77th Members Meeting - Goodwood 2019

Racing returned to West Sussex in early April for the 77th Goodwood Members’ Meeting, the historic motorsport calendar’s spectacular season-opener. The 77th edition delivered on all fronts. And the organisers’ decision to shift the date of the Members’ Meeting a little further back paid dividends – the blizzards and sub-zero temperatures of the ‘Beast from the East’ that paid an unwelcome visit to last year’s event were but a distant memory. In fact, the spring sunshine shone virtually all weekend.

DK as ever made sure to be part of this magnificent event. At this year’s event there was a demo for modern high-downforce Le Mans Prototypes, which drove into the darkness on Saturday evening and again at lunch time on Sunday. Among them was the nine-time Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen, who climbed back behind the wheel of the Bentley Speed 8 in which he won his fourth Le Mans in 2003. In this, Bentley’s centenary year, it was a very special moment indeed. Our three time Le Mans entrant and Judd V10 engined Dallara SP1 took part in this, being driven by our friend and co-owner max Girardo. This was the first time it has been seen in its earliest period livery which it wore as a Works Oreca, sponsored by Playstation. Needless to say the Dallara was the best sounding car of the weekend!

James Cottingham shared the Ferrari 250GTO/64 of Piet Roelofs with Nick Pastorelli in the Graham Hill Trophy and they placed third, a commendable effort given the calibre of other machinery on the grid. Jon Minshaw and Phil Keen claimed honours in the 45-minute thrash for closed-cockpit GT cars that raced up to 1966. Victory, however, was far from assured. Mike Whittaker and BTCC old boy Mike Jordan had dominated the race in their TVR Griffith until they were obliged to pit late in the day to fix the car’s exhaust which was dragging along the asphalt.

On and off the track it was as ever a delight for DK to catch up with friends and clients alike. A must visit and a must take part in event for sure.