Kevin and I returned to Goodwood today for the final day of the Racing Revival. We headed straight to Lavant corner where we set our folding chairs up and settled in for the morning to watch the racing. It turned out to be a fantastic spot to sit as the first race of the day, the Madgwick Cup, was full of excitement with no less than four cars spinning off right in front of us. Thankfully nothing more than pride and little bodywork was injured and it certainly kept us entertained.

Later in the morning we had the second part of the St. Mary’s Trophy (part 1 took place on Saturday) which featured saloon cars from the 1960s. The front row of the grid looked decidedly incongruous, with a BMW1800, an enormous Ford Galaxie and a tiny Mini Cooper S. As it happened that combination was perfect and the three cars spent a large part of the race battling furiously over the top three places.

By lunchtime it had started raining but not enough to deter us, and the sun remerged just in time for a celebration of the Spitfire’s 75th birthday. This included a fly-past of ten Spitfires in the air together. I did take some photos but couldn’t catch a really satisfying image that had them all together – the sun was always in the wrong place as they came over us. It was still a wonderful experience though and probably the only time we’ll ever see so many of these magnificent machines flying together.

The final race we saw was the RAC TT Celebration race. This race features some seriously expensive classic cars, including three Ferrari GTOs, each worth around £12.5m! The race was tremendously exciting and we were cheering for ex-Formula 1 driver and commentator Martin Brundle who eventually took second place. As the race went on it started raining again and the weather gradually deteriorated into monsoon conditions, at which point they stopped the race prematurely for safety reasons. On the plus side, I did get to try out the rain cover I bought for my camera back in June (when I was expecting heavy rain for the Whit Friday Marches). This meant I caught lots of dramatic shots when everyone else had put their cameras away. It just goes to show there’s no such thing as bad weather for photography, just the wrong clothing – as we discovered after we’d wrung the water out of our clothes on returning home!

Great set Helen, you have captured the excitement and the beauty of all these lovely old cars... You would need to be a very confident driver to race with a car worth £12.5 million pounds, especially in the rain... Annbramwell · 2011-09-19: 09:48

You're incredibly endowed for this genre of photos Helen (and not that for this genre, moreover) I like the movement that you seized in 5 : it's spectacular josy63 · 2011-09-19: 10:18

LOL loved your comment on the workers!!! MoMac · 2011-09-19: 11:33

Nice sport report So colourful So crazy and fun Joy, joy, joy Thanks helys · 2011-09-19: 12:24

excellent capture and your comment ! Davorka · 2011-09-19: 12:48

Gorgeous. Gorgeous. I love Vintage Racing. In shot 10 and 11 that looks like an old Ford Galaxie 500!! haven't seen one in thirty years! Love the photos. Excellent set of images. jlmphotos · 2011-09-19: 13:56

Woooo. #15 looks like a Cobra! Amazing. jlmphotos · 2011-09-19: 13:57

oh man ... now I am a boy again thank you slowpete · 2011-09-20: 01:55

Isn't shooting racing just a kick in the pants!! WOW wished I could have been there! Great shots all around!! SheriJ · 2011-09-20: 12:38

What fun nice captures mystic1 · 2011-09-23: 15:08

hi there i'm the big fella in the sunglass on your shot of three marshals with brooms if you have any more of this team of marshals i would be very happy to have a copy i would also like to use them on our website www.redditchruffnecks.biz thank you simon "bear" chalk simon chalk · 2012-03-07: 12:12

Tagged: car mini ford maserati goodwood revival ferrari cobra