London, 5 April 2001
New Venue
Happy Birthday!
Small But Select
”It’s Raining Again”
2001 Anniversaries to be Commemorated
New Venue
Due to the problems of movement in some parts of the countryside, brought
about by the foot-and-mouth outbreak, the traditional press gathering for the
Goodwood meetings preview was transferred from the traditional Goodwood
House venue, to central London. The new location was the Sir Christopher
Wren designed Royal Hospital in Chelsea, which was founded by King
Charles II in 1682 as a retreat for regular army veterans. Because of the
logistics of moving racing cars around the streets of the capital on a normal
business day, there were far fewer cars than normal, and those that there
were, apart from the ”hemi under glass” Plymouth dragster, were notionally
street legal!
Happy Birthday!
As the weather forecast was poor, with rain clouds approaching fast, the Earl
of March only gave a short introductory speech over coffee, as he wanted the
demonstration runs in the hospital grounds by the dragster and Carl Fogerty
on his Ducatti motorcycle to take place. Unfortunately the dragster completed
just one ear splitting run before the heavens opened, fortunately foresight
prevailed, and umbrellas were readily at hand. During the introductory speech
the Earl of March welcomed many motor racing personalities, with a special
welcome for Sir Jack Brabham on the occasion of his 75th birthday. A large
chocolate cake was brought in, and jazz musician Jools Holland together with
Jason Kay of the band Jamiroquai, led the attendees in a rousing rendition of
”Happy Birthday”.
Small But Select
Although the range of cars was limited there was an interesting selection on
display, including a trio of Ferrari models, a 268 SP, chassis # 0798, a 330
LM berlinetta, chassis # 4725SA, and a 365 GTB/4C, chassis # 15681. There
were also a 1935 Alfa Romeo Tipo B P3, McLaren F1 GTR road car, Ford GT
40, the unique Lister-Jaguar Costin coupe, lightweight Jaguar ”E” Type,
Renault 5 Maxi Turbo, Ford Focus rally car, and a road version of the
Mercedes Benz CLK GTR amongst the assembly, together with a display of
Ducatti motorcycles.
”It’s Raining Again”
Despite a brief lull in the rain squalls, the skies opened with a vengeance as
the party moved from the hospital grounds, to the luncheon reception at the
Bluebird Club in the Kings Road. London Routemaster buses, including an
open top version for the masochists, provided suitable period transport, each
followed by a convoy of cars. It was quite surreal to see a small snake of fire
breathing sports racing cars threading their way through the heavy London
traffic. The group following my bus (the open top one) included the 330 LM
berlinetta and GT 40, their open exhausts bouncing beautiful tunes off the
walls of the buildings.
2001 Anniversaries to be Commemorated
Once ensconsed in the welcoming private dining rooms of the Bluebird Club,
wet apparel was laid to one side, and the ”wet” went within courtesy of Veuve
Clicquot! The Earl of March announced the plans for this year’s Festival of
Speed to be held between 6 – 8 July, and the Revival Meeting scheduled for
14 – 16 September. Some of the major anniversaries to be celebrated at the
Festival of Speed will be, 100 Years of Mercedes Benz, 100 Years of Ford
Motorsport, 90 Years of the Indianapolis 500, 90 Years of the Monte Carlo
Rally, 50 Years since Ferrari won its first F1 Championship race, 40 Years of
Brabham and 75 Years of Jack Brabham, the list goes on. It promises to be
up to the standard, or even surpassing the eight Festivals held so far. For the
Revival meeting there will be some exciting new races, although the
immensely popular one hour TT Celebration Race will again be the highlight
of the weekend.
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