How a Maserati won Goodwood’s first F1 race

This September, exactly 78 years later, such a Maserati will still draw a crowd and inspire fresh gasps of admiration. These Italian racing cars with a trident badge remain a thing of wonder and beauty, which is why they’ll feature heavily at the 2026 Goodwood Revival via a Maserati vs. Ferrari ‘Battle of Modena’ in the Lavant Cup, fitting perfectly with our the wider ‘La Dolce Vita’ festivities.

The tough-nut Brit with a soft centre for Italy

The ‘Reg’ we’re referring to is of course Reg Parnell — a hardened British racer who had an all too obvious soft spot for Italian thoroughbreds. It was Parnell, the man who came to be known as the Emperor of Goodwood, who claimed the very first Formula 1 win at the Motor Circuit at the wheel of his Maserati on that historic opening day.

The Derbyshire garage and haulage business owner (not to mention pedigree pig farmer) had raced at Brooklands in the 1930s, but not always with distinction. Losing control of his MG Magnette at the Surrey speedbowl, he’d triggered a collision with the Austin of Kay Petre, which had left the respected female racer with serious head injuries. Parnell’s racing licence was revoked for two years, although it says much that Petre was an advocate on his behalf when he won it back. After Parnell finished second on his return to Brooklands, Petre was the first to congratulate him.

Parnell’s prime years for motor racing were lost to the war. His growing transport business thwarted his ambition to join the RAF by branding him with the status of a protected occupation, so instead he stockpiled racing cars made redundant by the hostilities. It’s said by the end of the war his collection had bulged to around 30.

Let off the leash in blessed peacetime, Parnell harvested his crop to finance the purchase of something special. A deal for an Alfa Romeo 158 ‘Alfetta’ didn’t quite come together, nor intriguingly did his hunt for a Mercedes W154. Instead, he settled for a sparklingly new and relatively state-of-the-art Maserati 4CLT/48 — the T standing for ‘Tubolare’ in reference to the model’s modern tubular chassis, which was both lighter and stiffer than its predecessor’s ladder frame.

Bristling with new coil suspension and a twin-supercharged 1.5-litre inline four-cylinder engine, Parnell might as well have been in a class of his own when he pitched up at Goodwood for the new airfield track’s maiden race meeting. There was nothing else anywhere near this sophisticated or glamorous on the entry list.

Gerard makes a race of it

“In beautiful if rather chilly weather, […] practice passed off smoothly for the first meeting at the Junior Car Club’s new road circuit at Goodwood,” reported Motor Sport’s Bill Boddy from that very first race meeting in September 1948.

The most striking performance of the day came from a precocious teenager, Stirling Moss, who dominated the 500cc junior race in some style. Meanwhile, in the last race of the day, the Goodwood Trophy, 38-year-old Parnell took those historic first F1 spoils. But not without a scrap offered up by a plucky British underdog.

Like Parnell, Bob Gerard had cut his racing teeth deep in the 1930s, and was now also making up for lost time in ERAs. He claimed a hat-trick of British Empire Trophy successes, conquered the Jersey Road Race in 1949 and in the same season only just missed out on a British Grand Prix win at Silverstone, to Emmanuel de Graffenried’s Maserati. At Goodwood’s opener, he’d given Parnell a serious run for his money, too.

Conducted over just five laps, Gerard shadowed Parnell all the way. “This was one of the best struggles seen in this country since the war,” gushed WB in Motor Sport. “Parnell’s new Maserati was a centre of pre-race attraction, attended by Mrs Petre and Charles Martin on the grid. Last minute air-pump trouble caused a sensation and sent ‘Wilky’ [Wilkinson, Parnell’s mechanic] hurrying for tools, but all was well.”

The start was enlivened by neither Parnell nor Gerard starting on the front row of the two-by-two grid. “They lined up, a brave splash of colour on the grey road, with Harrison’s ERA and Baring’s Maserati in front, Hampshire’s ERA beside Hamilton’s Maserati behind, then Gerard and Parnell, then Salvadori’s four-cylinder Maserati and Ansell’s ERA, with Walker alone at the back,” reported WB.

“As they left the start in a magnificently bunched turmoil Parnell nosed through, Geoffrey Ansell right beside him. Soon the red low-chassis Maserati was out ahead, but Hamilton was a close second.” Hampshire, Gerard, Salvadori and Harrison followed behind.

The estimated crowd of 25,000 was “on its toes by lap three,” by which time Gerard was through to second place, gaining on Parnell into the corners and chasing hard. “The Maserati drew away on acceleration, but not by very much,” wrote WB, “and if Parnell were ‘driving on his mirror’ he certainly displayed immense restraint.

“The same thing happened on lap four, the crowd yelling to Gerard and a great ripple of comment floating from the tightly packed enclosures as the two cars went out of sight. However, try as he might, Gerard just couldn’t do it, being a mere 0.4sec behind as they roared over the line – an immensely exciting race.”

The Maserati had prevailed at a speed of 80.56mph — but it was Gerard who claimed the fastest lap, at 1:42.8. The Goodwood Trophy had capped a landmark day for British motor racing. “The main thing […] is that Goodwood was a great success – we want more!” wrapped up an impressed WB.

Emperor of Goodwood

In those early years at Goodwood, Parnell proved near-impossible to beat following that memorable opener. In total, he claimed 15 race wins and a string of fastest laps, inspiring Autosport to crown him ‘Emperor of Goodwood’.

At the 1949 Easter Meeting, with a bumper 40,000-strong crowd causing a degree of chaos, Parnell started and won three races, setting a new lap record in his Maserati, then won twice more at the September meeting.

Parnell used the 4CLT/48 once again to win the 1951 Chichester Cup, although on the same day was beaten in a scratch race for the first time at Goodwood by Bira’s V12 OSCA. His last victories as a driver in Sussex came in 1954 in his own Ferrari 500, not long after which he stepped back from driving to become a respected team manager of the Aston Martin’s sportscar team that secured the World Sportscar Championship in 1959.

For Parnell, the first Emperor of Goodwood, no other venue for such glory could have been a better match.

Tickets for the 2026 Goodwood Revival are now on sale. If you’re not already part of the GRRC, you can sign up to the Fellowship today and save ten per cent on your 2026 tickets and grandstand passes, as well as enjoying a whole host of other on-event perks.

Main image courtesy of Getty Images.