|
The Goodwood Revival Meeting is a popular
annual motor racing event many classic car enthusiasts thoroughly
enjoy for its mouthwatering cars, breathtaking driving on
the track and the wonderful period feel of a race meeting
with a mid 1960s ambiance. That period feel - "a magical
step back in time" - is from a combination of the
pre mid-sixties cars on and off the track and also the willingness
of most people attending to dress in a style and in clothing
of the period. In fact it's a good opportunity to chase out
the moth from an old and much loved sports jacket! Well over
recent years a group of V8 enthusiasts have met up over the
three days and shared a stroll around the circuit and paddock
and watched practice and the racing. The sight of Mk 7 Jaguars
leaning into the bends, Astons and Ferrari 250LMs drifting
through Fordwater and the growl of the Cobras are simply wonderful.
The air displays with Spitfires, Hurricanes and Mustangs are
a joy to see and hear together with the fly past of a Lancaster.
The event is an extraordinary experience as it as alive and
real as the race meetings at Goodwood before the closure back
in the mid sixties. The cars are raced with serious effort
by modern classic sportscar drivers (like the V8 Register
members David Franklin in a Ferrari 250LM and Ron gammons
in a Lotus 19) and by many racing heroes from the past like
Stirling Moss, Jack Bragham and Tony Brooks. We even have
V8 Register member Barry Sidery-Smith out in his MGB - he
is both a relic from sportscar racing in sixties and someone
who is still actively racing today! The attention to detail
by Lord March's team is truly extraordinary too - little touches
that contribute to a wonderfully complete recreation of an
earlier age of motor sport with a relaxed feel and an underlying
sense of style and fun.
The photo to the above left is at
the Goodwood Cricket Match on the Thursday afternoon
in 2002. You can see Goodwood House is the background. The
weather was glorious.
The photo just to the left is
taken from the pits looking across to the old control tower
on the outside of the track, now a restaurant serving morning
coffee, lunch and afternoon teas.
V8 enthusiasts at
the Goodwood Revival meeting
The sight of a full grid racing down to
Madgwick Corner is a wonderful.
What a delight to see historic cars driven with vigour and
not just standing in dusty museums!
Well for the Goodwood Revival 2003 we are continuing
the informal V8 Gathering. Do get in touch with Victor
Smith on 0208 392 9434 beforehand or on 07770 822977
over the Goodwood Revival weekend. There is good mobile phone
coverage at the Circuit although often the networks are fully
engaged so that getting a connection can be difficult at times!
Unfortunately John Targett will not be over from Akron Ohio
with Dana Moreland because he racing in the US that weekend
in his replica Works MGB. Regulars like Mike and Phylida Maude-Roxby,
Bryan Ditchman, Ron and Valerie Gammons, Rob Innes-Ker, Howard
Gosling, Philip Morgan, Barry and Pam Sidery-Smith, Peter
and Jean Ellis, Ken Willis, Stuart Clague and Victor Smith
will be there.
The advertisement
for the Goodwood Revival Meeting for 2003 with the telephone
number and website address for ticket and grandstand seat
bookings.
Getting to Goodwood
In terms of getting to Goodwood, you have two choices based
on the direction from which you approach Goodwood Circuit
- from the north or from the south - and that
will determine the car park you will be directed to, unless
you have been allocated a particular car parking sticker by
the organisers. Whichever route you decide to take, it is
well worth timing your journey to arrive before 8.00am
or earlier to avoid the slow moving queues for the car parks.
The Goodwood Circuit management are very efficient at handling
the car parking traffic flows. You will be directed into one
of the public car parks (level grass fields) and parked in
rows.
Approaching from the north through Singleton village on the
A286 from Midhurst. You can reach Midhurst from the A3
(London-Portsmouth road) at Milford or from Pulborough and
Petworth to the east and Winchester from the west on the A272.
It's a wonderful drive over the downs passing Goodwood racecourse.
Approaching from the south from the roundabout on the A27.
You reach this roundabout from the M27 to the west or from
the east on the A27 from Arundel and further east or from
the A285 from Petworth or the A29 Pulborough & Billingshurst.
Congestion on the A27, even before you reach that roundabout,
is legendary, so unless you arrive before 8.00am lengthy
delays are likely on the A27 and then once off the roundabout
and on the secondary road leading north to Goodwood Circuit
(also marked for Goodwood Airfield) there is usually a slow
traffic queue until you are directed to one of the public
cars parks (see the bottom RH corner of the plan below).
Finding your way
around the Circuit
Circuit plan - if you copy
the images above and below from this webpage (it's a jpeg
file), you can then view them on your PC and enlarge them
to see more of the detail of the layout of the Goodwood Circuit
and the key features for the Revival Race meeting. (Plan:
Goodwood Circuit Revival Programme 1998)
Enlarged plan of entrance to the Circuit,
grandstands, enclosures and the subway to the paddock.
