, despite far more time in the pits. Mike & John's score of 29 laps put them equal with Alex & Oliver, but the Corvette would start from pole for the Feature race thanks to a best fastest lap by just a tenth of a second...

   

First, the other five pairs would battle it out for the remaining four spots in the feature race. The semi-final went pretty much to form, but gave everyone a little more track time to get them closer to the top two. Pete & Ryan always had the race in their hands - nice and quick and using the Revell motor's frugality to make just one stop. The battle for second was close - Simon & Duncan improving on their heat score to bring the DB5 home just ahead of Dean & Terry's Scalextric Ferrari. The most intense scrap was for the final qualifying place - and both pairs had issues. The rather slow Ferrari of Andy & Ash got the jump on Isaac & Kevin's Cobra Daytona when the latter needed a braid repair. However, an issue with the pit menu meant the Ferrari's three pit stops took an age. It was the Cobra that would go to the Feature race.

       

The Corvette and the silver GTO lined up on the first row of the grid - but would that extra eight minutes of racing bring the chasing bunch into the equation? Dean was playing catch-up from the start, the Scalextric Ferrari slow off the line. John and Oliver had a right scrap during the first part of the race - the Ferrari having the slightly better pace, but needing to stop mid-stint for fuel. Coming into the driver change, John's Ferrari had the slimmest of leads over Oliver in the Corvette, Ryan was a lap behind  in the first Cobra Daytona, followed by Simon, Dean and Isaac...

   

It was a tremendously exciting battle to the line. Mike knew he'd need stop again and worked at stretching his lead over the Corvette. That stop came at just under two minutes to go - Mike going very safe on a full tank of fuel, but then stalling on the pit exit. Alex slipped through into the lead. With a minute and a half to go, Mike attempted to hunt down the leader. The Ferrari's pace over a lap was fractionally faster, but Mike would need to take more than tenths out of the Corvette. He pushed hard through the traffic, but Alex was putting on a masterclass of defending and delivered an error-free run to the line. Mike did make a mistake, making his task all the more difficult. The penultimate time round, the silver Ferrari was a few yards behind, the final time through the line it was just feet. However, the important stat is that the Corvette crossed the line first and took the RAC TT Celebration win for Alex and Oliver. Five laps behind, Pete just pipped Duncan to the final podium position - 5 seconds less time in the pits making all the difference...

   

The stats for the opening race of the day look like this...

   
Click the table to make it bigger

And here are some video highlights...



Next up, the St Mary's Trophy two-part pairs race for saloon cars...

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Race Two - St Mary's Trophy

Our two-part format replicates the St Mary's race at Goodwood. Usually a Pro-Am line-up with a race each on the Saturday and Sunday, we pack it all into three six-car heats on Saturday morning. Keeping the Gold-rated drivers apart, we were also able to run nine cars, with four drivers - Isaac, Duncan, John & Ash - doing double-duty. Each member of a pair drive one 10-minute heat, the score for the team being the aggregate of the two heats. The line-up had six Fords - two Mustangs, two Cortinas, a Galaxie and a Falcon - plus a Chevy and two Jags...

   

Heat One was a cracker. Last year's top two - the blue Falcon and the big red Carrera Chevy - went head-to-head with John and Andy driving. Neck-and-neck for the first few laps, John managed to get away in the better-handling Ford. However, the more frugal Chevy stopped just once, dropping Andy back into contention and finishing on the same lap - a score of 36 for both...

   

Behind, Ash brought the dark green George Turner Jaguar Mk1 home in third with 34 laps - just ahead of Dean with the grey Scalextric Jag. The Fullers' Scalextric Mustang was fifth with Isaac driving a very good race. Duncan was sixth with the Revell Mustang GT350, which looked far better than it performed.

