Summary
The first Revival at Goodwood opened on 18 September 1998. That was fifty years to the day, jump to When it started after the circuit's first race meeting. The Goodwood Motor Circuit had been closed to racing since 1966. The Revival recreates its racing years, 1948 to 1966, jump to The era, with cars of the period on the track and many guests in 1940s to 1960s dress. The circuit itself began, jump to Circuit history as the perimeter road of a wartime RAF airfield.
The Revival is a historic motor race meeting at the Goodwood Motor Circuit near Chichester in West Sussex. Goodwood rebuilt the circuit and its buildings as they were in 1966, so the cars race on the circuit as it was then.
When the Goodwood Revival started, and why
The first Revival opened on 18 September 1998. That was fifty years to the day after the Goodwood Motor Circuit held its first race meeting. The man behind it was Charles Gordon-Lennox. He was the Earl of March at the time, and he is now the 11th Duke of Richmond. His grandfather, the 9th Duke, had opened the circuit in 1948 and stopped racing there in 1966.
By the time the 9th Duke died in 1989, the circuit had fallen into disrepair. His grandson wanted racing back, but he couldn't get permission to use the circuit at first. In 1993 he ran a hillclimb in the grounds of Goodwood House instead. In a hillclimb, cars run one at a time against the clock, and at Goodwood they run up the drive of the house. Around 25,000 people came to that first Festival of Speed.
The Festival of Speed showed how much demand there was, and five years later the first Revival brought racing back to the restored circuit. How the two meetings compare today is covered in our guide to the Revival and the Festival of Speed.
The Revival has run every September since 1998 with one exception. The pandemic cancelled it in 2020, and Goodwood held SpeedWeek in its place from 16 to 18 October. SpeedWeek ran behind closed doors and was broadcast online.
The 2027 Revival
The 2027 Revival runs from Friday 17 to Sunday 19 September. A day at the Goodwood Revival with us is spent in the Mess Pavilion, beside the start-finish straight and next to the paddocks, where the cars are kept and prepared between races. Each day includes a table, a light breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea. A complimentary bar is included too. A racing card and a newspaper are included.
What era the Revival recreates
The Revival recreates the years the circuit was racing, from 1948 to 1966. The cars and motorcycles on track are the types that raced at Goodwood in those years, and some of them were built before the war. Goodwood calls this period the golden age of motor racing.
Goodwood invites visitors to wear the styles of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, and many guests dress for the period. It isn't compulsory, and Goodwood says a hat or a scarf is enough to join in. Goodwood's one written dress rule covers the Central Paddock, where men wear a jacket and tie or period overalls and women are asked to be smartly dressed. Our Goodwood Revival dress code guide covers what to wear.
The history of the Goodwood circuit
An RAF airfield, 1940 to 1946
The circuit began as the perimeter road of RAF Westhampnett, a wartime airfield on the Goodwood Estate. The 9th Duke of Richmond lent the land for it. Fighters flew from it during the Battle of Britain in 1940, and it stayed an RAF station until 1946.
Westhampnett was a satellite of RAF Tangmere, a larger station nearby. In 1941 its Spitfire squadrons flew in the Tangmere Wing. The Tangmere Wing was the group of fighter squadrons based at Tangmere and its satellite airfields. Douglas Bader led the wing that year.
Tony Gaze, an Australian pilot who flew Spitfires from Westhampnett, had raced round the perimeter road with other pilots between sorties. After the war he suggested to the Duke that the road would make a circuit. The Duke had raced as Freddie March at Brooklands, the pre-war circuit in Surrey, and won its Double Twelve endurance race in 1931.
Racing at Goodwood, 1948 to 1966
Goodwood's first meeting, on Saturday 18 September 1948, was the first professionally organised motor race meeting on the British mainland since the war. Goodwood puts the crowd at up to 20,000, and 85 drivers were entered. The Duke and Duchess opened the day with a lap in a Bristol 400 car. Goodwood has kept the custom, and in 2023 the 11th Duke opened the Revival in a similar Bristol 400. Stirling Moss won the race for 500cc cars by nearly 26 seconds. It was the day after his 19th birthday.
