One of the most adventurous members of the Grand Prix Drivers Club Comite d’Honneur is his Grace the Duke of Richmond and Gordon who created the Goodwood Festival of Speed and then the Goodwood Revival at the Goodwood racing circuit in the South of England.
With Covid 19 placing a damper on most motor sport events Charles, the Duke, decided to create a new event called the Goodwood Speedweek that took place last weekend.
The event was run with only a handful of spectators but thanks to Channel 4 in the UK and YouTube on the internet it was available to watch on television. For those who missed it look up YouTube for a flavour of the racing.
There is no doubt Goodwood truly attracts the stars and the Grand Prix Drivers Club was well represented.
Our President, Emanuele Pirro as usual ran in the greatest number of races and had some interesting results. He finished second in the Gerry Marshall Trophy race sharing a Chevrolet Camaro, then moved to a 1957 Aston Martin DB3S to take 10th in the Lavant Cup, 7th in the St Mary’s Trophy in an Alfa Romeo GTA but retired in the TT Celebration race in Halusa’s Lightweight E type Jaguar.
Mark Blundell was also in action and was 16th in the Marshall Saloon race in a Ford Fiesta, retired in the Stirling Moss Memorial Trophy race in an E type Jaguar where member Dario Franchitti was 4th with a Ferrari 250GT Short Wheelbase.
Blundell had his best finish in the St Mary’s Trophy race for saloons with 4th place in a Lotus Cortina. This race had the largest contingent of members with Pirro 7 th, David Brabham 8th (Lotus Cortina), Tiff Needell 13th in a Mark II Jaguar saloon, Jochen Mass 15th in an Alfa Romeo GTA and Richard Attwood 18th in a BMW 1800.
One of our newest members Karun Chandok sadly had to retire in that race.
The TT Celebration Race also saw Dario Franchitti finish 9th in Shaun Lynn’s AC Cobra Daytona Coupe, David Brabham 17th with a Lotus Elan, Jochen Mass 18th with an E type Jaguar and Richard Attwood 20th with a Porsche 904GTS.
Such is the interest by GPDC members in the Goodwood historic racing events perhaps the Duke of Richmond could persuade some of the regular competitors to loan enough cars to have a special race next year solely for Grand Prix Drivers Club members which would bring a real bit of nostalgia.
Graham Gauld