THE FESTIVAL OF SPEED or GLORIOUS GOODWOOD
I’m still having a problem making my pictures show since I changed to Word 2000 and XP - so there aren’t any!
I was very lucky to have been invited to take part at this year’s festival not least because, as it turned out, all three days had the benefit of (you can tell I am slipping into Estate Agenteeze, b*gg*r house hunting) the most fantastic sunny weather. Richard Drewett had phoned me last year about a special class for British Hill Climb Cars and would I bring the ex-Phil Scragg HWM Jaguar. It didn’t happen then, but 2003 was the year.
Apart from the scorching weather
there are other snippets to share with fellow Topsters who may not have
invested four days to do four minutes competitive motoring.
The Man in the White Suit (both day and DJ) no not Alec Guinness but the Earl of March, puts on a fantastic show and is rewarded by the biggest gate of any British motoring event (including this year’s GP). Where else could you see three GT40 Fords (they could have been GTDs) suspended nearly vertically on twin towers being sprayed with water and (nice touch this) with their wipers on!
It is above all a place for celebrity spotting, but—what do you say to them? Formula one, film and pop stars past and present signed their autographs on the hundred yard fence rail designed for the purpose, whilst us unsung heroes trod the red carpet which ran up the middle to the excellent free trough sponsored by Dunhill.
My favourite memory will be that moment in the top paddock when two of the hillclimb greats of the past arrived slightly hot and bothered at the top in the same cars they had used in the sixties and were parked next to each other; Tony Marsh seeing his old adversary Peter Westbury struggling to get out of the cockpit of the Felday Daimler offered to give him a hand out even though he was plainly trying to work out a way of extricating himself from the 4-wheel drive March Buick!
Where else could I have been in an assembly paddock with a V16 BRM, Vanwall, V12 Dino, V12 250F and a Mercedes W154? Stranger than this was being entertained there by very good replicas of Laurel and Hardy when there was an hour’s delay caused by the passing out of the Clerk of the Course or some admin lynchpin.
This Hollywood theme was developed in an amazing floorshow following an excellent dinner for 1000 people. Synchronised water fountains with coloured lights, fireworks, dancing girls, Busby Berkley routines and the Keystone Cops on a water screen in the middle of the proscenium arch. This was followed by ‘Chrissie Hine and The Pretenders’ for the young to dance to although I have to confess to not having heard of them before.
There were vehicles for all tastes. Mo bikes, Push bikes, sophisticated Soap Boxes , the Wacky Racers and the latest Super Cars.
The straw safety bales were repeatedly set on fire by the sparks flying out of the back of a wheely- performing Yank sedan as its rear fender dragged on the road, where was Auntie MSA and the thought police from the HSE? Elsewhere letting us all enjoy a damn good weekend out it would seem.
S.C.