Three spitfires evoking vivid memories of WWII when Great Britain stood alone soared and dived through sombre grey skies over the Sussex countryside.
Below and some sixty minutes later the evocative sound of their Rolls-Royce Merlin engines would have been blown away by the ear-splitting roar of vintage racing cars chasing around a circuit at speeds of over 100 mph an hour while the faint smell of exhaust fumes drifted in on the morning air.
Above and in the surrounding stadiums hundreds of enthusiastic spectators virtually all dressed in period costume from all walks of yesteryear life from the 1940s to the 1960s watched on.
WWII RAF officers rubbed shoulders with engine mechanics, land army girls and ladies all dressed up for a wartime dance in a town or village hall, while gents in smart suits, mingled with the crowds. There were not many children around, but my wife Jenny even spotted a baby in a vintage pram!
For this was the world-famous three-day Goodwood Revival Festival attend by motor racing enthusiasts from right across the country and overseas milling and flowing in good natured crowds around dozens of tented stalls, bars, and eateries below the towering stadiums.
While yesteryear cars including Jaguars, Ferraris, Maserati’s, Coopers, and many other iconic makes competed in a day long series of races, old tractors driven by men and women in brown capes towed hundreds of spectators around the outer perimeter of the 2.4-mile-long circuit in covered metal trailers so allowing access to all the surrounding grandstands.
And it was while Jenny and I and her motor racing enthusiast family were bumping along to the accompaniment of ear-splitting sounds from the circuit that I suddenly spotted a long neglected red brick pillbox complete with its gun slits.
For of course Goodwood was the site of a WWII airfield and it was the present Duke of Richmond’s grandfather and motor racing enthusiast Freddy March who created today’s circuit from its pillbox defended perimeter road.
On its opening in September 1948, Freddy sped around the circuit in a Bristol 400 to the delight of fifteen hundred spectators who had come to see Britain’s first professionally organised post-war motor racing event.
Across the way from the main grandstand and tented village of stalls I came upon a workshop set up by The Heritage Skills Academy, a truly inspirational trust.
Managing Director John Pitchforth (pictured) told how companies around the UK working in the Classic Vehicles Restoration Industry were failing to recruit young engineering apprentices because the current qualifications were not relevant to their business.
‘It very much looked as if our industry would fade away with no youngsters to carry on the tradition so that is why we launched the Heritage Skills Academy back in 2017 with eight apprentices from Rolls-Royce, P&A Wood and related companies spending twenty-eight weeks over three years training with us at our academy at Bicester Heritage and later also at Brooklands Museum,’ he explained.
‘We started in a small way, but now we have a hundred and sixty classic vehicle related companies from across the country signed up to the academy and around two hundred apprentices participating in our programme,’ said John.
Close by dozens of racegoers were gathered in a canopied Champagne Bar where luckily we spotted a couple just preparing to leave and managed to weave our way over to the vacated table before others had the same idea.
Sitting close by and dressed in their 1950s vintage finery I could not resist taking a picture of Maisi Crespo and her husband, Jeff Harvey-Wells from Chigwell, Essex, and their friends Danielle and Ross Mackenzie. Jeff who has been a member of Goodwood for ten years is pictured left with Maisi on his right.
A highlight of the festival was a daily tribute and celebration of the life of famous racing icon John Surtees. It was on the 19th of March 1960 that as a 26-year-old driver he entered his first car race at Goodwood.
Then with only four years of driving experience he did the unthinkable, winning the Formula 1 Drivers World Championship with Ferrari later becoming the only person ever to win world championships on two wheels and four.
Sunday and the final day of the three-day festival marked the 80th anniversary of the D Day landings and again brought to mind the part Goodwood had played in the invasion.
This was the celebrated circuit’s largest ever parade gathering of around one hundred and eighty WWII tanks, jeeps, trucks, half-track weapon carriers and amphibious vehicles.
Goodwood House was also to play its part being transformed into a hospital at the outbreak of war complete with wards and an operating theatre.
And back to the present it was interesting to hear the commentators announce that the 2024 Goodwood Revival was the world’s first historic motorsport event to be run on sustainable fuel with all competitors required to use a fuel with a minimum seventy per cent advanced sustainable components.
