All or nothing....Usually the Goodwood main events, namely the
Festival of Speed at Goodwood House and the Revival on the
racing circuit, are known to be the biggest crowd pullers of the
entire classic car season with well over 150000 visitors attending.
Numbers that seem to be from a different era when looking at the
events in the times of Covid-19. This year most of the events had
to be cancelled, be it concours events or trade shows whereas
some race meetings happened with exclusion of the public.
Certainly it was a strange feeling entering the circuit in the morning after not spending time in the inevitable
traffic jam surrounding Chichester even well before the gates open, then seeing the paddocks lacking the
usual spectators surrounding the most interesting cars, but the most difference was out at the track without
any grandstands and without people setting up their chairs at the fences to watch the races while doing their
picnic. Looking down the main straight not a single person aside the marshals could be seen as most of the
mechanics or drivers gathered in the chicane during their time off. Although the great atmosphere of the
Revival with the thousands of period dresses and the numerous activities off track were missed the racing
itself was as great as ever showing that the fast Goodwood circuit is perfect for close entertaining racing in
the various classes.
As usual the St. Mary’s Trophy, the RAC TT and different parade laps attracted a lot of great race drivers from
different eras including the Formula 1 champions Sir Jackie Stewart and Damon Hill, large parts of the
successful Audi Le Mans Squadra with Emanuele Pirro, Tom Kristensen and Marco Werner as well as
André Lotterer, the Indy Champion Dario Franchitti alongside his brother Marino and countless others.
More successful at La Sarthe was Porsche who’s first Le Mans victory was celebrated this year with the 50th
anniversary of the 1970 success of the 917. The winning Porsche Salzburg livered car that won the Hampton
Court concours a few weeks earlier could be seen as well as one of only 4 cars to win Le Mans twice, the
yellow New Man livered Porsche 956B. The link between the previous Jaguar parade and the Porsches was
the Porsche WSC-95, a modified Jaguar XJR-14 chassis ran with a Porsche engine entered by Joest racing
who also entered the formerly mentioned 956B.
But not only cars were featured, as usual there is always an honoured driver at the Revival and it is no
surprise that this year was dedicated to the great Stirling Moss who passed away earlier this year. Most
likely a much larger tribute with a lot of his cars would have happened at the Revival but the circumstances
made it a rather intimate but not less emotional tribute. Goodwood was very much the home of Sir Stirling
starting his first races in a Cooper there as well as ending his career with the crash in the 1962 Glover Trophy.
Ever since the first Revival Stirling was attending the Goodwood events and even 6 decades after his epic win
at the Mille Miglia Moss was still a crowds favourite. In honour of the legendary British driver who won in
numerous categories ranging from single seaters, touring, sports and GT cars the final race on Saturday for
GT racers of the Moss era pre 1963 was named the Stirling Moss Memorial Trophy. Right before the start of
the race into the dusk his blue Rob Walker entered Ferrari 250 GT SWB (today owned by Ross Brawn) was
set up on the starting line with his helmet on the bonnet just like Sir Stirling was about to enter the car and
drive into the sunset.
After a touching speech from the Earl of March remembering his great career Marc Knopfler performed the
guitar theme of the movie “Local Hero” called “Coming Home”, a very appropriate choice for the relation of Sir
Stirling to Goodwood.
So after three days of racing and entertaining one has to come to the conclusion that Goodwood can deliver
exciting racing even in these times, the prestige of the main events like the RAC TT Trophy is even without
public enough to bring in all the big names and historic racers to the fast circuit. But attending the weekend
made it clear that the Revival is far more than racing and that this can only be a temporary solution to get over
the time. Not only is the atmosphere missing but also the financial task of organizing an event of this size is
not possible without the ticket sale in the usual number. So one can not only wish all the spectators that they
will only miss one edition this year and that the Earl of March can welcome them back next year to keep the
biggest and probably best classic car event in the calendar alive for the years to come.
Lotterer had his big moment winning the last race of the weekend, the prestigious RAC TT teamed up with
Frederic Wakeman in the Lister Costin Jaguar.
Stewart and Hill could be seen in the Formula 1 demonstration laps including the modern hybrid 2017
AMG-Mercedes or the double diffuser Brawn GP that gave Jenson Button his championship. Further
highlights were the last V12 championship winning McLaren-Honda MP4/6 of the late Ayrton Senna or the
sleek Brabham-BMW BT52, the first turbocharged F1 to win a F1 title. Following the steps of his father the
car was driven by Nelson´s son Pedro Piquet.
But not only F1 cars were featured but also the endurance racers from Tom Walkinshaw with the whole
line-up of the SilkCut Jaguar Group C racers that gave Walkinshaw two Le Mans victories. Now 30 years after
the final one the cars took the Goodwood circuit under their wheels.
But the FoS and the Revival are far more than just cars racing against the clock at the hill climb or against
each other on track, both events certainly depend very much on the public, the Revival even more than the
FoS. So it was no surprise that both of them as well as the Members Meeting in March had to be cancelled
early on making it impossible to be held in their usual form, but the team of the Earl of March came up with
an idea to keep Goodwood in this year’s calendar. So the idea of the SpeedWeek was born, a combination of
the two main events held on the race track in mid-October including many of the known races from the Revival
and the Members Meeting like the RAC TT Trophy or the Single seater races pre- and post-war, the Touring
cars at the St. Mary’s Trophy or the Gerry Marshall Trophy as well as the public favourite, the SF Edge
Trophy for the big aero engined racers from the beginning of the 20th century.
Being an online live stream event without public this also gave new opportunities that would not be possible
with thousands of fans on the old track, so elements of the hill climb with the shoot-out were added targeting
the track record with Formula 1 cars and endurance racers that never took the track under their tires before.
Add the popular drift challenge and the rally stage plus a few high speed demonstrations and you have a very
entertaining weekend, both for the drivers who are eager to have some fast laps in their car this year and the
spectators at home sitting at their computers enjoying a cup of coffee or a glass of wine watching the action
and dreaming of better times.
