David Hart and Nicky Pastorelli turned bad luck into strong results in the two races for which DHG Racing was entered. In both the Gurney Cup and the race for the Pierpoint Cup, there were problems during qualifying, but as is fitting in historic motorsport, the towel was not thrown in, resulting in two top ten finishes.

In the Gurney Cup, named after the legendary driver and engineer Dan Gurney and intended for sports cars, David Hart and Nicky Pastorelli shared the Ford GT40 that had made such an impression during the Spa Six Hours. Qualifying proved difficult, as a technical problem meant only two truly fast laps could be completed. More was needed in the relatively cold autumn conditions to get the maximum out of the American supercar, resulting in fourteenth place. These technical problems proved impossible to solve before the race, but historic racing is about camaraderie as well as intense competition, and so a solution was found. David would drive the race with good friend Hans Hugenholtz in his GT40. Starting from ninth, the duo worked their way up to sixth place during the race of over forty-five minutes, a more than excellent result in a field full of Le Mans winners such as Tom Kristensen and Andre Lotterer.

Qualifying for the Pierpoint Cup, for V8-powered touring cars up to 1966, was also difficult for David and Nicky. A problem meant the duo would have to start from the very back, in 28th place on the grid. A superb start saw David move forward in the opening phase, reaching twelfth place. A lengthy safety car was subsequently the only reason the red-black Mustang could not make even more progress before the mandatory pit stop and driver change. With Nicky Pastorelli behind the wheel for the second half of the 26 lap race, the momentum stayed with DHG Racing as they fought for a spot in the top ten, particularly with the Ford Mustang of former Le Mans star Nicolas Minassian. The DHG Racing Mustang finished just seven tenths of a second behind the Frenchman’s car, but ninth place in the final standings was more than good considering the starting position.

And with that, DHG Racing could leave the Goodwood Members Meeting, held in the autumn for the first time, relatively satisfied.