Goodwood 9 Hours, August 1953; the race was won by Reg Parnell and Eric Thompson in an Aston Martin DB3S
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The closure of Goodwood motor circuit in 1966 marked the end of an era. Since 1948 this classic track had been perceived as the spiritual home of British motor racing, famously hosting Formula 1 on Easter Monday and historic races such as the Tourist Trophy, the Glover Trophy and the Goodwood 9 Hours. Like Silverstone this was a circuit laid out on a former wartime aerodrome. Unlike Silverstone, Goodwood was privately owned, by the 9th Duke of Richmond, part of whose estate had been requisitioned by the RAF in World War II as a base for Spitfires on the south coast.
A passionate car enthusiast, Bentley apprentice and driver for the MG team, the Duke was better known as ‘Freddie March’ who’d won the Brooklands Double Twelve for MG in 1931 and who held a hillclimb for the Lancia Car Club in 1936 on what is now the track for the Festival of Speed.
It was former Spitfire pilot Tony Gaze who inspired the Duke – who became the president of the BARC – to create a circuit using the perimeter roads of the aerodrome. So it was that on September 18, 1948 a huge crowd came to Sussex, keen to embrace another opportunity to go racing so soon after the war. The new circuit used 2.4 miles of roads, challenging drivers with fast, sweeping corners, undulations and a straight with a kink that led to Woodcote Corner, a fast right-hander before the pits.
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Goodwood would continue to test even the greatest drivers, demanding precision. In 1951 the Duke, concerned about the speed of cars passing the unprotected pitlane, was encouraged to add a chicane after Woodcote and this became a place where a lot of time could be won, or lost.
A race meeting was also a social occasion, the place to be and be seen, men dressing in their finest tweeds and trilbies, women in furs and colourful frocks. Jacket and tie were required in the paddock.
“Give me Goodwood on a summer’s day,” said regular winner Roy Salvadori, “and you can keep the rest of the world.” At Easter meetings the Duke would invite the top drivers to a party at Goodwood House on Saturday night, a gesture from a man who loved his racing and would watch from his little caravan by the chicane. “We loved going to Goodwood,” said Stirling Moss. “It was special – not just a great circuit but a unique and special weekend in the calendar.”
In 1966, with the advent of 3-litre F1 cars, the Duke became concerned about safety and closed the track for racing. Jim Clark and Jackie Stewart remain as joint lap record holders from the Easter meeting in 1965.
Goodwood was not lost for ever. In 1998 the circuit came alive with the Goodwood Revival, created by Freddie March’s grandson Charles March who had inherited a passion for racing. It had been his dream to restore the circuit for historic racing.
GOODWOOD
IN USE 1948-1966
FASTEST F1 RACE LAP 1min 20.4sec, Jackie Stewart, BRM P261, Jim Clark, Lotus 25, Sunday Mirror Trophy, 1965
