Jamie Chadwick loves getting her elbows out in a Ford Mustang

We caught up with her on Saturday afternoon, ahead of her first race of the weekend, to get some insight into the challenges of historic motorsport.

“I did a Spa six hours in 2019,” she told us. “That's the last time I actually drove a historic car. It's been something that I've done a little bit of and I've always enjoyed it. Fortunately, this has worked out really well, and I’m really happy to be here.”

It’s clear she lives and breathes motorsport; you get that sense that she would spend every moment of her life at the race track if she could. Being surrounded by cars, whether modern or historic, is dreamland for Jamie Chadwick.

“I’m loving it. [Goodwood] is such a special place. I’ve always looked at it and wanted to come and race here. It's great to tick that off this year and get that experience, and I'm lucky enough to do it in two great cars as well.”

Her first racing action of the weekend was in the Gordon Spice Trophy on Saturday evening, before that she had had a very limited opportunity to get up to speed, while also getting used to two very different beasts. But that, she said, only added to her enjoyment.

“You literally just jump in and go straight into qualifying. Blindfold off, go do your lap. Very different to anything I've done in that sense, but it is so cool.

“I did a brief test, but it was pretty miserable weather and a very, very different experience. That was actually my first time driving the Goodwood Track. I hadn't really driven it before that. I had a handful of laps today, but it just makes you hungry to come back for more and do it again.”

It’s a learning process that she had to go through twice because switching from the “nimble, more compliant” Rover into a Mustang that Chadwick described with a grin as “a handful” is surely no mean feat. A challenge that she has taken a firm grip of with both hands.

When we asked her what she enjoyed most about this weekend, there was little to no hesitation: “The cars themselves, and how much you can actually push them.”

“You watch the racing; it doesn't look like anyone's holding back. You might assume that some historic racing, you're a bit precious about it and you’re a bit more refined, but it's not like that at all.

“I had a few people come past me on the grass, so sideways, ragging it and that's what's really cool.”

Also cool about Chadwick’s Mustang at Members’ Meeting was the sustainable fuel it was running on, as all the cars of the Ken Miles Cup were. It’s an initiative that she herself is deeply invested in.

“You still get the beautiful noise and everything of the Mustang. I think it's fantastic going in that direction. We can do a huge amount in our sport with the technology that we have available to us to change the future of what we see on the roads. And I think it's great that we're starting to see that here at Goodwood as well.”

It’s great to see a generation of younger drivers getting involved in the historic motorsport that makes up such a huge part of the Goodwood Estate, and Jamie Chadwick represents a very exciting part of the future of Goodwood motorsport. That said, she couldn’t help but be a little starstruck by the list of names she would be sharing the grid with at the 81^st Members’ Meeting.

“It's awesome. It's so cool. I look at the grids and they're just people that I either admire, look up to, or dreamed of racing.” A list that includes Dario Franchitti, Stig Blomquist, Jochen Mass, Tom Kristensen, Emanuele Pirro and Steve Soper. “To be amongst those kinds of people is something I wouldn't imagine. It's very, very cool.”

We reckon she fit right in among a long list of motorsport legends at Goodwood over the 81^st Members’ Meeting weekend, and we can’t wait to have her back.

Photography by James Gregory, Tom Baigent, Toby Whales, Nick Wilkinson and Pete Summers.