Goodwood Revival - or, Age & Treachery Racing Descends Upon the South of England

I went by myself. I think the rest of the gang descended upon Road America that weekend. I was exorcising a few car-guy demons. I've been mad at myself for years. Some of it wasn't my fault but in my younger days there were serious car-guy things I wanted to do that never happened. Two glaring examples were not seeing the complete Harrah's collection before Holiday Inn ruined it, and never making it up to Road America when the real Can-Am cars were there. Well, the museum in Reno is nice and the Can-Am reunion a couple of years ago was fantastic, but it still isn't the same. At least it was before they ruined half the spectator areas.

Several months ago I started reading ads and stories about the upcoming Goodwood Revival. There is only every one "Grand Reopening," only ever one "first" of anything. I'm reading about a potential lifetime experience here! So I says to myself, "Self, you've had a decent year workwise. It's been three years since you took a serious vacation, if you don't get your butt over to this event you are one sorry-ass excuse of a car-guy!"

Besides, while I'm there I can source a few bits for my English Escort race car project.

I'm on the phone to Donna at Travel Planners - done deal. I'm going - YES!!

Goodwood is an estate. It's been in the family of the Duke and Duchess of Richmond and Gordon since 1697. I don't know how large it is but it seems like it is the size of the suburb (of Kansas City) Claycomo where I live. The house is not really a castle but it's a notch up on most of the Mission Hills "estates." It has been restored for touring and has a very impressive art collection. There is also one of the world's best horse racing facilities on a hilltop above the house.

As we all know, in the 1940's, England had itself in a spot of bother. A very large spot, as it were. They needed many small airbases scattered about for their military defense system. They were being consistently attacked and in invasion was a real threat. Westhampnett Aerodrome was constructed on the estate since it is only a few miles inland from the southern coast near the town of Chichester. This allowed the Spitfires to be as close as possible to anything heading their way.

The runways were, and still are, grass but there was a 2.4 mile perimeter road that was tarmac. After the war, car-guys the world over were chompin' at the bit to get racing started again. Freddy March, Duke of Richmond at the time and grandfather of the current Lord March, followed the suggestion of an Australian friend and made arrangements to turn the perimeter road into a race circuit.

September 18, 1948, saw over 15,000 people descend upon the airbase to watch eight race fields which were oversubscribed in spite of continued gas rationing. They witnessed Reg Parnell win the first feature race in a Maserati 4CLT.

Goodwood became an extremely important venue and was used extensively up to 1966. About this time, fathers and grandfathers of those who just added the fencing, etc., to ruin Road America and every other good track in the world, decided cars were too fast and we all needed to be saved from ourselves. Goodwood shut down except for private testing and certain club events.

Fast forward fifty years to THE DAY from that first race and racing returns to Goodwood! And I'm here!

I spent the first four days driving around the south half of the country. That is a whole story in itself! It rained a little the second day. I was chasing the Escort bits and going to the National Motor Museum in Beaulieu (pronounced Beu-lee) and the Donington Collection of F1 cars at Donington Park race course. Both were excellent adventures. No such thing as too much car guy stuff.

When I got to Goodwood on Friday it was gray and misting slightly and I was thinking "Just my luck, good weather up to now and stereotypical weather for the race." WRONG! The mist was minimal and the next two days were absolutely perfect: early fall feel at about 70 degrees and the sun just a shinin'.

There is much history packed into the 18 years of Goodwood's existence. Stirling Moss, Tony Brooks, John Surtees, and Derek Bell are all famous folk who had their very first race there. In fact, motorcycle ace Surtees was SEEING his first auto race from inside his Formula Jr.! He managed to come in second to some guy named Jim Clark.

Not all of the history is good. Stirling Moss also had his career ending crash there but he fared better than Bruce McLaren who died testing his second M8D Can-Am car in 1970. There is a flower garden and grave stone honoring Bruce, but I never found out if he is actually buried there. Up to now, this has been easy. Lots of historic facts, etc. The event itself, however, was nearly indescribable. Nothing I can say will replace the emotions of being there. That was the whole point. I was in car-guy heaven. Parnell's Maserati was there along with millions of dollars worth of some of the most beautiful and interesting cars in motorsports history. Once again, the fields were oversubscribed. Lord March was forced to pare over 1000 applicants down to 300 or so. The aforementioned drivers were there along with 54 (yes, Virginia, that's not a typo) others who were nearly everybody who was anybody who had anything to do with the history of Goodwood, or in many cases, motorsports, period. This Earl dude sure knows how to throw a party!

The Earl of March chose to force a bit of the history upon us in the vein of the old Goodwood. Except for the ambulance and fire apparatus, no vehicles newer than 1966 were allowed into the infield. Inside the fenced paddock area, tee-shirts, ball caps, and cell phones were banned. All gentlemen were required to wear jackets and ties. Yes, Virginia, I spent a three day race weekend observing in a jacket and tie and lovin' every minute of it. I had to join the Goodwood Road Racing Club to be allowed into the paddock in the first place but I consider it money well spent.

