Goodwood Circuit is a historic venue for both two- and four-wheeled motorsport in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...
. The circuit is situated near
Chichester
Chichester () is a cathedral city and civil parish in West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publishing Date:2009. It is the only ...
,
West Sussex
West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ...
, close to the south coast of England, on the estate of
Goodwood House
Goodwood House is a country house and estate covering in Westhampnett, Chichester, West Sussex, England and is the seat of the Duke of Richmond. The house was built in about 1600 and is a Grade I listed building.
Description
The house and it ...
, and completely encircles
Chichester/Goodwood Airport
Chichester/Goodwood Airport , normally referred to as Goodwood Airfield or Goodwood Aerodrome is located north northeast of Chichester, West Sussex, England.
Chichester (Goodwood) Aerodrome has a CAA Ordinary Licence (Number P781) that allo ...
. This is the racing circuit dating from 1948, not to be confused with the separate
hillclimb course located at Goodwood House and first used in 1936.
History 1948–1966
The racing circuit began life as the perimeter track of
RAF Westhampnett
Royal Air Force Westhampnett or more simply RAF Westhampnett is a former Royal Air Force satellite station, located in the village of Westhampnett near Chichester, in the English County of West Sussex.
It was built as an emergency landing ai ...
airfield, which was constructed during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
as a relief airfield for
RAF Tangmere.
The first race meeting took place on 18 September 1948, organised by the
Junior Car Club and sanctioned by the
Duke of Richmond and Gordon
The Dukedoms of Richmond (in the peerage of England) and of Lennox (in the peerage of Scotland) have usually been held by the same person since 1623. In 1675, King Charles II created his illegitimate son Charles Lennox Duke of Richmond (created ...
. The winner of the first race was P. de F. C. Pycroft, in his 2,664 c.c. Pycroft-Jaguar, at .
Stirling Moss won the 500cc race (later to become
Formula 3),
followed by
Eric Brandon and "Curly" Dryden, all in
Coopers.
Goodwood became famous for its
Glover Trophy The Glover Trophy, also known as the Richmond Trophy, was a non-championship Formula One motor race held in the spring at Goodwood, England from 1949 to 1965.
In the 1962 race, Stirling Moss, who had won the race on two previous occasions and ...
non-championship
Formula One
Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...
race, the Goodwood Nine Hours sports car endurance races run in 1952, 1953 and 1955, and the
Tourist Trophy sports car race, run here between 1958 and 1964. The cars that raced in those events can be seen recreating (in shorter form) the endurance races at the Goodwood Revival each year in the Sussex trophy and the Royal Automobile Club Tourist Trophy (RAC TT).
The original circuit layout featured a fast left-hand curve between the Woodcote corner and the start-finish line, with the pit lane on the infield side of the curve's exit.
Increasing car speeds made organisers aware of the dangers of a fast car losing control at this curve, and after
Giuseppe Farina won the 1951 Goodwood Trophy race in his
Alfa Romeo 159 at over , the curve was replaced with a
chicane
A chicane () is a serpentine curve in a road, added by design rather than dictated by geography. Chicanes add extra turns and are used both in motor racing and on roads and streets to slow traffic for safety. For example, one form of chicane is ...
in 1952. At first, the chicane was made using straw bales and boarding, before brick walls were constructed in 1953. Despite a number of accidents this brick chicane survived until the circuit's closure for racing in 1966, before it was rammed and destroyed in the mid-1970s by a transporter belonging to
Team Surtees
The Surtees Racing Organisation was a race team that spent nine seasons (1970 to 1978) as a constructor in Formula One, Formula 2, and Formula 5000.
History
The team was formed by John Surtees, a four-time 500cc motorcycle champion and the ...
that was leaving the circuit after a test session. When the circuit was restored in the late 1990s, the chicane was remade using polystyrene blocks.
Goodwood has, over the years, played host to many famous drivers:
Mike Hawthorn and
Graham Hill
Norman Graham Hill (15 February 1929 – 29 November 1975) was a British racing driver and team owner, who was the Formula One World Champion twice, winning in and as well as being runner up on three occasions (1963, 1964 and 1965). Despite ...
had their first single seat races here,
Roger Penske
Roger Searle Penske (born February 20, 1937) is an American businessman and entrepreneur involved in professional auto racing and a retired professional auto racing driver. He is most famous for his ownership of Team Penske, DJR Team Penske, ...
visited in 1963, and
Jim Clark and Jack Sears competed in 1964.
The accident that ended Stirling Moss's international career happened at St. Mary's in 1962.
Donald Campbell demonstrated his
Bluebird CN7 Land Speed Record
The land speed record (or absolute land speed record) is the highest speed achieved by a person using a vehicle on land. There is no single body for validation and regulation; in practice the Category C ("Special Vehicles") flying start regul ...
car at Goodwood in July 1960 at its initial public launch, and again in July 1962, before the car was shipped to Australia – where it finally broke the record in 1964. The car was a
Bristol Siddeley
Bristol Siddeley Engines Ltd (BSEL) was a British aero engine manufacturer. The company was formed in 1959 by a merger of Bristol Aero-Engines Limited and Armstrong Siddeley Motors Limited. In 1961 the company was expanded by the purchase of t ...
turbine-powered streamliner, with a theoretical top speed of . The laps of Goodwood were effectively at "tick-over" speed, because the car had only four degrees of steering lock, with a maximum of on the straight on one lap.
