The first Sunday in February found Commando and I leaving home at an ungodly hour to head to Goodwood Motor Circuit. We were off for a day at the races, but not in quite the way you would expect for such a famous venue. To most people, the name Goodwood conjures up race cars and chequered flags. The race track, on the picturesque Sussex Downs near Chichester, was the venue for Britain’s first post-war race meeting in September 1948. Graham Hill had his first single seat race on the course. In 1962, Stirling Moss ended his career at Goodwood when he crashed his Lotus during the Glover Trophy. Donald Campbell demonstrated his car, Bluebird here, in 1960 and 1962, before breaking the land speed record in it in 1964. We were at Goodwood for a race of a very different kind, though.
The race we’d come to Goodwood for was the Chichester 10k, an event that had nothing to do with internal combustion engines. As usual, I’d come alone to take photos and have a bit of a walk while Commando and his friends were running. As soon as we arrived, I could tell I was going to have an interesting time. The buildings were passed had an art déco feel about them and the whole place had a real wartime vibe. After all the research I’d been doing into this period, I felt right at home.
We parked up in what were once the old paddocks, found a spot sheltered from the biting morning wind and hunkered down to wait for Commando’s other friends to arrive. At this stage, I bitterly regretted my decision not to wear my Dry Robe. I was also itching to explore, but as I was supposed to be taking photos, I had to hang around until the race had started. As always, this involved a lot of standing around chatting about PBs and other running related subjects.
Finally, the runners headed off to the start line, and I was free to go for a wander. Obviously, at this point I couldn’t go too far because I was duty bound to watch the race start and see if I could spot Commando or any of his friends amongst the crowds. While I was looking for a good spot to do this, I stumbled upon a table full of medals. They looked so much like chocolate coins it made my mouth water. Breakfast felt like a distant memory.
Briefly, I considered climbing to the spectator stands on the roof of the pit lane building to watch the race start, but on balance, I thought I’d have more chance of seeing Commando in the crowd from the pit lane. With six hundred and seventy odd runners hoping to bag a 2023 PB on the fast, flat Chichester 10k course, seeing him at all would not be easy. I walked along the pit lane until I found a spot with a view of the start line. I hoped the runners would have spread out by the time they reached me, and I’d spot Commando, even if I didn’t manage to take his photo. As it happened, I did both. Now I was free to wander for about forty minutes, give or take.
Racing at Goodwood began with Frederick Charles Gordon Lennox, the 9th Duke of Richmond, Lennox and Aubigny and the 4th Duke of Gordon. Freddie was born on 5 February 1904 and educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford. His interest in engineering led him to take up an apprenticeship with Bentley Motors under the assumed name, Freddie March, and in 1929, he began a motor racing career, taking part in the JCC High Speed Trial. In 1930, he won the Brooklands 500 Miles as a member of the Austin team, and in 1931, he created his own team of MG Midgets and won the Brooklands Double Twelve race. In 1935, he inherited the Goodwood Estate and horse racing course. Horse racing wasn’t really Freddie’s thing, but in 1936, he hosted a hill climb meeting for a small group of Lancia enthusiasts.
Unfortunately, the Second World War put an end to motor racing, and forced the Brooklands racing circuit to close in 1939. Freddie March was also a keen aviator. He designed and flew his own aircraft and served with the RAF during the war. During the Battle of Britain, they used land on his Goodwood Estate as an emergency landing airfield for fighter aircraft, and as a satellite station to RAF Tangmere. It was called RAF Westhampnett. Although the land had been taken over by the RAF, Freddie kept the title deed. After the war, Tony Gaze, an Australian fighter pilot, suggested to Freddie that the airfield would be ideal for motor racing. The rest is, as they say, history. It also explains why many of the buildings have a distinctly WW2 RAF feel about them.
The runners disappeared into the distance, and with no real idea where I was going or what I might expect to see, I wandered off. Not long after I’d passed the Race Control Building, I Spotted an odd-looking caravan. It put me in mind of a basic gypsy vardo, so I went for a closer look. Behind the caravan, a jet of water drew my attention to what looked like a small pond. Right when I was thinking of going closer, a car appeared and I realised the pond was actually a kind of skid pan and the car driver was practicing on it.
The 1948 opening of the Circuit was met with a rapturous response, as the British public had been deprived of motor racing the Second World War forced Brooklands to close its doors in 1939. The huge demand for wheel-to-wheel competition saw 85 drivers and over 15,00 spectators turning up to Goodwood on 18th September 1948 to support the UK’s first professionally-organised post-war motor racing event.
Nestled at the foot of the Sussex Downs, the track is the only classic circuit in the world to remain entirely in its original form, after being lovingly restored. Home of the world-famous Goodwood Revival and Members’ Meeting, Goodwood Motor Circuit combines all the nostalgia of the golden era of motorsport with the modern technology of today.
Two years later Goodwood Motor Circuit opened for its first race, replacing Brooklands as the home of the British Automobile Racing Club. With some of the Surrey circuit’s atmosphere, Goodwood was more like a road course than an airfield venue, and the traditional Easter Monday meeting became the annual highlight. However, the Duke closed the circuit in 1966 due to safety concerns although it continued to be used for testing. Goodwood was the site of Stirling Moss’s career-ending crash in 1962, as well as the testing accident that claimed the life of Bruce McLaren in 1970.
In 1998, five years after launching the Festival of Speed hillclimb in the grounds of nearby Goodwood House, the Earl of March reopened the circuit for the historic Revival meeting. The event has proved an unreserved success, as past heroes mix with current stars in a paddock that resembles a television period drama. Goodwood’s outright race-lap record of 1m20.4 (jointly held by Jim Clark and Jackie Stewart since the last F1 race in 1965) fell when the Revival hosted 3-litre F1 cars for the first time in 1999.
This building’s art deco frontage is the replica of the Earls Court Motor Show exhibition area where the 1950s motor show was held, promising to display ‘cars of the future’ inside. It was unveiled at the 2008 Goodwood Revival.
