The best of times
Goodwood hosted its first race 75 years ago and ushered in an era of incredible action before going into hibernation in 1966. Here Paul Fearnley nominates the pick of those early races which defined the circuit
Behind the wheel, from left:
Alan Brown, Eric Brandon, Juan Manuel Fangio and Mike Hawthorn at Goodwood, 1952
1952 Lavant Cup
April 14
Reigning Formula 1 world champion Juan Manuel Fangio was coming to Goodwood – as was his good mate José Froilán González, thrilling winner for Ferrari of the previous year’s British Grand Prix at Silverstone. That a young man from Farnham, Surrey was about to race against these Argentine supermen in the third Cooper-Bristol built was but a footnote. Yet he and it would steal the headlines.
Mike Hawthorn’s impressive performances at Goodwood and elsewhere during 1951 in pre-war Riley sports cars fastidiously tuned by his father had piqued the interest of aficionados – John Cooper, for instance, was happy to have him drive one of his new Formula 2 single-seaters – but what happened next came as a complete surprise to everyone.
Having grabbed but a half hour’s kip after working through the night cutting new valve-seats, it dawned on Hawthorn that his brief test of an unfamiliar car had eschewed a standing start. So he held its throttle steady rather than blip it and trusted to luck – plus a slug of nitromethane! He won this F2 six-lapper by 21sec, ahead of the first and second Cooper-Bristols built.
Better was to come on this day – he beat Fangio’s (misfiring) sister car in scoring a second victory, and chased the much more powerful Ferrari of González to finish runner-up in the meeting’s big race – the Richmond Trophy. Hawthorn's star quality had by then been established.