Goodwood Revival – Friday Visit

Martin Evening had received two tickets to the Goodwood Revival Meeting and I was joining him as his guest and doing the driving. The plan had been for me to drive to his home near Ashridge for five-forty-five, but rain-sodden roads, Friday morning traffic and my leaving slightly late meant I was later than planned. The trip down was uneventful and typical of a Friday morning, and as we travelled down the A3 nearer to our destination, it was obvious from the vehicle types in the traffic that many were heading for the same destination.

On arrival our first port of call was the Old Control Tower as Lord March’s guests, where we enjoyed a welcome cup of tea. Several of the staff there in the caravan and upstairs had been there last year, and some even remembered us; all were very welcoming. We had both been wearing hats as part of our costumes, but having taken them off when we entered and not been hat-wearers by nature, we both managed to leave without them! This only became apparent when it started to rain and we realised our slip-up.

We strolled among the throngs and by now we both had our cameras out, and Martin was keen to capture some of the exotic characters being portrayed as dancers, policemen, itinerant musicians, army, navy and airmen of British and American services. This year’s theme being Italian, meant Fiat 500s were in abundance, as were Italian beers and wines.

Martin tends to go for requesting his subjects to pose for him, whereas I prefer to be more discreet, as I feel it captures the subject’s imagination in acting their selected roles; so each to his own. I also have a greater affinity with the vehicles, having had thirty years as a motor racing marshal, so the challenge of capturing the cars on circuit was part of my aim. This meant we were not joined at the hip, and spent some of the time independently, then returning to the Control Tower for refreshments and chatting. On one of our return visits to the Old Control Tower, we met up with Lord March, who told us of a London exhibition of his work he was attending on Tuesday, and invited us to join him at the Private Viewing.

We had lunch downstairs later, and also took a walk to St. Mary’s corner, stopping off at various points to capture some of the cars in action, before taking a charabanc back to to main area. Whilst Martin took a wider walk around, I spent some time shooting cars at the Chicane, and was absolutely stunned by car 37 that looked like Al Capone’s and somewhat fragile, but deceived dramatically, as beyond all odds, it sped through the Chicane with seemingly no use of opposite lock - I am certain it was fastest in its category.

I met up with Simon Diffey after his session in car 22, but never found the other car he was driving in another class. Martin suggested we consider leaving before the end once I realised I was not going to be able to capture the second of Simon’s drives, and it proved to be fortuitous as just as we arrived back at the car, the heavens opened! The end of yet another splendid day at Goodwood despite the less than ideal weather.