Swiftune scored a brilliant first, second and third place in the Goodwood Revival all-Mini race with Nick Swift and driving partner Oliver Gavin both winning their races from pole position. The Saturday and Sunday races were some of the best classic Mini races ever and saw the legendary Rauno Aaltonen and Jason Stanley come home second overall ahead of fellow Swiftune-powered Graham Churchill and Peter Baldwin. Seven of the top ten FIA Minis had Swiftune engines.
Now Nick knows he has won!
The sight of a grid full of FIA Minis, there to celebrate 50 years of the Issigonis brainchild, will be talked about by enthusiasts for a long time to come - Mini racing at its very best.
"It has to be the one and only time we get an all FIA Mini race like this in front of such a big crowd, it will never happen again and to win was simply fantastic," said Nick still grinning from ear-to-ear.
Testing times from Silverstone gave a clue to how fast Gavin, a three times ALMS GT1 champion, would be in the Mini but pole position was a superb start to the weekend. With Nick on pole for the Sunday race everything was set for a Swiftune success. Gavin made an excellent start and steadily pulled out a lead which was over three seconds at the finish. After a super-professional drive there wasn't a scratch on the car and it was now all down to Nick to win on Sunday.
Too much wheel spin at the start didn't stop Swifty from getting to Madgewick bend first but the race wasn't in the bag as Churchill took the lead. Falling back into the pack was not in Nick's race plan so he got his head down and re-gained the lead, pulling out seven seconds by the flag. On aggregate the yellow Swiftune car won by 15 seconds.
After rumours about illegal cars at Goodwood the officials warned competitors the checking would be super thorough and it was. Cars were scrutineered with cylinder heads off so the bore/stroke and valve size could be checked before the weigh-in, ride height etc were measured. Goodwood delivered the best and fairest historic Mini racing.
All the checking kept the Swiftune team of Phil, Mark and Arnold very busy but the reward for all the hard work came with the chequered flag dropping on a Swiftune victory.
22 September 2009