Goodwood Revival – Test Day

They talk about Glorious Goodwood, but when they say that typically it’s the horse racing that they mean.

However, yesterday could equaly be described as Glorious Goodwood. The sun was shining, we were at the Goodwood Motor Racing Circuit as spectators for one of the Revival Weekend Test Days. We were surrounded by the sounds of hundreds, probably thousands, of horsepower. And instead of the smell of horse sweat and manure the smell of tyre smoke and racing fuel permeated the air.

Jon, my son-in-law, and I were here for the day. We really had no idea what to expect as this is not a public event. The Test Days are open, free of charge, to Goodwood Road Racing Club members. Much of the circuit is a construction site as the preparations proceed for the Revival weekend.

There were cars on the track but no schedule of events. No racing per se but tell that to a racing driver who is trying wring every last ounce of performance out of his car.

So, we arrived on circuit at around 09:45 and as there were cars already out on track we headed via the tunnel to the pit lane area where we could get an overview of the track.

We were just in time for the end of a session as we could see the red flag out and cars were being directed into the paddock area.

As we could see that cars were queuing in the pit lane for the next session we went for a closer look.

The beauty of days like these test days is that you can get up close with the cars, the drivers and their support teams.

Also, behind the pit lane area are the paddocks where the cars are prepared before heading out onto the track. This are will be filled to capacity over the revival weekend but for our visit there were only a few cars in residence.

From the paddock we headed across to the other side of the track to get a different perspective on the action.

By way of a change we were treated to a few open wheeled racers.

As this was only a test day we had been prewarned that there could be interruptions to proceedings, that certain areas of the circuit may be out of bounds due to construction activities.

And so it was that the track was shut down while a crane was brought out to lift some framework for one of the stands. Though this didn’t stop all activity as the next two pictures show. The lead car, with the hatch open, had a video film camerman sitting in the back, filming the following cars.

Once the cranework was completed the track was reopened and we were back to the action.

These remaining photos were taken from either opposite to the pit exit or from above the pit lane buildings.

Well I hope I didn’t bore you to death with this post and all my snaps. If you got this far, thanks for sticking with me.

The thing that always amazes me is that the owners of these cars, worth millions of pounds, allow them to be raced. And believe me the drivers don’t hold back.