78MM demos and rally sprint announced

Every year since the revival of the Goodwood Members’ Meetings each day has featured a series of demonstrations, from Formula 1 cars to touring cars, NASCAR to Le Mans prototypes. Each year these extra features are some of the most highly anticipated moments in the Goodwood year.

This year’s Members’ Meeting will feature some slight differences. Since 78MM has been delayed from its original date in March 2020 the anniversaries we will celebrate have changed, meaning some of the originally announced events have been modified.

First ever public Goodwood rally sprint

This year’s Members’ Meeting will feature the first publicly-attended rally sprint to be held by Goodwood at the Motor Circuit, presented by Cooper Tires. The event was originally announced to take place at the 78^th Members’ Meeting on its original date and was adapted for a debut at Goodwood SpeedWeek presented by Mastercard in October 2020. That event took over large parts of the Goodwood Motor Circuit both on track and on the perimeter roads, but in Autumn of 2020, no public crowds could attend.

For 78MM the Goodwood Super Special presented by Cooper Tires will utilise the circuit and some of the surrounding service roads to create a series of stages for a Rally Sprint. The stage will run twice in one direction on Saturday evening as night falls and twice in the other direction on Sunday morning, with the winner being the car and driver with the shortest aggregate time over all four stages.

We will reveal the entry list and the full stage routes a little closer to the event, but we can reveal that the stages will be run in two directions and will begin on the circuit, use the areas around the chicane paddock and circuit café before rejoining the track and racing around Woodcote.

Celebrating the Jaguar XJR-15

Goodwood will celebrate the awesome Jaguar XJR-15 at Members’ Meeting. This very limited production supercar was not just a brilliant and rare road machine but spawned its very own one-make racing series. 

Based in part on the Le Mans-winning XJR-9, the XJR-15 was possibly the ultimate road-going racing car of its era, with a 6.0-litre V12 under the rear deck powering the rear wheels through a five-speed manual (six for the racer) gearbox it wasn’t an easy machine to drive but with a limited production of 53, it has become an elusive and sought-after sight anywhere.

Very few races ever happened, but the drivers included David Brabham, Jim Richards, Davy Jones and Juan Manuel Fangio and the circuits were legendary, with Silverstone, Spa and even Monaco hosting races. The final round of the three at Spa also had a bumper prize, with $1million on offer to the winner.

Goodwood will bring together 12 or more of the original cars, a mixture of road and race cars, for one track demo each day. Each demonstration will last for 12 minutes of track action.

30 years since Ayrton Senna’s last title

A new addition to the lineup of demos will be our celebration of the career of Ayrton Senna. More details will be announced about this demonstration closer to the event, but it will feature both on and off-track displays of some of Ayrton Senna’s most iconic cars.

Already confirmed to be at the event are cars that Senna raced and tested from teams including McLaren, Brabham, Toleman, Lotus and even Williams. Keep an eye on GRR over the next few weeks for more information about the on and off-track activities.

If you’d like to find out more about the racing action at 78MM click here.

Photography courtesy of Motorsport Images and Joe Harding.