Race against Time: A Photographic Homage to Historic Motor Racing
April 23, 2020
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This story was originally published in Populous Magazine, our biannual publication featuring news and trends from the worlds of sport, entertainment, and major public events. Find out more, and sign up to receive a free copy, here.
Historic motor sport is enjoying a second golden age. Fuelled by nostalgia, a thriving market in classic vehicles and a frustration with the predictability of series such as Formula One and NASCAR, there are now period races staged at famous venues all over the world, featuring original vehicles free of modern modifications.
Among many others, there is the Le Mans Classic and the Grand Prix de Monaco Historique, both in France; the Monterey Historic, the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion, and the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix, all in the United States; the Nurburgring Classic in Germany; the VARAC Vintage Grand Prix in Canada; and the Silverstone Classic, the Goodwood Festival of Speed and the Goodwood Revival, all in the UK.
The latter, which is staged over three days every September at Goodwood Circuit, 60 miles south of London, is arguably the most famous historic motor sport festival of all. It first started back in 1998 and has grown in popularity so that, now, around 150,000 people show up annually, many sporting both cars and costumes dating back to the circuit’s original heyday – the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.
Here we pay tribute to this unashamed celebration of motor racing’s mid-century golden age.
The Goodwood Festival of Speed in Sussex is indeed the finest classic car event in the world. It has the atmosphere of a garden fete with strawberries and cream whilst famous racers from the history of motorsport thrash and scream up the hillclimb in their original, priceless racing cars. In one year I saw Michelle Mouton in her 1980’s Audi Quattro, various Formula 1 cars and even Chitty Chitty Bang Bang appeared.