For several years now I have wanted to go to the Goodwood Members’ Meeting, having read about the fabulous race grids this exclusive event attracts, and pre-pandemic I joined the Goodwood Road Racing Club (GRRC) so that I could buy tickets, as only members can do so. The 78MM (shorthand for 78th Members Meeting) was originally scheduled for April 4/5th 2020. It then got brought forward a week to avoid a clash with the Formula 1 calendar – this was announced in September 2019. And then the world started to change…
As it became clear that the Covid situation would not allow the event to go ahead in March, it was moved to April 10th/11th 2021, but this also proved to be unsuitable, and May 15/16th was the next scheduled date. Sadly, even this rescheduling didn’t work, and the next dates to be announced were October 15th and 16th. This must have been fantastically frustrating for the organisers, and indeed the entrants, drivers, sponsors and all those involved in making the meeting happen. Fortunately, as life has gradually returned to something resembling normality here in the UK, the October dates remained firm and the event did indeed take place last weekend.
My tickets for the Sunday – bought in September 2019! – remained valid, and as Goodwood is now much further away from where I live than it used to be, I availed myself of the kind offer of a bed – and excellent dinner – at the home of friends who live within an hour of the circuit, one of whom rose at 06.00 to come with me for the day.
We donned our tweeds for the day and set off in die Tomate – my Mercedes 280CE – which I had just picked up from the restorer having had a new head gasket and heater controls repaired, plus a few other minor issues seen to – driving in the early morning darkness to the circuit. By the time we got there just after 7.15 it was daylight, and time to go for a wander around the paddocks which were just beginning to wake up.
There was a huge range of machinery to check out, from the early days of motorsport – the oldest car taking part was a 1903 Mercedes 60hp – through to 1966, bikes from 1970 to 1983, as well as a stage for rally cars from ’79 to 2003. In between all this were demonstration runs by Jaguar XJR-15’s, various modern McLarens and a display of ex-Ayrton Senna-related F1 cars. And if the cars weren’t enough for you, there was the usual array of catering, memorabilia, luxury goods, fairground and even a kind of school sports competition, so plenty to see and do.
Unlike the Revival, there is easy access to the garages in the paddocks without the need for fancy dress – though “country-style” dress is encouraged, hence our tweeds – or extra passes and it gave us a chance to take in some fabulous cars before they took to the track. As usual at such a major event, there was too much to take it all in, or to mention every noteworthy car there, but highlights included several gorgeous Porsche 904’s, a number of Bugatti’s, some brutish Ford GT40’s, as well as the utterly ridiculous 28.3-litre (sic), 300bhp FIAT S76 from 1911 – otherwise known as the Beast of Turin, and one of only two built. By complete contrast, the miniscule 1947 Monaco-Norton 500 is perhaps the smallest racing car in existence – it really is tiny, with a wheelbase of just 60 inches, less than two metres.
Touring cars had a strong presence, competing for the Gerry Marshall Trophy, with a gaggle of Triumph Dolomites sharing paddock and track space with a variety of Escorts, Capri’s, Camaro’s and more.
The muscle-car end of the historic racing spectrum was represented mainly by more Mustangs plus a few Ford Falcons, though I think my favourite car in that category was a blue ’65 Plymouth Barracuda. I would have liked to see these big beasts do battle, but they ran their race on Saturday afternoon.
From the world of slightly more modern motorsports, there was a fine selection from the world of rallying for a special sprint event, including a Lancia 037, Audi Quattro Sport, and a few of the mighty MG Metro 6R4’s among their number, and a collection of cars linked to Ayrton Senna to celebrate 30 years since his first World Championship, including a spectacular trio of Brabham’s, a Lotus 99T, a Toleman TG184 and the 1991 championship-winning McLaren MP4-6, demonstrated on the track by his nephew, Bruno Senna.
Among the pre-1933 cars contesting the Earl Howe Trophy, together with the aforementioned Bugatti Type 35’s and 39’s were some magnificent Alfa Romeo’s, such as a pair of 1932 8C 2300 Monza’s as well as a pair of 8C 2600 Monza’s, marvellous cars. The Bentley Boys were also represented, as one would expect, but for me the Alfa’s stole this part of the show.
Competing for the Salvadori Cup were a number of Lotus-Climaxes, D-Type Jaguars, a superb 1954 Aston Martin DB3S and a pair of beautiful Ferrari TR’s in yellow and black, among so many other extraordinary cars. As always at events like these, it’s impossible to take everything in.