Heat Two saw the other three cars in action for the first time, along with the Chevy, Falcon and Alex's Jag completing their race. This was an incredibly close 10-minutes with great racing. Ash led after 5 minutes in the Chevy, but on the same lap as Pete in the George Turner Cortina, Mike with the Falcon and Alex in the Jag - three George Turner models led by a Carrera tank. Oliver was hanging on in fourth with the Monogram Galaxie and Duncan was just a lap and a half down in the Scalextric Cortina...

   

The excitement continued right to the end of the race - some great side-by-side racing and mostly very gentlemanly conduct through the single lane chicane before the pit straight...

   

Ash managed to splash & dash and maintain the lead with a minute to go. Mike was up to second, but got a bit messy trying to trim the Chevy's lead. Right behind were still Alex and Pete. As time ran out, Ash had already started his 37th lap - giving him an all-important lap advantage over the chasing trio. The first three pairs to finish saw the Chevy with 73 laps, the Falcon on 72 and Alex's Jag on 70. Could the other six pairs go better and grab the St Mary's win?

   

The final heat did not live up to the precise, clean racing of the first two races. Right from the opening lap, it was carnage! In amongst the chaos, Ryan was knuckling down with the George Turner Cortina and getting on with the job in hand - equalling or beating 37 laps for the aggregate win. A typically blistering drive from Ryan saw him negotiate traffic, execute two perfect pit stops and avoid any trouble. He completely annihilated the rest of the field...

   

But would it be enough? Ash's run to 37 laps had been nigh-on perfect and to equal that score would give Pete & Ryan the win on fastest lap. However, as the clock ran down, Ryan just got through the line to start his 38th lap - a massive score and one worthy of a St Mary's Victory for the George Turner Cortina, decorated by Pete to emulate his dad's old car. Terry's second place with 34 laps was enough to place the Galaxie fourth overall. Simon's Mustang expired, leaving him and Duncan last in the heat and overall...

   

Huge congrats to Pete & Ryan on their victory. It was another cracking St Mary's race with some wonderful saloon cars on the grid. These are all the stats...

   

And here are some video highlights...



That was the end of the morning session. We took time for a lunch break and the Concours d'Élégance competition - which was won on the popular vote by Alex for his Ferrari GTO re-livery...

   

That would be racing after lunch in the Kinrara Trophy team race.

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Race Report - Part Two: Afternoon Session

As well as the fourteen racers, we welcomed a number of visitors during the day, including Ryan and Frankie who go their first taste of RCS64 digital racing at lunchtime. There was also an opportunity to test cars for the afternoon and Race Control prepared for the team race...

Race Three - Kinrara Trophy

This is probably the blue riband event of the day - featuring modified GT cars and the option of 3D chassis. Instead of another pairs race, we decided to run five cars - four Kinrara-spec models, plus Dean's TT Ferrari (the team race runner-up in 2023) - and have four teams of three and a pair. The lights were dimmed, giving the Barn a very relaxed vibe. It was then time for a 2-minute shoot-out to set the grid, the driver qualifying also starting the race...

   

That was a stunning lap from Pete with Alex's Ferrari GTO, shattering Isaac's hopes of pole position. Otherwise, the Kinrara spec cars looked close on pace.

   

Goodwood was very wet this year - and we introduced the RCS64 weather simulation for this race. Conditions started with rain and a wet track, forecast to dry. Isaac jumped into the lead, looking very composed driving the Shelby Cobra Daytona - exactly the same livery as his RAC TT Celebration car, but with an Olifer 3D chassis underneath. Five minutes into the race, the youngster was a lap ahead of a fine scrap for second - Pete in the Ferrari was being closely followed by Simon in the white Cobra. Everyone apart from Pete had stopped already for fuel, all remaining on Wet tyres as the rain kept falling.

By the first driver change, the rain has stopped, but the track remained wet - John & Mike gambled with an early change to Intermediates, that extra pit time dropping them to the back. We had already lost the Scalextric Ferrari from the race - poor pace and the return of the earlier pit menu issue on yellow persuading team captain Dean to retire. At the front, Isaac came into the driver change window with a two lap advantage over the Ferrari in second, four laps over the Cobra in third and five laps on the Jaguar. John would hand over to Mike at 22 minutes, but for the meantime he was up against new drivers Andy, Terry and Duncan in the cars ahead of him...