(Plan: Goodwood Revival Programme 1998)
Where
to meet up
A convenient meeting place is at the bar and teashop marked
"F1" on the plan above which is near the main
pedestrian entrance (marked on the plan above) and the
pedestrian subway to the Paddock which is on the inside
of the track. It is a convenient point because it is only
50 yards (45 metres) from the main ticket control point at
the head of the path leading from the road passing the entrance
to the Circuit. So if you are not familiar with Goodwood
all you have to do is walk dead ahead from the ticket control
barrier and then you will see the marquee with the bar and
teashop diagonally to your left. Call Victor Smith on
07770 822977 and we will agree a meeting time. On Sunday,
Bryan Ditchman is usually to be found at the Spitfire Restuarant,
marked "F2" on the plan above at around 10.00am
enjoying a 1950s English breakfast and will be happy to see
you there! The Spitfire Bar overlooks the parked WW2 aircraft
which are usually fired up early in the morning for a short
display and then again at lunchtime.
Now just a few notes
on dress for the Goodwood Revival meeting
Lord March has very successfully revived motor racing
at Goodwood by capturing the style and feel of motor racing
as it was in the early 1960s. He has restored the Circuit
substantially as it was when it closed for racing in the mid-sixties
and he has made quite exceptional efforts in achieving this
- he even has haymaking in progress on the inside of the track
and the hay set in stoops to dry as it would have been forty
years or more ago which of course adds to the period feel
and is a benefit to photographers! The cars on the track are
all pre mid-sixties machines, and there are many motor racing
personalities from the fifties and sixties present together
with current drivers of classic and historic racing and sports
cars. But his attention to detail and desire to share the
sense of fun he so evidently enjoys in motor racing goes further
- he has period props and characters dressed in RAF uniforms
and period clothing, not to mention all manner of vehicles
from the forties, fifties and sixties. He has aircraft parked
up and flying from WW2. There are times as you walk around
you feel you are back in the sixties as there are so few signs
of later years! Visitors are encouraged to participate too
by dressing in a style of the period.
Two Goodwood Revival regulars
enjoying the Paddock sights. Be assured a St John Ambulance
team were on hand nearby with a de-fibrolator! They look as
if September 1962 was just yesterday, but how long can they
keep the moth at bay!!
Most visitors do dress in sympathy with the style of the
event - ladies wear summer dresses, pastel shades and pearls,
and even wartime austerity dresses or suits - and men shake
out their old sports jackets or blazers, twills, neckwear
(a tie, bowtie or cravat) and brogues, together a hat and
give the moth a surprise! Some visitors appear in drainpipe
trousers and Teddyboy jackets. The period feel is further
enhanced by the groups from local drama schools playing various
parts from the 1960s - one group last year was a schoolmistress
with a class of girls from St Trinians which caused
some amusement.
School mistress struggling to control
her class from St Trinians - the actors are provided by
a local drama school. The attention to detail and sense of
fun are hallmarks of the approach Lord March and his team
have to recreating the feel and atmosphere of Goodwood in
the 1950s and 60s.
So trainers, baseball caps and modern logo adorned sweatshirts
are not at all popular and only an insensitive few appear
in them. To get from the public enclosures into the Paddock
on the inside of the track via the pedestrian tunnel (see
the plan above), the stewards appear to check both paddock
transfers and that visitors are suitably dressed. For photographers
in the Paddock it is wonderful because it means the attire
of the human backdrop is very much as it would have been when
the cars being prepared for the various events were originally
competing at the Circuit some 40 years ago or more.
Where
to watch the racing and enjoy the sights and sounds
The start line at Goodwood - an impressive
sight with Mk 7 & 9 Jaguars, Sunbean Rapiers, A35s, Riley
1.5s and Morris Minors set to give battle again. The view
here is from the grandstand on the outside of the Circuit,
facing the Pits.
One of the pleasures of attending the Goodwood
Revival meeting is a stroll right round the outside of
the track with several chums in the morning during practice
pausing at the bars on the way for an occasional pint of ale.
Do try and get round to Fordwater (a high speed corner on
the far side of the Circuit - see the bottom LH side of the
plan of the Circuit above) because the sight of an Aston or
a Ferrari drifting through, brushing the apex at 130mph is
beyond description - not to mention the sound of the engines
on full-song! A seat in one of the grandstands during
the racing programme is useful and a welcome relief for the
legs too! It's also a great benefit if it rains! Another popular
spot is a grass covered mound by the chicane on the outside
of the track where you get a good view of the cars as
they race up from Woodcote Corner to the slowest part of the
lap. Spectating from the roof of the pits (see the
spectators massed above the pits in the photo above) is another
interesting viewpoint particularly during the one hour race
when you have the driver changes below in the pits. Standing
on the grass bank at Madgwick Corner is also a very
useful viewing point as it is a complex corner with a great
deal of action. It is also a good spot for the air display
as the aircraft usually follow the line of the main grass
runway and pass right over the Madgwick embankment!
So there is plenty to do and all the better in good company.
Do get in touch if you are planning to go there or whilst
you are there. Finally don't forget your shooting stick to
give your legs a break during the day! Let's hope we have
good weather again this year!
Victor Smith
07770 822977
|
