Goodwood is a one-of-a-kind estate. From horse racing to cricket matches and a luxury hotel to the Rolls-Royce factory, Goodwood House has a lot happening within its boundaries. But it's the excitement and drama surrounding the annual Festival of Speed that has given it enduring fame and glory. The event owes its founding as well as its success to Charles Henry Gordon-Lennox, Earl of March and Kinrara, or Lord March as he's commonly known.
His passion for motorsport began at a very early age. And no wonder it did, as he had the singular opportunity of growing up seeing great drivers like Stirling Moss, Jim Clark and Graham Hill driving around his grandfather's backyard, and later joining them at the family table for dinner. Lord March's grandfather, Freddie March, the ninth Duke of Richmond, started off as an apprentice at Bentley Motors, but went on to become a reputed racing driver and aircraft pilot. The racing history of Goodwood began when in the summer of 1936, Freddie March held a private hill climb event for the Lancia Motor Club. He won the race, and started building a race track along the perimeter road around the Royal Air Force's Westhampnett airfield, which was within his estate compound. He completed the track in 1948 and officially opened it with a race meeting on September 18, which saw Stirling Moss win in the 500cc class. It started gaining popularity, especially with the nine-hour endurance races that were held there starting in 1952.
After the accident in 1962 at the circuit's St Mary's Corner that put an end to Moss' international career, there were calls to add chicanes to curb the high speeds of modern cars. But Freddie March wouldn't want his track any other way, and in 1966 after 18 years of racing competitions the original Goodwood track was closed down. Lord March, who was just 11 years old then, was sad but helpless, and he was determined to renew the spirit of those glory days when he could. And he did.
In 1993, after he took over the estate from his father, Lord March held the first Festival of Speed in his front yard. He was expecting a couple of thousand of enthusiasts, but 25,000 turned up, and the event went on to become one of the world's most popular motoring meets. The fact that he was forced to cap attendance at 150,000 is evidence to the sheer extent of its popularity.
Then in 1998, half a century after his grandfather opened the original circuit, Lord March reopened the track with the Goodwood Revival, which is an annual gathering of cars and motorcycles that used to race during the circuit's original lifetime: 1948 to 1966. The two events bring in hundreds of thousands of petrolheads to these hallowed grounds every year.
