The early days of Goodwood’s Members’ Meetings

The original Members’ Meetings were so called because they were not promoted to public spectators in the same way as Goodwood’s headline international events. Instead, they were run for the entertainment of BARC members. This was true grass-roots motor racing and, in its earliest days, almost all entrants were enthusiastic amateurs who drove their cars to and from the races.

Initially, the fixtures were for saloon and sportscars and many of them were in standard road-going specification. It wasn’t until the 32^nd Members’ Meeting in September 1958 that single-seaters were added to the race card.

To accommodate the mix of driving abilities and variety of cars, a white line was painted on the centre of the track from Woodcote to the finish line, so slower cars stayed out of the way to the right to allow the faster competitors priority. There was no chicane in those days.

The first Members’ Meeting race was won by Len Gibbs aboard his brisk Riley Nine. His victory was witnessed by a small crowd of BARC members and their friends and family, the deliberately small audience a response to unruly behaviour from spectators in 1948’s experimental meeting.

Despite the Duke of Richmond having installed grandstands, some on the sidelines climbed on to the crumbling outbuildings that were dotted around the former RAF Westhampnett site, while others climbed the fence to get closer to the track.

Even with the more laissez-faire approach to health and safety of the 1940s, something had to be done. Racing was suspended until the Members’ Meetings returned with smaller numbers of people at the venue.

Despite the low-key nature when compared to Goodwood’s busier and higher profile Nine Hour, Tourist Trophy and Bank Holiday Monday events, Members’ Meeting history attracted no shortage of names who would go on to be big in the sport. The fast, flowing Goodwood circuit was ideal for showcasing driver talent. 

The 3^rd Members’ Meeting, held in June 1950, saw Stirling Moss driving a John Cooper-entered MG, while Mike Hawthorn and Jack Sears were also racing that day. A year later, Aston Martin drivers Tony Rolt and Duncan Hamilton were present, while renowned Goodwood fan Roy Salvadori claimed a scratch race victory in his Frazer-Nash in July 1952.

Lotus founder Colin Chapman arrived at Goodwood in 1953 to claim a race win with a Mark VI, and it was the start of a period of Lotus domination in club racing. Cheshunt-made cars won 129 of 590 Members’ Meeting races over the years. To put that into perspective, it’s more than the following four marques combined: MG (45), Jaguar (35), Austin/Austin-Healey (23) and Triumph (22). There were 75 individual Lotus drivers among those wins, and 23 of them were at the wheel of Elevens. 

Jim Clark was one of those winners, taking his first ever single-seater win with a Type 18 Formula Junior car in the 1960 season-opening 39^th Members’ Meeting. It would be just three years later that he claimed his first of two Formula 1 World Championships. The podium that day was completed by John Surtees (competing in a car for the first time) and future Lotus F1 works driver Trevor Taylor.

Clark joins two other future F1 champions as Members’ Meeting entrants, the others being the aforementioned Hawthorn and Jackie Stewart. Members’ Meetings also saw entries from future Grand Prix winners Tony Brooks and Innes Ireland, while Le Mans winners Salvadori, Richard Attwood, Derek Bell were fellow Members’ Meeting participants. Back to notable Lotus drivers, the rollcall includes Peter Arundell, Alan Stacey, John Miles and Peter Gethin, all of whom competed in Members’ Meetings in the 1950s and ’60s.

As Goodwood aficionados know by rote, the Goodwood Motor Circuit closed for competition in 1966 because the Duke of Richmond decided that then-modern racing cars were simply becoming too fast for the venue. That meant that the grassroots Members’ Meeting came to an end, too. The final Members’ Meeting – the 71^st – took place on 2^nd July 1966. 

At least, that’s what people assumed at the time. The 71^st Members’ Meeting may well have been the last, but that was only until the Members’ Meeting spirit was rekindled in 2014, when the 72^nd Members’ Meeting picked up where things had been left almost half a century earlier…

The 83^rd Members’ Meeting presented by Audrain Motorsport takes place on the 18^th & 19^th April 2026. Tickets are on sale now for GRRC Members and Fellows.

You can sign up for the Fellowship now. Click here to find out more.

Images courtesy of Getty Images.