Having completed our early morning reconnoitre, it was time for some breakfast before heading over to trackside, where the lower number of attendees made it much easier than usual at Goodwood to find a good spot, even by the starting grid.
This isn’t going to be a race report, but we did get to see some enthralling racing. The first race that we managed to catch was the Don Parker Trophy for 500cc Formula 3 cars, among them some absolutely tiny machines, with the smallest of the small being the Monaco Norton. This turned out not to be the easiest line-up to get off the grid and the race was delayed as several cars developed mechanical issues but in the end they put on quite a display. I had no idea how thirsty these little cars are – apparently 5mpg is not unusual!
We stayed at the Start-Finish line for the Ronnie Hoare Trophy for road-going sports and GT cars built between 1960 and ’66, with the star cars – for me, at least – being the Porsche 904’s (one of which was the comfortable eventual winner, driven by Ollie Blanpain) and the third-placed 1966 Ferrari 275GTB – such beautiful cars.
The best racing of the day while we were there (we had to miss the Gerry Marshall Trophy) came in the Gurney Cup, dominated by a thrilling duel for 2nd and 3rd between the GT40’s of Tom Kristensen/Sam Hancock and Dario Franchitti/Sean Lynn, with Hancock and Franchitti nose-to-tail for the last quarter of the 45 minute race.
Alhough not as numerous as at the Revival, there were some very special roadgoing classics on display, including a small selection of cars belonging to VIP’s, such as a bright green Alfa Romeo Zagato Junior that belonged to Gordon Murray, and an astonishing Kellison J4 (parked alongside a well-patinated 300SL gullwing, two of a handful of cars from the Duke of Richmond’s garages). Also in that section, two Aston Martin DB4’s, one in a beautiful deep blue, the other a silver Zagato – both stunning cars.
There were two small-ish areas dedicated to visitors’ classics though some weren’t classics at all – I’ve often wondered how some modern cars get selected for these display areas, especially when space is so limited. Out towards Lavant, we found a superb Iso Grifo 4.7, a pair of Ferrari’s in the delightful shapes of a blue 330GT and 1973 Daytona in red, and a seldom seen Jensen FF. A Triumph TR8 with what looked like a custom built hard-top didn’t look quite right, but it was good to see very smart 1972 FIAT 130 saloon, an uncommon sight on these shores.
In the Chicane parking area, the delicate lines of a grey 1961 Ferrari 250GTE caught the eye, as did a gorgeous Maserati Sebring and a blue 1959 Bristol-engined AC Aceca parked next to it, exquisite classics, all three. A fearsome black Dodge Charger R/T made quite a contrast.
Unlike the Silverstone Classic earlier this year, MM78 was blessed with fine Autumn weather – on the Sunday, at least; Saturday started very wet but cleared up as the day went on. Watching – via the livestream – the drivers of the oldest cars at the event struggling to manouvre their primitive machinery around a wet track was very entertaining, for viewers, at least.
Although still undeniably a big occasion, the Members’ Meeting is considerably more intimate than the Revival, since the number of attendees is limited, making movement around the viewing areas, paddocks etc much easier than at the bigger event. At this point I think I should say that I doubt the GRRC would ever say this publicly, but excellent as the day was, with some thrilling racing and lots of exciting historic racers to drool over, it didn’t quite meet up to expectations, bearing in mind it is billed by the GRRC as “the world’s most exclusive race meeting”. Certainly the racing cars, while spectacular, were not quite as starry as at the last RevivaI I attended – no Porsche 910’s or 906’s, no Ferrari 250LM or GTO – and I wonder whether this was a side effect of the frequent rescheduling leading to diary or travel conflicts for some of the entrants, and of course, ongoing travel restrictions quite possibly made it too difficult for some owners to ship their cars to the UK.
The other aspect of the Revival that is far superior to the Members’ Meeting is the car park – while there was space allocated for a couple of hundred attendees to display their classics, this paled into insignificance compared to the Revival car park, an attraction all on its own. I appreciate that the numbers attending are lower, but I do think the GRRC could make more of this. Nevertheless there was still an enormous amount to enjoy, as I hope the photo galleries will show, and despite these criticisms, we have already decided to go again to 79MM, set for April 9/10 next year, so long as social conditions continue to improve – fingers crossed
We called it a day before the final two races; there were delays throughout the afternoon and having already spent over nine hours there and covered 8 miles walking around the site, and faced with a long drive home, we decided it was time to climb back into die Tomate and headed away from the circuit on the lovely country roads through Sussex and Surrey while there was some daylight left before I hit the traffic on the M25…we’ll be back!
