Images courtesy of Goodwood
The Goodwood Members’ Meeting is firmly established as historic racing’s annual curtain-raiser. The exclusive event open primarily to Goodwood’s members boasts of its ability to recreate the race meetings held at the circuit in the 1950s and ‘60s. Yet the next Members’ Meeting taking place in the spring of 2019 will have something very different added, with raucous high-speed and high-noise American muscle from an on-track NASCAR demonstration. Goodwood organisers have confirmed that the demo will take place on the Goodwood Motor Circuit on both days of the 77th Members’ Meeting on April 6 and 7, and that more than a dozen NASCAR trucks and cars are expected to take part.
The stock cars will gather on the Goodwood grid before what organisers promise will be a “high-speed, high-volume” demonstration around the circuit. Contemporary NASCAR engines boast around 850bhp from 5.8-litre pushrod V8s, and can hit around 200mph in a straight line. “It certainly won’t be for the faint-hearted!” promised Goodwood’s motorsport content manager Matt Hearn of the demo. “I think for most fans NASCAR is all about the noise, and we will have that in abundance. The old-school pushrod V8 design is one of the greatest sounding engines of all time, and having over a dozen of them on track at once is sure to stop everyone in their tracks.”
NASCAR machines have made individual appearances at previous Members’ Meetings, most recently in Emanuele Pirro’s hands at the event earlier this year. But this will be the first occasion on which multiple examples of the wild vehicles will have assembled on-track. The NASCAR demonstration is in addition to two other high-speed demos already confirmed for the event that also promise to be exciting affairs–one of BMW M1 Procars and one for Le Mans Prototypes. The BMW M1 Procar parade marks the 40th anniversary of the first race of the unique championship in which F1 drivers in 1979 and ’80 took each other on in BMW M1 supercars–tuned up especially by Ron Dennis’s Project 4 team–as a support event at grand prix weekends. Niki Lauda and Nelson Piquet took the two Procar titles, though sadly the championship folded at the end of 1980 when BMW pulled its support.
Goodwood also confirmed its full 12-race programme for this latest Members’ Meeting, with three new races this time: the Betty Richmond Trophy, for Mini saloons and variants; the John Duff Trophy for pre-1930 vintage racers; and the Sheene Trophy for 750cc bikes. In addition the fan-favourite SF Edge Trophy for Edwardian Specials makes a return to the itinerary. Even with the NASCAR departure, the event should as ever provide plenty of close and evocative racing from cars and bikes representing a variety of eras. Tickets to the latest Members’ Meeting are available now to Goodwood Road Racing Club and Fellowship Members.
