Goodwood will celebrate the 90th anniversary of one of the most successful racing cars of all time, the Bugatti Type 35, with a special one-make race at the 72nd Members’ Meeting, scheduled for 29-30 March 2014 at the Goodwood Motor Circuit in West Sussex, England.
Goodwood expects the grid of more than 30 Bugatti race cars will set the world record. It is believed the current record turn-out for a grid of pre-war Bugattis was a race for fewer than 20 cars held earlier in 2013.The prospect of up to 30 Bugatti T35s in competition at the 72nd Members’ Meeting (with variations on the theme including T51s, T54s and T59s) is therefore guaranteed to whet the appetites of Bugatti marque enthusiasts and race fans alike.
Introduced at the 1924 French Grand Prix, the Type 35 is widely believed to have won in excess of 1000 races, and inspired a generation of successful Bugattis. The 2014 Goodwood Members’ Meeting grid will feature many cars raced in-period by star names such as Amhurst Villiers, Raymond Mays, Raymond Sommer, Louis Chiron, Achille Varzi, Robert Benoist, Jean-Pierre Wimille, Anne Itier, Albert Divo, Rene Dreyfus and of course William ‘Grover’ Williams.
The Grover-Williams Trophy race at Goodwood is named in honour of war hero and famed Bugatti racer William Charles Frederick Grover-Williams who is remembered for his victories in the 1928-29 French Grands Prix, and for winning the inaugural Monaco Grand Prix in 1929 aboard his British Racing Green Type 35. During World War II he was recruited into the SOE and was executed in Berlin in 1945, a matter of weeks before the end of hostilities.
For more information on the 72nd Members’ Meeting, visit Goodwood Members’ Meeting.
[Source: Goodwood]
There were 34 Bugattis entered in one race at Monterey in 2010. Thirty of them started the race.
Vince Howlett, Victoria, BC, Canada