Carnaby Street in the
60’s
Words and pics by Simon Panton
(www.simonpanton.co.uk)
British motor sport enthusiasts have a particular reason to
be grateful to the Second World War. The outbreak of peace left a
surplus of airfields and their perimeter roads just looking for
something useful to do. Part of the Goodwood Estate had been
commandeered by the War Department as an overflow airfield to RAF
Tangmere, becoming RAF Westhampnett for the duration. On 18th
September 1948, Lord Freddie March opened Goodwood Motor Circuit by
driving a lap in a borrowed Bristol 400.
Stirling’s
forgotten his helmet again!
Fifty years later to the minute, on 18th September 1998 his
grandson, Lord Charles March recreated the moment, again in a
borrowed 400. This time, as he completed the lap he found Ray Hanna
flying toward him in a Spitfire at “an altitude of nothing very
much”. At the time, I was standing alongside the pit straight, about
two meters above the track surface, when the Spitfire flew past with
the wing-tips at nose height, a couple of meters away from my face.
Not the kind of experience a boy forgets in a hurry. Apart from Ray
receiving a terrible telling-off from the authorities, that set the
tone for the future of the Revival Meeting. The circuit had been
restored to look as close as possible to its original format while
having been discretely bought up to FIA safety standards with
run-off areas and buried tyre-walls, but that was about the only
concession to the modern world. The meeting would only feature cars
which would have raced during the track’s original period of 1948 to
1966, and spectators would be encouraged to dress appropriately to
that period.
Mr Bean
This has led to a very strange, other-worldly,
theatrical atmosphere embracing the weekend. Dressing up and being
dropped into a make-believe setting seems to encourage old-fashioned
courtesy and manners among spectators, while racing also adopts
behaviour not seen in modern “sports”. Perhaps encouraged by the
absence, in many cases, of roll-over hoops or seatbelts, there won’t
be any deliberate crashes on lap 14. But make no mistake, this is
proper racing. The Mille Miglia might these days be a mere
procession of rich old people in valuable cars, but at Goodwood the
racing is hard but fair and you will see real damage to priceless
motors.
Lwt
E-Type and out of shape Ferrari
This year’s Revival meeting celebrated Sir Stirling Moss’s 80th
birthday. Stirling contested - and won - his first race, the day
after his 19th birthday, at Goodwood’s first ever meeting in 1948.
The circuit was also the scene of the accident that ended Moss’s
career in 1962 and left him in a coma for more than a month. Yet he
still considers the circuit to be his favourite for the atmosphere
it had in its original period and has again now.
The Freddie March Spirit of Aviation concourse was judged by guest
Buzz Aldrin, flown in on a Huey helicopter and transferred to a 1961
Indy 500 Pace Car T-Bird, to make his own speech in the Stirling
Moss tribute.
Jackie
Stewart in Prince Bira’s ERA Remus
St Mary’s Trophy, the ever-popular saloon car race alternating each
year between ‘fifties and ‘sixties cars, was this year for Minis
only, to mark the car’s 50th anniversary. The two-part race was
between ‘star’ drivers such as Jackie Oliver, Stefan Johanssen,
Rauno Aaltonen and Christian Horner (and most points in between),
for the first leg, followed by the cars’ owners for the second leg.
Another part of the Mini’s 50th birthday celebration was a parade of
Minis - Minisprints, Radfords and Wood & Picketts, the Outspan
Orange promotional vehicle, a Wildgoose camper and on and on.
Tragically, there was also the chronically unfunny Mr Bean’s Mini
being ‘driven’, we were supposed to believe, by Rowan Atkinson from
an armchair on top of the car (and not by somebody in the back seat,
disguised as a bucket, honest).
The RAC TT Celebration is another star-fest, featuring such drivers
as Marc Gene, Jean-Marc Gounon, Emanuele Pirro, Bobby Rahal, Danny
Sullivan… And the cars! The value of the 30-car grid must have
exceeded $100 million, including six E-Types including three
lightweights, five Ferrari SWBs (if you count the ex-Count Volpi
‘Breadvan’), and four GTOs, half a dozen Cobras…
The turnout of rare and staggeringly beautiful cars is stunning
every year, but there are only so many cars in the world appropriate
to the period and types of competition of the Revival Meeting. Every
year I expect to see nothing new and every year I’m surprised. Lotus
25 R4, for example, with which Jim Clark won his 1963 World
Championship with wins in Belgium, Holland, France, Britain, Mexico
and South Africa, raced for the first time in 40 years. Most
astonishing, for me, was a Ferrari 156 ‘Sharknose’, of which none
exist! This was a recreation, based on an original engine, transaxle
and other parts, of Olivier Gendebien’s chassis 0002, which ran for
the first time to spontaneous applause.
Each year I struggle with the dilemma - is it right to join in with
the dressing up and pretend it isn’t yet 1966? Shouldn’t a meeting
like this be able to stand on its own merits without such gimmicks?
And each year I go along with it, a little reluctantly, only to find
that it’s the most fabulous weekend of the year. The attention to
detail is meticulous, from the Walmington-On-Sea Home Guard platoon
from Dad’s Army to the Earl’s Court Motor Show, and from the
‘fifties garage workshops to bumping into Groucho Marx in the
paddock. Every year we meet people who clearly have never been to a
motor circuit before, with their wide-eyed children obviously
enchanted by the noise and the spectacle. If only a small fraction
of those people, or their children, are sufficiently bitten by the
bug to go racing again, then the theatre behind this meeting has
provided a valuable gateway. Motor racing needs more friends in
order to stand up to the ‘mentalists who consider our sport
wasteful, or polluting, or too loud as is happening at
Spa-Francorchamps at the moment. Welcome aboard, even if you do look
ridiculous in that hat.
(Thank you Simon for the detailed report on the Goodwood Revival. To
all our readers, think about next year’s.)
