The great and good of historic racing will descend on Goodwood Motor Circuit this weekend for its first major event of the year.
Across a packed schedule of races and demonstrations, featuring cars (and motorcycles) that cater to every taste, the Members' Meeting promises a superb spectacle at the classic West Sussex venue.
Here are Autosport's top picks for what to watch ahead of the big event.
1. Can-Am thunder forecast
The Canadian-American Challenge Series – known universally as Can-Am – was a no-holds-barred big-buck sportscar championship that reigned from 1966 until 1974. John Surtees won the inaugural title in his Lola T70 Spyder. Four years of McLaren domination followed – poignantly with Bruce McLaren himself and fellow Kiwi Denny Hulme – before Porsche and Shadow prevailed.
Lola T70s pepper Sunday’s Surtees Trophy prototype encounter, but significant later cars are corralled in daily Can-Am demos. The Hepworth team’s thuggish BRM-Chevrolet P154 and P167, Ferrari 712P, Lola T160 and T222, March 717, McLaren M6Bs, M8s and M20, plus a pair of Porsche 917/30s retrace history, but the Shadows will wow onlookers.
Not previously seen together in Britain, Don Nichols’s AVS cars – from the wacky 1969 Mk1s to the ultimate DN4 of 1974 – have been shipped from the US by Jim Bartel and Kirt Bennett to be fielded by Kyle Tilley of ERA Motorsport, based in Indianapolis and Wiltshire. Fifty years after he won the final pukka Can-Am crown, Jackie Oliver drives his DN4, while Tom Kristensen samples its evolution.
2. Group 1 touring cars on the Spice route
Rumbling V8 Chevrolet Camaro, Ford Boss Mustangs and Rover SD1s, and wailing Ford Capri V6s go head-to-head in the two-part Group 1 fest, remembering seemingly omnipresent Blue Oval rep Gordon Spice. Saturday evening’s 45-minute double-driver ‘pro-am’ pitches star drivers and owners into battle. Owners return for Sunday’s sprint race.
The Ford V8 ante has been raised, with four-time BTCC champion Ash Sutton sharing Craig Davies’s Mustang, and Fred Shepherd partnering his father Bill. General Motors has Dario Franchitti/James Cottingham in David Clark’s Camaro, facing Tom Kristensen/Jack Tetley and Marino Franchitti/Oliver Bryant, plus Gordon Shedden and Andy Priaulx in more roaring Z28s.
Tom Ingram/Michael Whitaker, Jamie Chadwick/Nick Sleep, David Brabham/John Saunders and Alex Brundle/Myles Poulton head the Rover line-up. Jake Hill/Ric Wood, Rob Huff/Richard Meins, Darren Turner/Mike Whitaker, Emanuele Pirro/Charlie March and Guy and Peter Smith uphold Spice honour in the Capris.
Trying to get among them will be rising star Seb Priaulx – making his Goodwood debut – sharing Alex Taylor’s Mazda RX-7.
3. F3 screamers celebrate diamond jubilee
Five-time Le Mans winner Derek Bell won his debut race at Goodwood in a Lotus 7 in 1964, and F3 races in Lotus 31 and 41 in 1965 and 1966 respectively. The local ace’s name graces the event, which opens the 60th anniversary 1000cc F3 ‘screamer’ season in style.
Hot favourite is pro GT racer Michael O’Brien, who saddles father Mike’s newly restored Titan Mk3. He takes on previous winner Andrew Hibberd and Dan Eagling (Brabham BT18s), Jon Milicevic (BT21), Richard Trott (BT28), Jeremy Timms (Chevron B15) and Peter de la Roche (Alexis Mk17).
Heading a strong continental contingent are Frenchmen Francois Derossi (Chevron B17) and Thomas Jamin (March 703), Italy’s Enrico Spaggiari (ex-John Miles Lotus 41X), Swede Leif Bosson (Brabham BT28) and Switzerland’s Austin Widmer (De Sanctis F3 69). Less well-known is Ludovic Ingwiler in a French Pygmee.
The real dark horse will be outright lap record holder – in a Can-Am Lola T70 – and FIA Historic F1 champion Nick Padmore who, while he has not raced these cars, will surely be on the pace in Ian Bankhurst’s ex-Terry Ogilvie-Hardy Alexis Mk8.
