"Leon711" (leon711)
01/23/2015 at 11:24 • Filed to: Goodwood, WWII
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"Leon711" (leon711)
01/23/2015 at 11:24 • Filed to: Goodwood, WWII | 4
| 4 |
Many of us here have heard of Goodwood Motor Circuit, but not many know of how Goodwood came into being. Since I am a native to the general area near goodwood I decided to try and learn more of the history and share it with you.
To find the origins of Goodwood Motor circuit we need to look east to the small village of Tangmere, West Sussex. Tangmere was selected as a location for one of the training bases for the short lived Royal Flying Corps (now the RAF), opened in 1917 it only operated for a brief period before being handed over to the US Army Air Corps for pilot training use in early 1918, after the armistice the base was then mothballed.
The reopening of the new RAF Tangmere happened in 1925 and No. 43 Squadron of the fleet air arm took up residence in 1926. By the late thirties the threat of war led to a large scale expansion of the base and commandeering of most of the village for billets and other administrative facilities (as well as demolishing the only hotel and several homes for a larger runway). Given the strategic importance of Tangmere's location in the South of England and the declaration of war with Germany, it was deemed necessary to construct satellite airfields to prepare for the very real eventuality that RAF Tangmere's runways would be bombed. One of these airfields was known as RAF Westhampnett, built on land in the Goodwood Estate.
Once the war had ended and the airfield was decommissioned, the land was given back to the Duke of Richmond, Frederick Charles Gordon-Lennox whom decided to create a multi purpose facility from the old wartime airfield. By the late forties RAF Westhampnett was opened to the public as Goodwood Motor Circuit and Aerodrome, both of which are still.in use today. The aerodrome utilises the grass runways from Westhampnett and is used for flight training and pleasure flights, the runway perimeter track was paved over to create the Goodwood Circuit and was home to the first professionally organised motor racing event since Brooklands closed in 1939.
The Duke created the Circuit to indulge in his passion for racing (having won the Brooklands Double 12 in 1930 under his preferred name Freddie March (another title of the Duke of Richmond is the Earl of March) and he is perhaps more well known for the March Racing cars and Aircraft, but that's another story for another time. The circuit ran major events up to 1966 when it was closed due to the owners refusal to add chicanes to slow cars down on safety grounds. in the years after its closure as an active race circuit it was used as a test track and made the news following the death of Bruce McLaren in a testing accident in his M8D, little else happened on the circuit for many years and decay had begun to set in.
in 1998 Freddie March's grandson, Charles Gordon-Lennox, the present Earl of March and Heir Apparent to the seat of Duke of Richmond embarked on an ambitious restoration of the circuit to its former glory and organised it's first event for 32 years, the Goodwood Revival. The Revival revisits the heyday of the circuit with period correct racers dueling on the circuit along with other period entertainment, it joined the Goodwood Estate's first modern event The Festival of Speed (held on the hillclimb outside Goodwood House) which was first held in 1993 and together they have become a huge part of modern car culture in the UK and both events are worth attending, you gotta go at least once before you die, ideally every year.
Leon711 is a 23 year old Mechanical Design Engineer with a keen interest in Automotive History, He is also not a writer and sometimes writes about himself in the third person. Please, If Leon has left anything out or you know something he doesn't feel free to chime in!
Images coutesy of GRRC, Tangmere Museum and Warfare Magazine
ACESandEIGHTS
> Leon711
01/23/2015 at 11:27 |
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Love that bottom photo. I keep "air captioning" it.
I say, chap, do give way, won't you?
Does this rotter think this is some kind of GAME?
Dear God, Jag-yoo-uh brakes, don't fail me now.
Chuck 2(O=[][]=O)2
> ACESandEIGHTS
01/23/2015 at 12:44 |
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"I wish this windscreen was 2 inches higher"
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ACESandEIGHTS
> Chuck 2(O=[][]=O)2
01/23/2015 at 13:25 |
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Ahhhh, that's an Eagle Speedster, right, with the shorter, sharper "windscreen" that's about as wide as a "window scraper"?
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Leon711
> ACESandEIGHTS
01/28/2015 at 10:12 |
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D-Type?