   

The was drying quickly, tempting Andy and Mike to change to Soft tyres while the others were still on Wets. As the race wore on, the remaining Ferrari was the lightest on its fuel consumption, pitting for fuel every 18 laps compared to the leader's 12 laps, the Jag's 11 laps and every 10 laps for the Cobra. However, the leading Cobra Daytona was pulling away - a gap of 5 laps going into the final driver change, the chasing Ferrari having the Jaguar close in to 3 laps behind. The white Cobra was a further lap back as Ryan took over for the final stint. It was certainly a strong driver line-up, with Alex chasing Ash and Ryan hunting down Mike for third place.

Any concerns in the Shelby Daytona camp were swiftly quashed as Ash got into a superb rhythm, banging in error-free quick laps and executing perfect pit stops. Behind, Alex was pushing hard and occasionally got ragged. By now, the track was damp and drying - everyone had Soft tyres fitted for maximum grip. Approaching the final five minutes, Ash had stretched the lead to 7 laps, Alex was four laps ahead of Mike, who now had five laps over Ryan. Barring any late-race drama, it looked like that was how it would end, and it did...

   

Congrats to the winners - a great team effort and back-to-back Kinrara victories for the car...

   

Here are the stint stats for the four cars that finished the race...

   

And here are some video highlights...



The lights came back up for the three individual races - the Richmond, Sussex and Whitsun Trophies - that would take us through the afternoon.

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Race Four - Richmond Trophy

Even with a couple of absentees, this class for 1950s front-engined 2.5-litre Grand Prix cars continues to grow. We had eight cars on the grid this time - four Cartrix and four Scalextric, five British models and two Italian...

   

The format saw 2-minute qualifying sessions set the grid - the top two going straight through to the 15-lap Feature race and the other six competing in a 10-lap Semi-final for the remaining places. Those top two places were grabbed by defending champion Mike with his BRM P25 and Alex's Aston Martin DBR4, both Cartrix...

   

The others battled it out over ten chaotic laps in the Semi, Terry the only racer to really get into a decent rhythm with his yellow Cartrix Lancia D50. He crossed the line two laps ahead of the squabbling pack - a veritable thrashing. Dean pipped Simon and Duncan to second, those three the best of the Scalextric runners with a Ferrari, Maserati and Vanwall. The order didn't matter much - they were all through to the Feature. Missing out was last year's fourth-placed finisher Pete, whose Cartrix Vanwall suffered a mishap after qualifying third. Also out was Isaac and his 1980s Scalextric Vanwall - it didn't get off the line and will receive extensive work and new wheels ready for next year.

       

The Feature race was entertaining - these cars are always good to watch. Alex kept Mike honest in the early stages, with everyone else having benefitted from those extra laps of the Semi and giving the marshals an easy ride to begin with. By five laps of the 15, Mike had pulled a useful gap on Alex and was beginning to relax. Terry was not too far behind in third, but the three Scalextric runners were already a lap down - Duncan leading Simon and Dean...

   

Mike continued to take a couple of tenths each lap and there wasn't much Alex could do. As the laps counted down, everyone apart from Alex had to visit the pits for a splash & dash. Mike executed his stop perfectly and still had most of a lap advantage. That turned to a whole lap when Alex got caught in a last-corner pile-up right at the end - Mike picked his way through and took victory before the stricken Aston Martin was returned to the track. Terry - who has been a lap behind Alex - came through in third, now on the same lap as the runner-up. Duncan finished a lap clear of his fellow Scalextric runners...

   

Congrats to Mike for his win and first winners' medal of the day! He led in a Cartrix 1-2-3...

   

Here are some video highlights...



Next was the turn of the 1950s World Championship sports cars in the Sussex Trophy...