4. Gerhard Berger in Barnard's F1 Ferrari 640
Thirty-five years after he raced the car for Ferrari during the 1989 F1 season, the first of the post-1500cc turbo era, Austrian Gerhard Berger – now 64 and a Goodwood regular – will be reunited with his 640 in daily demonstrations on the 2.4-mile circuit.
Designed by Briton John Barnard, mastermind at Ferrari’s Guildford Technical Office (GTO), the original blueprint had to be reconfigured around Ferrari’s 3.5-litre V12 engine for the new regulations after delays developing its advanced semi-automatic paddleshift transmission.
Berger’s team-mate Nigel Mansell won the world championship opener in Brazil, but the result flattered to deceive. Eight races elapsed before Mansell added the Hungarian GP to his CV but, after a spate of unreliability, Berger triumphed in Portugal, the fifth of 10 career F1 victories.
The super-sleek Ferrari’s progress will be traced around Goodwood by the magnificently shrill note of its power unit, which made a decent, though not world-leading, 660bhp in its heyday. McLaren-Honda’s Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna won 10 of the 16 rounds to finish 1-2.
5. Brawn vs finesse in Surtees sportscar pageant
Seven years have flown by since the passing of John Surtees, who was a wonderful supporter of Goodwood’s early new-era events. Two decades after he had called time on his frontline driving career, the 1964 F1 champion’s sublime skills in Ferraris are a legacy treasured still by those who missed his heyday.
A lightweight 1500cc GP car and a hulking Can-Am Lola T70 are a world apart, yet Surtees mastered both, just as he had switched between 250cc, 350cc and 500cc motorcycles previously. The sportscar race in his name spans big V8s and two-litre Group 4 cars in a catchweight sprint. It could go either way.
While the T70s, McLaren M1s and Ford GT40s have the grunt for the long blasts, they are heavy. The 575kg Chevron GTs (B6 and B8s) weigh two-thirds as much, yet their BMW M10 engines make half the power of the best Chevrolets. The ‘Bolton Wanderers’ change direction better and carry more speed through the corners, and Andrew Kirkaldy and Ben Mitchell will put up a good fight.
Watch for the Marina Rolls-Royce, Crossle-Oldsmobile 5S and Attila-Chevrolet among the oddballs.
6. Sidecar aces bring new motorcycle action
World champion drivers and passengers on state-of-the-art machinery bring an exciting taste of the 150mph FIM Sidecar World Championship to Goodwood motor circuit for the first time in the form of a shootout sprint competition brought together by eight-time champion Tim Reeves.
Kentishman Reeves and Mark Wilkes, with whom he won his most recent crown in 2019, are competing on a German-made Adolf RS, powered by a 600cc Yamaha R6 engine. Current double champions Todd Ellis from Lincolnshire and French partner Emanuelle Clement are the couple to beat on their Swiss Louis Christen Racing Yamaha.
Nottinghamshire’s Ben Birchall, who won four world titles with brother Tom between 2009 and 2018, is also in the fray with Frenchman Kevin Rousseau in the chair of his LCR, powered by a Honda CBR600 engine.
The teams will acclimatise to the circuit on Saturday, then take part in a knockout tournament on Sunday morning from which the quickest two will progress to the afternoon’s final. The world sidecar championship was first run in 1949 – the year after Goodwood opened – when Eric Oliver and Denis ‘Jenks’ Jenkinson emerged victorious.
7. Centenarian bolides guarantee thrillers
With every car in the field well over 100 years old, the twin Edwardian contests named for intrepid motoring pioneer Selwyn Francis Edge – one each day – are invariably among the most exciting of the weekend.
As ever, father-and-son Mark and Hughie Walker are at the centre of the action in mighty 1905 Darracq 200hp and 1914 Delage GP Voiturette respectively, but will it will be Julian Majzub’s turn to triumph in his svelte 1916 Sunbeam Indianapolis?
An earlier Indy car – Ivan Dutton’s 1913 Peugeot with Tom Wood up – and Ben Collings in the 1907 Mercedes 120hp won’t be far from the front, but Duncan Pittaway’s fire-breathing 1911 FIAT S76 – aka ‘The Beast of Turin’ – will be the fans’ favourite.
