Future Lab is Goodwood's innovation pavilion, inspiring industry enthusiasts and future scientists with dynamic tech
Legend of Goodwood's golden racing era and Le Mans winner Roy Salvadori once famously said "give me Goodwood on a summer's day and you can forget the rest".
The first ever horsebox was used from Goodwood to Doncaster for the 1836 St. Leger. Elis arrived fresh and easily won his owner a £12k bet.
King Edward VII (who came almost every year) famously dubbed Glorious Goodwood “a garden party with racing tacked on”.
We have been host to many incredible film crews using Goodwood as a backdrop for shows like Downton Abbey, Hollywood Blockbusters like Venom: let there be Carnage and the Man from U.N.C.L.E.
Testament to the 19th-century fascination with ancient Egypt and decorative opulence. The room is richly detailed with gilded cartouches, sphinxes, birds and crocodiles.
After a fire in 1791 at Richmond House in Whitehall, London, James Wyatt added two great wings to showcase the saved collection at Goodwood. To give unity to the two new wings, Wyatt added copper-domed turrets framing each façade.
Built in 1787 by celebrated architect James Wyatt to house the third Duke of Richmond’s prized fox hounds, The Kennels was known as one of the most luxurious dog houses in the world!
The Motor Circuit was known as RAF Westhampnett, active from 1940 to 1946 as a Battle of Britain station.
Each room has it's own button to ring for James (your butler) whenever and whatever you need him for.
FOS Favourite Mad Mike Whiddett can be caught melting tyres in his incredible collection of cars (and trucks) up the hillclimb
Sir Stirling Moss was one of the founding patrons of the Festival of Speed, and a regular competitor at the Revival.
Future Lab is Goodwood's innovation pavilion, inspiring industry enthusiasts and future scientists with dynamic tech
Festival of Speed is our longest-standing Motorsport event, starting in 1993 when it opened to 25,00 people. We were expecting 2000!
FOS Favourite Mad Mike Whiddett can be caught melting tyres in his incredible collection of cars (and trucks) up the hillclimb
Nick Heidfelds 1999 (41.6s) hillclimb record was beaten after Max Chilton in his McMurtry Spéirling fan car tore it to shreds at 39.08s in 2022!
King Edward VII (who came almost every year) famously dubbed Glorious Goodwood “a garden party with racing tacked on”.
The first public race meeting took place in 1802 and, through the nineteenth century, ‘Glorious Goodwood,’ as the press named it, became a highlight of the summer season
Leading women of business, sport, fashion and media, take part in one of the most exciting horseracing events in the world.
One Summer, King Edward VII turned his back on the traditional morning suit, and donned a linen suit and Panama hat. Thus the Glorious Goodwood trend was born.
Leading women of business, sport, fashion and media, take part in one of the most exciting horseracing events in the world.
Whoa Simon! A horse so determined and headstrong, he not only won the 1883 Goodwood Cup by 20 lengths, but couldn't be stopped and carried on running over the top of Trundle hill
Ray Hanna famously flew straight down Goodwood’s pit straight below the height of the grandstands at the first Revival in 1998
The Motor Circuit was known as RAF Westhampnett, active from 1940 to 1946 as a Battle of Britain station.
Flying training began at Goodwood in 1940 when pilots were taught operational flying techniques in Hurricanes and Spitfires.
One of the greatest golfers of all time, James Braid designed Goodwood’s iconic Downland course, opened in 1914.
One of the greatest golfers of all time, James Braid designed Goodwood’s iconic Downland course, opened in 1914.
The first ever round of golf played at Goodwood was in 1914 when the 6th Duke of Richmond opened the course on the Downs above Goodwood House.
One of the greatest golfers of all time, James Braid designed Goodwood’s iconic Downland course, opened in 1914.
The iconic spitfire covered almost 43,000 kilometres and visited over 20 countries on its epic journey and currently resides at our Aerodrome.
The iconic spitfire covered almost 43,000 kilometres and visited over 20 countries on its epic journey and currently resides at our Aerodrome.
The Gordon Tartan has been worn by the Dukes and Duchesses over the last 300 years.
Ensure you take a little time out together to pause and take in the celebration of all the hard work you put in will be a treasured memory.
The first ever round of golf played at Goodwood was in 1914 when the 6th Duke of Richmond opened the course on the Downs above Goodwood House.
The iconic spitfire covered almost 43,000 kilometres and visited over 20 countries on its epic journey and currently resides at our Aerodrome.
As the private clubhouse for all of the Estate’s sporting and social members, it offers personal service and a relaxed atmosphere
Whoa Simon! A horse so determined and headstrong, he not only won the 1883 Goodwood Cup by 20 lengths, but couldn't be stopped and carried on running over the top of Trundle hill
Testament to the 19th-century fascination with ancient Egypt and decorative opulence. The room is richly detailed with gilded cartouches, sphinxes, birds and crocodiles.
The Motor Circuit was known as RAF Westhampnett, active from 1940 to 1946 as a Battle of Britain station.
Easy boy! The charismatic Farnham Flyer loved to celebrate every win with a pint of beer. His Boxer dog, Grogger, did too and had a tendancy to steal sips straight from the glass.
The iconic spitfire covered almost 43,000 kilometres and visited over 20 countries on its epic journey and currently resides at our Aerodrome.
Goodwood’s pigs are a mix of two rare breeds (Gloucester Old Spots and Saddlebacks) plus the Large White Boar.
