1952 Lavant Cup
April 14
Reigning Formula 1 world champion Juan Manuel Fangio was coming to Goodwood – as was his good mate José Froilán González, thrilling winner for Ferrari of the previous year’s British Grand Prix at Silverstone. That a young man from Farnham, Surrey was about to race against these Argentine supermen in the third Cooper-Bristol built was but a footnote. Yet he and it would steal the headlines.
Mike Hawthorn’s impressive performances at Goodwood and elsewhere during 1951 in pre-war Riley sports cars fastidiously tuned by his father had piqued the interest of aficionados – John Cooper, for instance, was happy to have him drive one of his new Formula 2 single-seaters – but what happened next came as a complete surprise to everyone.
Having grabbed but a half hour’s kip after working through the night cutting new valve-seats, it dawned on Hawthorn that his brief test of an unfamiliar car had eschewed a standing start. So