Goodwood saw its last race meeting for over 30 years in 1966, because the owners did not want to modify the track with more chicanes to control the increased speeds of modern racing cars. The last event of the era was a club meeting organised by the
British Automobile Racing Club on 2 July 1966. The lap record was a 1 minute and 20.4 seconds set by both Jackie Stewart and Jim Clark, in the 1965 Glover Trophy, the final formula one race at the circuit.
Goodwood Nine Hours
Testing
The circuit claimed the life of
McLaren founder
Bruce McLaren in a testing accident on 2 June 1970. The accident happened on Lavant Straight, when a rear bodywork failure on his
McLaren M8D Can-Am car caused it to spin and leave the track, hitting a bunker. The car would go on to win the opening event of that year's
Can-Am Championship.
Events
Goodwood is noted for its annual
Festival of Speed and
Goodwood Revival events.
Goodwood Festival of Speed
The Goodwood Festival of Speed is an annual hill climb, held in late June or early July not on the circuit, but in the nearby grounds of Goodwood House. It features historic and modern motor-racing vehicles. In 2010, the event had over 176,000 visitors over 4 days.
Goodwood Revival
Following the success of the Festival of Speed hill climb, racing returned to the Goodwood circuit in 1998.
The Goodwood Revival is a three-day festival held each September for the types of cars and motorcycles that would have competed during the circuit's original period, 1948–1966. Historic aircraft help to complete the vintage feel. In 2008, a crowd of 68,000 people attended the event on the main Sunday - 9,000 more than in 2007. The track is now used for classic races, track days, and try-out days. Nearly everyone dresses up in vintage outfit from mods and rockers to racing drivers and just smart period clothes.
Other events
In 2009, the
Mongol Rally
The Mongol Rally is an intercontinental Rallying, car rally that begins in Europe and ends in Ulan-Ude, Russia. The rally originally ended in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. However, to avoid punitive costs and taxes associated with vehicle imports and disp ...
, a charity fundraising car rally to
Mongolia
Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million ...
, moved its starting point from
Hyde Park, London
Hyde Park is a Grade I-listed major park in Westminster, Greater London, the largest of the four Royal Parks that form a chain from the entrance to Kensington Palace through Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park, via Hyde Park Corner and Gre ...
to Goodwood. Entrants are on show to the public in the paddock before beginning the rally with a parade lap of the circuit.
The National Finals of the
Greenpower schools electric car racing challenge takes place at Goodwood each year. The Greenpower challenge is a nationwide series of electric vehicle endurance races for schools, who build their own 24 volt single-seater racing cars. There is also a corporate version of the race, featuring teams like Lola,
Jaguar Land Rover,
Bentley Motors and
Prodrive.
The 'Breakfast Club' was introduced in March 2006. This is a semi regular free to enter, and open-to-all monthly gathering of drivers and riders who come to view each other's cars, bikes etc. Each meeting is themed with striking examples of the day’s theme paraded on the start finish straight.
The circuit also hosted the
1982 UCI Road World Championships
The 1982 UCI Road World Championships took place between 4-5 September 1982 in Goodwood, Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the la ...
for cycle racing, notable for the men's professional race, which saw a late breakaway by the American rider
Jacques Boyer being closed down by a pack led by Boyer's teammate (and future triple
Tour de France winner and double Road World Champion)
Greg LeMond.
The circuit was used as a filming location in the historical drama series ''
Downton Abbey''.
In May 2019 the track was added into
Gran Turismo Sport as a free update.
In 2020, due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
, the Festival of Speed, members and Revival meetings were cancelled and replaced by an event called Speedweek combining elements from all three events.
Race Lap Records
The all-time outright lap record is 1:09.914, set by Nick Padmore in an
Arrows A11, during the 2020 Goodwood Speedweek
timed shootout event. The fastest official race lap records at the Goodwood Circuit are listed as:
See also
*
Brighton Speed Trials
The Brighton Speed Trials, in full The Brighton National Speed Trials, is commonly held to be the oldest running motor race. The first race was held 19–22 July 1905 after Sir Harry Preston persuaded Brighton town council to tarmac the surface ...
*
British Automobile Racing Club
*
Firle Hill Climb
*
Gurston Down Motorsport Hillclimb
The Gurston Down Speed Hill Climb is a hillclimb in Broad Chalke, Wiltshire, England, organised by the South Western Centre of the British Automobile Racing Club. The first practice meeting was held on 25 June 1967, when Patsy Burt, driving a ...
*
Lewes Speed Trials
*
Thruxton Circuit in Thruxton, Hampshire
*
Brooklands
Brooklands was a motor racing circuit and aerodrome built near Weybridge in Surrey, England, United Kingdom. It opened in 1907 and was the world's first purpose-built 'banked' motor racing circuit as well as one of Britain's first airfields ...
circuit in Weybridge, Surrey
Notes
References
External links
Goodwood500 Owners AssociationGreenpower
{{BTCC Circuits
1948 establishments in the United Kingdom
FIA Grade 4 circuit
Goodwood estate
Motorsport venues in England
Sports venues in West Sussex