The famous fighter ace, who flew his last sortie from Goodwood Aerodrome, formerly RAF Westhampnett has a statue in his honor within the airfield.
He partnered James Hunt, mentored Michael Schumacher, and survived two horrendous crashes. Jochen Mass, Captain of Darnley at this year’s Members’ Meeting, looks back on the highs and lows of life in the fast lane
Words by Rob Widdows
Magazine
Cars
Jochen Mass at the 1977 Argentine Grand Prix
“I was flying through the air and then I hit the ground violently and my car caught fire. I remember all these pictures of my life passing in slow motion… my little boys… it was beautiful. My wife was watching on TV at the time and the commentator said, ‘He’s dead. He couldn’t survive a crash like that. He was a nice guy…’ and all that.”
But Jochen Mass did survive to tell the tale, many tales, of a career that brought victory in Formula 1 and at Le Mans, and a World Sportscar Championship. Now “Hermann the German”, as his mechanics at McLaren called him, has swapped his fireproofs for the blue and white striped blazer of a House Captain at the Goodwood Members’ Meeting.
Jochen is Captain of Darnley, one of four “houses” that compete for points both on and off the circuit at Goodwood’s traditional spring meeting. In a pastiche of the English public school system, each house has a team of both drivers and spectators, who win points through race results and via an eclectic range of field sports as disparate as football and welly-boot throwing. Darnley has yet to win the coveted House Shield.
James [Hunt] was a wild man and we did some crazy things together, but I never understood the superstar thing... I had the natural talent
“My role is to lead my team, to encourage them in their sports and then to try and win points for the house myself when I’m racing. I love the Members’ Meeting because the fans are at the very heart of it – there’s an intimacy that’s missing from most motor events these days. They want to be in the house with the best cars and drivers. They like to play the game. So while I do my best in the cars, I urge them on to win the tug-of-war, or the egg-and-spoon. It’s competitive, naturally, because all four captains are racing drivers, past or present.”
Jochen had no big ambition to be a racing driver. As a boy, he dreamed of going to sea and joined the Merchant Navy. Coming ashore, he caught sight of a hillclimb near his home in Bavaria, and was captivated by the speed of the cars flashing through the forest. Sails were about to give way to wheels.
At the 1976 German Grand Prix
I had been so damn lucky. I walked away from those big accidents unscathed, but it was time to get out. There was nothing for me in Formula 1 any more.
“I had always loved sailing – being at one with the boat and the ocean – and when I got myself into a Grand Prix car I found it gave me a similar feeling. When you race you become one with the car, the instruments, the steering wheel and, just like sailing a boat, you’ve got to be in control of both yourself and the car too. You’re in your own world, at peace in a strange way…”
Jochen’s career was a rollercoaster, filled with extreme highs and lows. At McLaren he partnered with James Hunt during a purple patch for the team, and the two of them played as hard as they raced. “James was a wild man and we did some crazy things together, but I never understood the superstar thing. He was a masterful driver, but I had the natural talent, and I knew I was as fast as him… so when he beat me I began to realise the team was favouring him with better equipment. Maybe I was too laid-back; I should have been a bit tougher.”
It was with McLaren that Jochen took his only F1 victory, in Spain in 1975 – but his win was bittersweet. “It was such a very sad day. I won the Grand Prix but Rolf Stommelen was killed when his rear wing broke and his car went flying over the barriers, killing five spectators as well. The race was stopped. We had all been worried about track safety because the barriers had not been properly mounted the day before and we weren’t sure they had been fixed overnight. We threatened a boycott, but we raced, and then this tragedy happened. I didn’t want to win like that.”
At that time, triumph and tragedy so often went hand in hand in a sport that was both glamorous and dangerous. In 1982 Jochen decided that he had had enough, having survived a horrendous crash in Belgium in which his friend Gilles Villeneuve lost his life. Then two months later in France, he had the miracle escape to which he refers at the beginning of our story.
“I had been so damn lucky. I walked away from those big accidents unscathed, but it was time to get out. There was nothing for me in Formula 1 any more.”
Related Reading
Mass at the wheel of a silver Mercedes at 2016's Members' Meeting
Having stepped away, Jochen went on to forge a hugely successful career in sports cars. He won all the blue riband races at Daytona, Sebring, Spa, the fearsome Nürburgring and most famously the 24 Hours of Le Mans with the Sauber Mercedes team where he mentored a young man called Michael Schumacher.
“I couldn’t teach him to go faster,” recalls Mass. “He was fast already. Sometimes I was quicker, and that really annoyed him, but it’s because I was stronger – the car was tough to steer sometimes, so you needed to have the muscles. That’s when he began the training regime that made him the fittest driver in Formula 1. He was a very special driver, meticulous, and hell-bent on getting the maximum out of the car. I would say, ‘Michael, the car is good. Leave it alone,’ but he’d always say that we could do more. It was obvious to me that he was someone very special.”
Perhaps it might seem strange that in an interview about himself, Mass is far more comfortable discussing the lives of other racing greats than his own, but it’s what you might expect from this particularly modest man. Happiest on the deck of his wooden sailing boat, he has lived his racing dreams to the full, made his name in motorsport history, and today, the Captain of Darnley remains one of Goodwood’s best-loved racers.
Goodwood Members’ Meeting took place on March 17-18 2018. For information, visit Goodwood.com/membersmeeting or call us on 01243 755055
This article is taken from the Goodwood magazine, Spring 2018 issue
Magazine
Cars