The lap is about 2.4 miles long and follows the old perimeter road. In 1952 a chicane, a tight artificial bend that slows the cars, was added before the start line. The circuit held the RAC Tourist Trophy, a sports car race, in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It also held the Glover Trophy, a Formula 1 race that didn't count towards the world championship. World champions including Juan Manuel Fangio and Jim Clark raced there, as did Graham Hill and Jackie Stewart.
Moss won on the circuit's opening day, and it was also where his Formula 1 career ended. On Easter Monday, 23 April 1962, his Lotus left the track on the approach to St Mary's corner during the Glover Trophy. He spent a month in a coma, and he never raced in Formula 1 again.
By the mid-1960s the cars had become too fast for the old airfield lap. The Duke was uneasy about the danger, and he didn't want to add more chicanes. Competitive racing stopped after a club meeting on 2 July 1966. Testing carried on for the next three decades, and Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost both drove there.
What happens over the Revival weekend
The Revival runs from Friday to Sunday, and there is racing on all three days. Goodwood announced fifteen races for 2026. Friday was mostly practice, with two races in the evening. On the Sunday the last race was the RAC TT Celebration, and a party on the grid and the prize-giving followed it. Goodwood hasn't announced the 2027 races yet.
Selected races from the 2026 programme
Freddie March Memorial Trophy
It is named after the circuit's founder and has been on every Revival race list since 1998. It is a race for 1950s sports cars such as the Jaguar C-type.
Goodwood Trophy
Grand Prix and voiturette racing cars that raced between 1930 and 1951 take part. A voiturette is a small-engined racing car of that era.
Glover Trophy
Grand Prix cars from 1961 to 1965 race for it. The name comes from a Formula 1 race that Goodwood held in its original years.
St Mary's Trophy
Saloon cars race for it in two parts across the weekend. These are everyday family cars of the period, prepared for racing, and in 2026 they dated from 1960 to 1966.
Whitsun Trophy
The grid is made up of sports-racing prototypes. These were two-seat cars built only for racing.
Stirling Moss Memorial Trophy
The race is for closed-cockpit GT cars built before 1963, and two drivers share each car for 60 minutes. GT stands for grand tourer.
RAC TT Celebration
This 60-minute race for two drivers per car recreates the RAC Tourist Trophy races held at Goodwood from 1960 to 1964. In 2026 it was the last race of the weekend.
Barry Sheene Memorial Trophy
Pairs of riders share 500cc Grand Prix motorcycles built up to 1960. They race twice, and their two results are added together.
Settrington Cup
Young children race Austin J40 pedal cars in front of the pits. It begins with a Le Mans start, which means the drivers run to their cars before they set off.
Away from the track, the Freddie March Spirit of Aviation display shows historic aircraft on the old airfield. Over the Road is the area across the bridge from the circuit, and it has live music stages, a vintage funfair and a drive-in cinema. A replica of the Earls Court Motor Show, the London motor show of the period, shows what Goodwood calls the cars of the future.
What the Gordon Pavilion is
The Gordon Pavilion is Goodwood's own base at the Revival for members of the Goodwood Road Racing Club, the estate's motorsport club. It sits opposite the start line and comes with the private Gordon Grandstand, which overlooks the start-finish line. Only club members can use it, so it isn't something we arrange. The Mess Pavilion, where our guests spend the day, is also beside the start-finish straight.
The Gordon name comes from the family that owns Goodwood. Freddie March was the 9th Duke of Richmond and Gordon, and the Revival's Richmond and Gordon Trophies carry the same two names.
Sian Jones
Sport Events Operations Manager
Sport Events Operations Manager at Imperial Corporate Events. She’s the one on the ground making sure your day runs, from the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to Royal Ascot.
