3 reasons the 81st Members’ Meeting has got us hyped for Revival | GRR
The 81st Members’ Meeting presented by Audrain Motorsport was seemingly over as soon as it began, the first Goodwood motorsport event of the year came and went in the blink of an eye, and yet the memories from a brilliant weekend remain firmly etched on our minds.
Gerhard Berger’s evocative drive in his 1989 Ferrari 640 sent senses into overdrive, the Can-Am demonstration was as savage and brutal as we hoped it would be, and the racing itself across the entire weekend provided a non-stop stream of unmissable action. It really did serve its purpose as the appetiser for what’s to come for the rest of 2024.
And with that, we look ahead to what’s to come over the next few months, when historic motorsport returns to the Goodwood Motor Circuit once again for the Revival in September.
The Goodwood Revival goes sustainable in 2024
Something which may have gone unnoticed unless you’d read about it beforehand, the all-Ford Mustang Ken Miles Cup was run on sustainable fuels at Members’ Meeting. From the outside at least, we were able to enjoy it every bit as much as we would have done were those 30-odd Mustangs burning the traditional stuff. The look, the sound and the smell were all as you might have expected. In fact, you’d have only realised they were running on sustainable fuel if you’d somehow stumbled across one at the designated fuel station.
Inadvertently, the Ken Miles Cup has acted as the perfect case study for the impending uptake of sustainable fuels for the entirety of the Revival. Almost every single car that takes to the circuit during the three-day event will be running on a sustainable fuel, and yet after the success of the Ken Miles Cup there appears to be no cause for concern.
The Revival is going to be the very same spectacle it has always been, except this time its future is more secure than ever.
Remembering the great John Surtees
There was one race in particular at the 81st Members’ Meeting that delivered a truly breathtaking contest, and that was the Surtees Trophy.
With a grid of cars that set the timing screens alight whenever they were on track, the McLarens, Lolas and Ford GTs that make up the majority of the entry list always make for box office viewing. But this year was different, as a pair of Chevron B8s surfaced as unlikely contenders for victory.
We have no doubts the man after whom the race was named would have been hugely impressed. Which is fitting, because one of the big stories at Revival this year will be the celebration of John Surtees, 60 years after he won the F1 world championship in 1964.
In the year when the great man would have turned 90 years old, a selection of his greatest machines, from motorcycles to sportscars and of course F1 racers, will be brought together at Goodwood for a special moment.
A stacked schedule of historic motorsport
There's plenty else besides the John Surtees celebration to get excited about, too. We’ve already announced the race list for the 2024 Goodwood Revival, with 15 races scheduled to take place over the three days.
We'll once again be treated to a host of cars that would have raced during the original Goodwood era that spanned from 1948-1966. Therefore, you can expect to see sportscars, grand prix cars, motorcycles, GT racers, prototypes and single seaters taking to the Motor Circuit and putting on one hell of a show.
If you enjoyed the E-Types and Cobras of the Graham Hill Trophy at this year's Members' Meeting, you'll want to come back for an even more impressive experience as the RAC TT Celebration ups the ante with the most spectacular race of the Goodwood motorsport season.
Fans of Formula 1 will perhaps be most interested in the Richmond & Gordon Trophies, which brings together a wonderful mix of front- and rear-engined F1 cars from the 1950s, the likes of which Juan-Manuel Fangio, Alberto Ascari and Mike Hawthorn would have driven in period.
The later 1960s racers of the Glover Trophy rekindle the memories of Jackie Stewart, Jim Clark, Graham Hill and more as the legends of Lotus and BRM were born.
The Goodwood Revival Early Bird offer ends on 30th April, buy your tickets before then to get the best possible prices. Saturday tickets are now sold out, click below to buy Friday and Sunday tickets.
Photography by Max Carter, Joe Harding and Toby Whales.