Especially when I was standing about ten feet from Moss as he helped his co-driver for the Tourist Trophy, a race for closed cockpit GT cars that ran from '60 to '64, get into the very same Ferrari 250 SWB that he (Moss) won with here twice. After the unbelievability of this soaked in to the point of reality, I turned to step to my left as the rumpity-rumpity of a Cobra Daytona idles by with Phil Hill going out to practice for the same race. Did I tell you there was another Daytona? That's two out of, what...five or six? Did I tell you Bob Bondurant was driving that one? Did I tell you there were seven other Ferrari 250's?

Carrol Shelby was a bit of a conspicuous absence but, hey, not to worry as Roy Salvadori was still there in an Aston Martin DBR1. Might have been their Le Mans winner!

A little celebrity action there also. Rock and Roll been berry, berry good to Nick Mason of Pink Floyd and Mark Knopfler of Dire Straights. Both were driving two personal favorites of mine: Mark in his Maserati 300S and Nick, along with his wife, Annette, in his-n-her Maserati T61 "Birdcages." Ms. Mason unfortunately had a little incident with hers and broke a foot or knee, or such. Rowan Atkinson did a decent job of pedaling his Aston Martin DBR2 factory lightweight around, unlike his Mr. Bean character would have.

Did I mention that this was the first time anyone remembers the Ecurie Ecosse Jaguar D types all being reunited and all in their proper Corporal, Lance Corporal and Sergeant livery? Not to mention the way-cool old Ecosse bus-like transporter.

Speaking of old buses, that is exactly what they used to deposit and retrieve the peculiar species of orange suited Lizard that is indigenous to the corners of the European Commonwealth race circuits.

(Ed. - The reference to Lizard is in regard to the team of corner workers from the Kansas City region of the Sports Car Club of America, who are known as the "Leaping Lizards.")

Did I mention there were eight Maserati 250F front engined F1 cars?

My own personal sense of aesthetics registers most of the Aston Martin race cars way up on the scale. Especially team cars in that wonderful soft metallic green, sometimes with a bright patch of yellow or blue here or there to identify between cars in the heat of battle. Not only did they have the wonderful roadsters in the DB1, 2, and 3 S's but among the DB4 coupes was a Zagato body. These are just flat out one of the prettiest cars ever made. Last but not least was the pair of Project cars that are based on the DB4. The Project 214 was one of two. The Project 212? Ain't but one! It was there! I saw it! I'm a happy guy!

On a bit of a side note, when I was at Donington, I was surprised by the presence of a Bugatti Royale. I've now managed to see three of the six in my wanderings.

Perhaps rare or at least a bit odd, when is the last time you saw an Emeryson, a DeSanctis, or Britannia? How about at the same time?

Did I mention this was car-guy overload?

Motorsports is such a sensory experience. At least vintage motorsports is. Some of the prettiest cars ever, without sponsor endorsements or science interfering with design. The colors, the smells, the sounds, the feel. Even if you are not driving, you still get Phil's Cobra vibrating your skeleton as it rumbles past. Not only did I see but (this is very important here) I HEARD what is probably the entire world's supply of V16 BRM's! Yes, Virginia, that's four more holes than that Ferrari! These are 1500cc out of a lump that looks like it should be a Jag 6. Probably has pistons the size of most lifters and roofing nail valves. One of the most masochistic jobs a mechanic could have would be maintaining one of these. For starters, (no pun intended) each cam is sprouting a distributor for only four cylinders.

Did I mention the SOUND!? One of the cars had zoomie headers. (If you don't know, just go to a drag race and/or ask questions.) What a sound! I've heard the BRM's. I can die now.

Speaking of sound, you're watching the last few cars of a group cruise in from the cooldown lap and just when you think it's over you say "no, there must be one more just over the rise on the Lavant straight." Faster than you can process this lazy thought, it turns into a huge roar. That would be the roar of the 12 cylinder Rolls Royce Merlyn in the Spitfire that seemingly just cleared the grandstands behind you at full chat! Seems that twice daily on Saturday and Sunday this pesky ME109 Messerschmidt would attack us, necessitating the instant scramble of a couple of our Spitfires. One elliptical and one clipped wing would take after this bloke in a little Battle of Britain dog fight right over our heads. Sometimes diving so low into the airstrip center that I could see the trees opposite me ABOVE the planes! Then just for good measure, as well as good history, an American P51 Mustand would show up to help the boys out. No such thing as too mujch horsepower. There were lots of other military stuff and people in uniforms adding to the whole nostalgia.

Did I mention that Danny Sullivan, in a Lola Mk4 Climax, just nipped Sir Jack Brabham in a BT11 Climax in a pretty hotly contested Glover Trophy race for '61 to '65 F1 Cars?

