The Goodwood Members' Meeting forms the thematic middle ground between the Revival and the Festival of Speed: new cars are not permitted, but at the same time, historic attire is not compulsory. What's more, the motorsport Members' Meeting is far older than the other two events. On October 16 and 17, 2021, victories were fought for for the 78th time in a small circle on the Goodwood Circuit.
Wild pack
After the McLaren and Jaguar demo runs and the qualifying rounds, the race weekend got off to a cracking start at 15:15 on Saturday. In the first two rounds of the "Gerry Marshall Trophy", Group 1 touring cars from 1970 to 1982 battled it out as they once did in the BTCC. With 30 cars per race on the 3.8-kilometer circuit, things got pretty tight.
Minis battled with Camaros, Ford Fiestas with Ford Mustangs. A pack of 15 Ford Capris took on their old rivals Rover 3500 and Triumph Dolomite Sprint. Tom Shepard drove his VW Scirocco GTI 20 meters on two wheels after a collision with the outer mound. Jim Morris won the first race in the number 44 Volkswagen Golf GTI ahead of Rupert Deeth in the Mini 1275 GT. The second race went to Jack Tetley in the 1978 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 ahead of Jake Hill in the blue Gitanes-Capri, who secured victory in the final on Sunday.
Saturday's spectacle
The touring cars were followed by the "S. F. Trophy" with racing cars built up to 1923, which was just as spectacular thanks to a brief rain shower. Hughie Walker consistently drifted his 1913 Theophile Schneider Aero and won ahead of Julian Majzub in the 1916 Sunbeam "Indianapolis". In the second race on Sunday, Ben Collings in the 1909 Blitzen-Benz snatched victory away from Walker at the finish line.
Saturday ended with the American touring cars of the "Pierpoint Cup", which drove off into the sunset with a V8 roar. The only safety car phase of the day was caused by Emanuele Pirro, who put his 1964 Ford Falcon on its roof in the battle for third position. Victory went to Adrian Willmott and Andrew Jordan, who were able to defeat the superiority of the 14 Ford Mustangs and six Ford Falcons in their Studebaker Lark Daytona 500.
Motorcycles on two and four wheels
Race Sunday began with the main Ford-powered Formula Junior cars up to 1964, followed by the only motorcycle race of the weekend: The "Hailwood Trophy" pitted racing machines from the seventies and early eighties against each other.
They were followed by the "motorcycles with four tires": the Formula 3 cars with a displacement of up to 0.5 liters, almost all of which were powered by English moped engines.
Once pre-war, four times post-war
Bugatti Type 35, Alfa Romeo 8C and Bentley 4 1/2 Litre met in the "Earl Howe Trophy" for racing cars up to 1932, which Lukas Halusa won in the 1927 Bugatti with the number 1.
The post-war racing and sports cars were divided into four classes. Probably none of them was as clearly dominated as the "Gurney Cup" for sports prototypes of the sixties, in which three Ford GT40s finished on the podium.
Demo drives to commemorate
Away from the races, Bruno Senna did a few demonstration laps in his uncle's 1992 McLaren MP4-7A. His winning car from the 1975 German Grand Prix, a Brabham BT44B, was used to commemorate the recently deceased Carlos Reutemann.
This year's edition showed once again that the Members' Meeting is the essence of Goodwood: neither the Revival nor the Festival of Speed offer such unfiltered historic motorsport with exciting two- and three-car battles without much of a supporting program - in the spirit of the old club races. The next Members' Meeting is now less than six months away. Edition 79 will take place as usual in spring: on April 9 and 10, 2022
You can read all the results of the races and the rally sprint stages of the Goodwood Members' Meeting 2021 here .
