The pundits say every year that Lord Charles March won’t be able to repeat his motorized extravaganza of a garden party – and each year he manages to do it again.
This year’s list of competitors, whether racing seriously or just doing a “demo,” read like the “Who’s who” of motorsport: Danny Sullivan, Jack Brabham, Stirling Moss, Nino Vaccarella, Derek Bell, Dickie Attwood, Bobby Unser, David Coulthard, Juan Pablo Montoya, Damon Hill, Jackie Oliver, Eddie Irvine, Jean Ragnotti, Arturo Merzario, Jean Alesi, Rene Arnoux, Ricardo Patrese, Timo Makinen, Erik Carlsson, Darryl Waltrip, Junior Johnson, Niki Lauda, Chuck Daigh, Phil Hill, Jochen Mass, Sandro Munari, Bobby Rahal, Stefan Johansson, Luca Badoer, Alexander Wurz, Pedro de la Rosa… the list goes on and on.
With the emphasis on safety, in light of last year’s fatal accident, the Grand Prix teams were confined to showing off in demonstration runs, rather than racing, but they did a spectacular job of it. This meant the fight for fastest time of the weekend would go to a “proper” historic car. British hill climb veteran David Franklin drove Carlos Monteverde’s Ferrari 712 to a stunning overall win with a time of 48.26 seconds over the 1.16-mile course. When the final times were tabulated, Franklin was a full 8 seconds ahead of the next in his class, Dickie Attwood in a Porsche 917.
The only real challenge to the Ferrari came from an entirely different division – the group which paid tribute to 40 years of Brabham racecars. Rob Hall, in a Brabham-Cosworth BT37, was just a fraction slower than Franklin, but claimed top honors in the Brabham class and second place overall.
Some 24 different classes of vehicle ran up Lord March’s long driveway, and though many of these were parading rather than racing, the sheer range of cars on show was staggering. Simon Diffey won the “War of the Worlds-America vs. Europe – 1900-1905” class in a Mercedes 28/32 and then, a little while later, Juan Pablo Montoya was blasting past in the latest Williams-BMW. In between were prewar Le Mans legends, the Silver Arrows prewar Mercedes, Targa Florio and mountain championship contenders, and of course the Can-Am “Cannonballs.”
The Alfa Romeo Museum in Arese sent a staggering display of cars including a Disco Volante, the Grand Prix 158, a 6C3000CM, a 155 German Touring car and a 3-liter Tipo 33.
Not only does Goodwood pull in the stars and superb racing machinery, but the accompanying Cartier Style and Luxe Concours also featured a vast display of exotic machinery. This year’s concours included elegant Edwardian cars, aerodynamic rarities, British-built hot rods and 100 years of Mercedes’ finest vehicles. As if this wasn’t enough, there was also the second annual running of Goodwood’s soap box derby.
Well… we’ll say it again……..Lord March can’t beat this year. So what will happen in 2002?
Submitted by Ed McDonough