Did I also mention Ken Tyrrell, Jackie Oliver, Brian Hart, Dan Gurney, Rob Walker, John Cooper, Paul Frere, Cliff Allison, or Richard Attwood? How about Peter Gethin, Jim Russell, Chuck Daigh,Tony Rudd, Frank Gardner, or Jack Sears? All part of the aforementioned 54 heroes of motorsports that assembled here for the Sunday event called The Dream Grid which were parade laps in all various cars, usually matched up historically to at least type if not an actual former ride. Even beyond this, many were in the other races and several more characters were around. Big atta-boy award to Eddie Jordan for letting Damon Hill show up to not only pedal some things in honor of his dad, but to get it on in the motorcycle race alongside former world champ Barry Sheene.

This year is the 50th Anniversary of Lotus. There was no official recognition of that here, but being a Lotus guy, it pleased me to see about every type of Lotus race car between type 10 and type 33. I even ran into some Australians that I know that brought over a Lotus 15 sports racer with a 2.5l Climax.

This year is also the 50th for Porsche. Nothing here for that either. Just a celebration of Goodwood. In fact, I was thrilled to find that not much German junk attended at all. Could have probably counted them on one hand. Fortunately, a couple of the ones that did make it were 904GTS's, the only nice looking car Porsche ever made, in my opinion.

On a similar note, it did my heart good to see that a whole bunch of the Ferraris were NOT RED!

The car parks (that's "lots" to you, Virginia), were almost a show in themselves. IN three days of queues, leaving, I think I saaw one of each, just name something.

Did I mention Alta, Abarth, Alfa Romeo? ERA, Gordini, HMW, Frazer Nash, or Talbot Lago? How about Elva, Lister, Delage, Connaught, Ford, Renault, O.S.C.A., Stanguellini, Huffacker, Mallock or Vanwall? What a paddock! Something others can learn from, is that the cars were all grouped in the paddock by RACE. No, that's not racism, but the beauty is when they are all called to the assembly (that's false grid in Lizard) all the ensuing activity is from the same part of the padock instead of the normal fire drill endangering women, children and critters.

In the Earl of March Trophy race for 500cc F3 cars, with tires about three inches wide, there were 33 cars. Cooper is a very popular and successful car among these, but there were 14 different makes entered. And I haven't named more than a couple. In racers here these guys go for it! They really seem to go for it! I'm sure deep down they have values, but I was amazed. Of course it's always the case that if you can afford to race your zillion dollar gizmo special, you can most likely afford to fix it. You're fairly close to the track here and usually elevated because one of the few changes the Earl had to do was earth berms for noise control. Much smaller than Heartland Park's, though. Because of this I'm sort of looking down into the cockpits of the early F1 and open sport racers when I first got there. These things, worth god knows how much not to mention no roll bars on the F1's, are sliding and drifting through Madgwick (turn one in Lizard) with opposite lock measured not in flicks, but hour hand movements, like from 9 to 3 and back!

This is a fairly fast circuit, but that doesn't mean easy. It has plenty of subtle elevation and camber changes to mess you up. During its use, the record lap speed of just over 107mph was set by Jackie Stewart and the late Jim Clark.

Did I mention Jackie Stewart was there?

For the second time in less than two months, I ran into Brian Redman in the paddock of a vintage race. And I know he went to Monterey as well. Must be nice.

Did I mention Martin Brundle in the D type or Stefan Johansson sharing a 250 GTO in the TT race?

A personal "hats off" to a fellow named Peter Hardman driving a thing called a Ferrari 246S Dino that doesn't have anything to do with the 246 we know and love. This was a World Championship Sportscar type thing entered in the Lavant Cup race. Every time I saw this car I was amazed. It seemed to not have a problem all weekend and the guy was just flat out constantly. He was one of the first cars I noticed being very busy through Madgwick. Probably has a dent in the firewall now from the accelerator. Very impressive combo. Especially at only 2460cc.

Met a nice fellow from Wisconsin with a Lola Mk1 Climax sports racer that Derek Bell was wheeling around. This was the maiden voyage if I recall so we haven't seen it at Road America yet. Ironically his name is Dick Berger, but I'm pretty sure it isn't THAT Dick Berger, is it?!! Anyway, nice fellow and I gave him some Age & Treachery decals. His wife actually noticed that my tie clip (yes, Virginia, I said clip, this is vintage after all) on my skinny vintage tie had a tiny little spark plug on its onyx background. Was I ready for this or what? Short sleeves though, so the matching cuff links stayed at home.

The track opened at 6:30 and I was always right there. Bad news is that the coffee wasn't. Saturday I managed to find some much earlier than Friday. After ten or so hours of this absolutely incredible, nearly unbelievable experience, I would make my way back to the hotel in Bognor Regis. I would then take advantage of a most pleasant surprise, the icing on the cake. I would walk about a block and a half to the ocean where there was a bar/restaurant just across the street from the beach and let the day soak in over a pint or two of cream ale at a picnic table in the cool evening air while I watched a pastel sunset over the Atlantic. I was in car-guy heaven!

You know, Virginia, when you show up and a silver GT40 is the pace car, life is probably going to be good. Probably very good. I'm not nearly as mad at myself as I used to be.

"But where else would you want to be on a summer's day but Goodwood?" - Roy Salvadori.