Goodwood Members' Meeting: PH Blog
This weekend was the first Members' Meeting since the 60s; Matt dug out the flat cap and went along
This was noisy. Wonderfully noisy
But looking at the entry list that really isn't something to begrudge. Half a dozen Maserati 250Fs, a page of pre-war Bugattis, 80s turbo F1 cars, some of the greatest Le Mans racers and a field of classic touring cars promised a great day of racing.
The Le Mans and turbo F1 cars were restricted to 'high speed demonstration laps' which would have been fine except they sort of weren't. In both instances, half the field were circulating pretty quickly with the others ambling along quite a long way back. So far back that they were being caught up on the third lap. But given the prodigious power of all these cars, perhaps taking it easy was wise. And (nearly) all was forgotten on the sight of two Jaguar XJR/9s chasing down the F40 pace car (good choice) into the final chicane, with a Matra following close behind. Marvellous.
This race was as good as it looked
But I was waiting around for the Gerry Marshall trophy, for Group 1 production saloons that raced between 1970 and 1982. Hopefully the image proffers a good idea of how brilliant the race was. Camaros traded places with Minis, a plethora of Capris took on the Rover SD1s and there were a few less common cars (Mazda RX-7, Alfa GTV6) just for good measure. It had noise, drama, speed, everything you would want from a touring car race.
But there's a drawback here. As the name obviously implies, the Members' Meeting is only for Goodwood Members. I was only able to tag along with Haymarket as an invited guest; though it was a great privilege to attend (and the smaller crowds were nice), it often felt like intruding a little on a club meet for exceptionally well-to-do patrons. It's a fantastic event if you're ever lucky enough, but the Revival is an even greater experience. Five months and 12 days to go...
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[Pics: LAT]
The general attendance was a 'distilled' version of the Revival; the real top quarter of people from that event who clearly just love the cars and the racing.
The whole crowd on the bank by the Chicane were cheering Max Girardo in his 250 TdF and all let out an enormous sigh when he span it on the last lap. There was also unanimous cheering at Emmanuel Pirro in the Motorcraft Capri doing some ENORMOUS skids whilst racing from last to 2nd. I'll never forget seeing an F40 catch a hint of oversteer before hitting the boost and rocketing down the pit straight whilst being chased by an XJR15, XJR8/9, 88C-V, 917 Long Tail and a 956.
There's an article on classic driver which catches the mood and is accompanied by some rather excellent photography.
Due to poor pick-up of tickets they started gradually releasing them to Goodwood Members, 'loyal customers', Telegraph readers, various car clubs and then they became general release.
There were also tickets for sale on the gate which weren't members only.
Any idea who was driving the Patrick MotorSport liveried Rover V8 as haven't seen that car around for many years.
More photos/film footage of that beast would be appreciated.
Worked for the Patrick MotorSport team back in the late 70's & early 80's when we ran 1275Gt Mini's & the Rover V8's in the British Saloon Car Championship.
We won the tittle outright with the Mini in 78 & 79 before moving to the big class with the Rover V8.
Sadly we never had the same success with the Rover although we were nightly close to winning the Tourist Trophy outright in, I think, 1981 until we were thwarted by refuelling 'issues' created by TWR who were the works outfit & who didn't like the thought of being beaten at Silversone by a privateer team from Birmingham!!!!
Happy days & memories though so it wasn't all bad!!!
Also just noticed the photo of the start of the saloon car race - the Patrick MotorSport Mini was also out!!! Gutted as would have loved to have been 're-united' with oth of these cars.
Would even worn my old Patrick MotorSport race jacket as well!!!!
Most of the Group 1 cars have been built up to period spec from road cars, though not exclusively. The most significant car in the field was the actual Mazda RX7 which won the 1980 Spa 24 Hours. An oddball, indeed.
My comprehensive event report will be online later in the week, along with a few photos.
However, Goodwood presentation was as good as ever, masses of daffodils in full flower everywhere, blue skies, dry track plus deck chairs (free) for sunny viewing by chicane.
These events cannot miss as the whole mix is so well considered and putting Touring Cars into the programme was an inspiration and excellent race to start proceedings, Mr E.P. in the Capri was brilliant on Saturday and track behaviour very good, the Rover V8 and Mini from Patrick were great fun.
We enjoyed it immensely and that is despite attending almost all FoS and Revival meetings since they started.
Well done Goodwood, owners and drivers, more please next spring.
Matt
The last time I saw the championship winning Mini it was sitting on top of the turntable where our 288GTO took pride of place in the now closed motor museum.
On the passenger seat sat some race winning laurels & a couple of trophies.
I think that Richard Longman, who pedalled the Mini so well, also kept one of the winning Mini chassis when we stopped racing the 1275's.
As for the Rovers - again at least one of them lived in the museum & was displayed in our MotorSport section - at one time one of the cars was sat between the ex Graham Hill BRM P578, the F1 world championship winning car, and an ex Nigel Mansell F1 Lotus 92, chassis 5, which was resplendent in JPS colours.
The BRM was the first F1 I drove with the second being the Lotus!!!
Good days were those when you could simply pick up the phone & ask Siverstone if we could bring some cars along to play with on the GP circuit!
We retained a couple of the Rovers, we ran two team cars in 80 & 81 for Rex Greenslade, Rad Dougall, Brian Muir & a couple of other drivers, whilst the other cars were, I think, retained by Martin Thomas at SRG once the race contract expired so both of the cars out on Sunday might well have been original cars.
Saloon car racing at its best!!!!
I have got some videos of the Bugatti's lining up and launching from the start.
Favorite car of the day for me had to be the BRM with standing/up pipes, not the fastest but boy, what a sound!
Here's the video of the Bug's as taken from above the pits....enjoy!:
View My Video
Matt
I actually think it depends on how old you are as to which cars you remember. I wouldn't say "Camaro" but I would have said, Rover SD1, Capri, RX7, Alfa GTV6 and Dolomite.
There is no doubt that the RX7 participation in the British Saloon Car Championship was possibly down to some odd interpretation of the rules by TWR (not for the first or last time) that they clearly got away with.
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