Intriguing aero-engined hybrids include Matt Johnston’s 1913 Curtis OX-powered De Dion Bouton and Francois van der Straten Ponthoz’s Theophile Schneider of similar vintage. Andrew Howe-Davies brings his 1911 SCAT Targa Florio and 1914 Straker Squire TT Racer for Tim Greenhill. Towering over all but the FIAT will be the 1906 Bianchi of Wriggly Monkey Brewery proprietor Luke Roberts.
8. Ken Miles remembered in Mustang Sally
Expat Briton Ken Miles’s technical genius and Carroll Shelby’s business acumen built the Shelby American enterprise into one of the most powerful forces on the world stage in 1959 Le Mans victor Shelby’s post-driving days. Miles was a prolific race winner in the Cobras, Mustangs and Ford GT40s he developed during the 1960s.
Sunday’s Miles-named 45-minute two-driver race is for Mustang notchbacks, and the entry list reads like a touring car encyclopedia. Quadruple BTCC champion Ash Sutton – the reigning title winner – can expect to lock horns with Tom Ingram, Jake Hill, Josh Cook and Adam Morgan of his current rivals, plus returnee Rob Huff.
Triple world champion Andy Priaulx and fellow veterans Matt Neal, Andrew Jordan, Anthony Reid and Steve Soper are in there too, with Le Mans winners Tom Kristensen, Emanuele Pirro, Neel Jani, Jochen Mass and David Brabham, whose father Jack raced a Mustang in the mid-1960s.
Fratelli Franchitti – Dario and Marino – join the star-studded cast with triple W Series champion Jamie Chadwick on her Goodwood debut, as is Audi legend Mike Rockenfeller. Watch too for the spectacular Kevin Abbring and Stig Blomqvist (still quick at 77) as the thunder unfolds.
9. Williams race marks Bugatti T35 anniversaries
Ninety-five years – to the day – after Anglo-Frenchman William Grover ‘Williams’ won the inaugural Monaco GP in his British Racing Green Bugatti Type 35B, no fewer than 18 T35s celebrate the centenary of the introduction of Ettore Bugatti’s iconic series of cars as the Grover Williams Trophy turns the circuit mainly French blue.
Veteran Bugattiste Julian Majzub, versatile historic racer Mike Wrigley and Bo Williams saddle T35Bs, but face the more powerful T51s of marque specialist Tim Dutton and Matt Walton in Sunday’s race for Grand Prix cars of the 1920s.
The entry showcases the evolution of the cars, powered by straight-eight engines in both naturally aspirated and supercharged forms. Standing out from the set of 35, A, B, C and T models will be the sunshine yellow 35C of Channel Islander Jonathan Bailey, equally adept in a modern Nissan Skyline GT-R.
It’s not all Bugs though, for Chris Mann’s 1924 Alfa Romeo RLTF, Tim Crighton in Samik Mukherjee’s Frazer Nash, the Aston Martins of Jonathan Lupton (Team Car) and Marian Stoch (International) and John Polson’s Talbot AO90 square up to the Molsheim machines, bringing period correct opposition.
10. Collins Trophy mirrors early BARC MM races
The 71 British Automobile Racing Club’s Members’ Meetings run between 1949 and 1966, certainly in the early years, were focused on facilitating racing for enthusiasts with suitable sportscars. The Second World War had left the British Isles littered with redundant aerodromes such as RAF Westhampnett (Goodwood), ripe for repurposing as race tracks.
As the pastime became more popular and accessible, the size and breadth of fields grew. Sunday’s Peter Collins Trophy entry most closely resembles that of pre-1953 period events, with a fine mix of road-legal production cars and sports-racers. Aside from Maserati, Ferrari and Alfa Romeo exotica, Jaguar C and D-types and fast HWM-Jaguar and Cooper-Jaguar T33, there are Frazer Nashes (Le Mans Replicas and Mille Miglia) and Cooper-Bristol.
Sam Wilson is likely to humble potent opposition in the Cooper-Zephyr. Goodwood ace Gary Pearson will do likewise in a Mistral-bodied Jaguar XK120. The Cadillac V8-engined Allard J2s will take some beating, but nobody will have more fun than American returnee Ernie Nagamatsu in his faithful steed, Old Yeller II, originated by west coast special builder Max Balchowsky.
