Even by the enormously high standards of the Goodwood Revival, the annual historic racing event at Goodwood in England, the St. Mary’s Trophy is a banger. It’s a race for “saloon” cars of the early 1960s, and you get everything from Mini Coopers and Alfa Romeo GTAs, to Lotus Cortinas and Jaguar Mk IIs.
Then there are the Ford Galaxie 500s. Jack-of-all-trades racer Romain Dumas lined up at the back of the grid for this year’s race and quite literally muscled his way forward in the big-block Ford. Per the commentary, Dumas wasn’t supposed to be at this year’s Revival. But, a last-minute opportunity came up, and he was flown in the day before.
Dumas lined up on the grid in 29th, since he wasn’t able to qualify the car, and made a frenetic pace during the 25-minute sprint. It’s a track and car he’s familiar with, though, having won this very race in this car back in 2022.
The St. Mary’s Trophy is a brilliant demonstration of the strengths of various cars. Minis don’t have the grunt, but they’ve got the speed through Goodwood’s fast corners. Alfas and Cortinas have more power, but they’re still momentum cars. The Jags are muscle cars by comparison, but at a horsepower track like Goodwood, it is very hard to argue with a Galaxie 500 wheeled by someone like Dumas.
This is also no ordinary Galaxie 500, though. The ones that race at Goodwood are “R-Codes,” factory-built lightweight racers with 427-cubic-inch V-8s stuffed under the hood. A muscle car if there ever was one.
But this isn’t a case of horsepower trumping all. Dumas is almost constantly countersteering, and even clutch-kicking the car out of the slow chicane to prevent it from bogging down. There are some crazy saves here, and heart-in-mouth moments as he threads the World’s Largest Needle.
Ultimately, he managed to take third, just a few thousandths behind the second-place finisher in his Plymouth Barracuda. The St. Mary’s Trophy continues with a second 25-minute race on Sunday at Goodwood, and Dumas’ teammate and car owner Bill Shepherd took the checkered flag first.
There are a ton of highlights from the Revival and they’re all worth watching. But if you have 10 minutes, watch this one.
