Jimmie Johnson‘s Goodwood Revival started on the worst possible note when he spun in the rain into the tyre barriers during practice, damaging the rear of his Aston Martin DB4 GT. He proceeded to bounce back in dominant fashion on Saturday when he went from fourth to first on the opening lap and led flag to flag to win the Stirling Moss Memorial Trophy.
Johnson, a seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion who is down to race basically anything since his retirement from full-time Cup competition, teamed up with IndyCar Series great Dario Franchitti to share the DB4. While Johnson’s luck have been anything but in recent years, he proved he certainly still has gas in the tank. He had been leading even before the practice spin in the wet before sealing it with the win.
“This is very special. I get a cigar too. What an honour,” said Johnson. “This has just been an event that I don’t want to miss. I’ve always dreamed of coming here and competing. My time in the States was quite busy and I was finally able to come in ’22 and it is such an incredible race. Big thanks and credit to this team.
“Kind of scratched the back of it yesterday in the rain and they’ve been able to fix the car and get it back on track. Dario has been such a long time close friend and to be able to share a car with him and to share a win together.”
Franchitti’s nephew Luca and daughter Sofia also got to spend some time behind the wheel when they ran the Settrington Cup, a youth class for Austin J40 pedal cars. Luca won the first race but finished twenty-second in the second, while Sofia was seventeenth and third. Dario’s younger brother Marino Franchitti was also on hand to run the Sussex Trophy in his Lister Flat Iron against the likes of Alex Brundle, André Lotterer, and Tiff Needell.
The Goodwood Revival is the Goodwood House’s historic car festival, held three months after the trademark Festival of Speed. To this end, the weekend saw vehicles as old as the 1930s, with Grand Prix cars from the pre-Second World War era comprising the field for the Goodwood Trophy. Ian Baxter won that race in his Alta 61 IS, a voiturette that was built in 1937.
James Davison, a NASCAR and IndyCar driver like Johnson and Francitti, finished third in the Sussex Trophy in his 1958 Lotus Climax shared with Roger Wills but his 1966 McLaren M1B bowed out of the Whitsun Trophy despite setting the fastest lap. The latter race also featured Red Bull Racing’s Adrian Newey in a Ford GT40, where he placed seventh.
Elsewhere at the Goodwood Circuit, Sir Jackie Stewart and the Duke of Richmond oversaw the reopening of the Tyrrell Shed to the general public. A former military shed, it was used by Ken Tyrrell‘s Formula One operation until 1976 when the team moved into a purpose-built factory; the shed was converted into a storage facility afterwards before being left to decay until its restoration and relocation. A private reveal was conducted for the Goodwood Road Racing Club at the 81st Members’ Meeting in April.
Before both race days, parades were conducted to respectively commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of Meyers Manx‘s first dune buggy and the eightieth of the Normandy landings. The latter—all the more appropriate as the Goodwood estate was RAF Westhampnett during the war—featured a convoy of military vehicles including tanks and planes, as well as the Rolls-Royce Wraith that served as Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery‘s personal vehicle in France before being restored by Richard Hammond.
The 2025 Goodwood Revival is scheduled for 12–14 September.
Race winners
| Race | Vehicle Type | Winner | Vehicle |
| Barry Sheene Memorial Trophy* | Pre-1955 Grand Prix motorcycles | Michael Russell / Michael Rutter | 1954 Norton Velocette MSS |
| Earl of March Trophy | 500cc Formula 3 cars | Tom Waterfield | 1957 Cooper-Norton Mk VIII |
| Fordwater Trophy | Production-based sports and GT cars, 1955–1960 | Marc Gordon | 1958 Jaguar XK150 FHC |
| Freddie March Memorial Trophy | Goodwood 9 Hour cars | Jake Hill | 1954 HWM Jaguar |
| Glover Trophy | 1.5-litre Grand Prix cars, 1961–1965 | Andy Middlehurst | Lotus 25 |
| Goodwood Trophy | Grand Prix cars and voiturettes, 1930s–1950s | Ian Baxter | 1937 Alta 61 IS |
| Madgwick Cup | Sports cars, 1955–1960 | Miles Griffiths | 1957 Lotus-Climax Eleven LM150 |
| Richmond & Gordon Trophies | 2.5-litre Grand Prix cars, 1952–1960 | William Nuthall | Cooper T53 |
| Royal Auto Mobile Club TT Celebration | Closed-cockpit GT and prototype cars, 1960–1964 | Tom Ingram / Mike Whitaker | 1964 TVR Griffith 400 |
| Settrington Cup* | Austin J40 Pedal Cars | Josh Johnston | Austin J40 |
| St. Mary’s Trophy* | Saloons, 1960s | Romain Dumas / Bill Shepherd | 1963 Ford Galaxie 500 |
| Stirling Moss Memorial Trophy | Pre-1963 GT cars | Jimmie Johnson / Dario Franchitti | Aston Martin DB4 GT |
| Sussex Trophy | World Sportscar Championship, 1955–1960 | Andrew Smith / Oliver Bryant | 1958 Lotus 15 |
| Whitsun Trophy | Prototype sports cars, 1960–1966 | Oliver Bryant | 1966 Lola-Chevrolet T70 Spyder |