The best action from Goodwood’s 76th MM

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To the hilarity of many around the world, a tiny bit of snow grounds many big things to a halt in the UK. Like, y’know, trains, planes, sprawling urban communities and even Uber Eats deliveries.

But a blanket of snow wouldn’t put a stop to the hardy vintage racing types. No siree. Thanks to a duvet of tweed, these fierce racers prevailed through a freezing blizzard at this weekend’s 76th Goodwood Members’ Meeting to put on quite the show.

Given that it was below freezing, there was an icing of snow off-track and a blizzard on track, most people would be wary about driving something quick on a set of modern winter tyres. But these brave racers had to make do with either vintage cross-ply tyres or a set of slicks, and no electronic nannies to keep them on the black stuff. And, as you can see from the gallery above, many fell off. But it didn’t half make for some exciting racing.   

Unfortunately, due to the conditions, none of the classic bikes could hit the track – it was just too dangerous. But there was quite the spread of cars to keep people entertained. From Rover SD1s duelling big American Camaros and a plucky Mini in a classic David v Goliath race of the Gerry Marshall trophy, to the new Ronnie Hoare Trophy where '60s sports and GT cars including Ferrari 275 GTB/C, Alfa Giulia TZ1 and Porsche 904 duke it out, there was something for everyone.

And if they didn’t tickle your pickle, there were Group 5 touring cars that put on a quite the visual and aural display. And how could we forget the single-seaters? Including front-engined F1 and F2 machines of the Hawthorn Trophy, all the way up to the loony five-litre monsters of the F5000 demo.

There was literally something for everyone – unless you’re into Formula E, that is – so click through the gallery above to catch up on all the best video and picture highlights from an incredible event. 

But the most talked-about moment from the weekend’s 76th Members’ Meeting at Goodwood wasn’t related to any of the actual races themselves. Instead it was the ‘minute of fever’ that took place on the grid prior to the Formula 5000 demonstration laps. Sixty seconds of these five-litre single seaters making as much noise as possible was Goodwood’s tribute to motor racing journalist and commentator Henry Hope-Frost who died in a road accident on March 8th. A fitting alternative to the traditional minute’s silence. One you can experience for yourself by pressing play above. 

Henry Hope-Frost might not be a name you recognise, but if you’ve ever been to an event at Goodwood you’ll know his voice. In fact, having commentated at the Members’ Meeting, Festival of Speed and Revival, Henry became known as ‘The Voice of Goodwood’. With an unmatched passion for the sport and an encyclopaedic knowledge acquired during his 22 years working for Autosport Magazine, Henry was incredibly well known and regarded by the racing fraternity. But more than that, the outpouring of emotion following his death painted a picture of a man who was much-loved by everyone who came into contact with him.

Three of Britain’s most recent World Champions took to Twitter to pay their respects:

Jenson Button: ‘So sad that such a great man lost his life yesterday. You could always tell how passionate Henry was about motorsport when he interviewed you – it felt so natural like you were having a good old chinwag with your closest mate’ 

Damon Hill: ‘Shocked and saddened to hear of the sudden loss of the lovely Henry Hope-Frost. Much loved man – too sad.’

Nigel Mansell: ‘Sad, sad day for all. Extraordinary loss to the world, vibrant, so much knowledge and a fun man’.

And Top Gear’s very own Chris Harris tweeted: ‘Numb at the news of Henry Hope-Frost’s passing. He was one of the very best’.

A fundraising page set up in support of his wife and three young sons has raised £95,000 to date. The list of more than 1,400 donors includes stars of F1, Indycar, Le Mans and touring cars, but even more impressive than the list of famous contributors is the response from those that never met Henry. Typical comments on the fund-raising page say ‘I never met Henry but having followed his Twitter feed/listened to his commentaries he felt like an old friend’. Harris was right – he was one of the very best. 

The fund-raising page in support of Henry’s family can be found here.

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Group 5 was a championship forged when the world was wild, power was the answer to everything and the bigger your bodywork, the better. The liveries were also cool.

Like Fruit of the Loom, everyone’s favourite t-shirt to print a stag do logo upon, that adorned Kevin Abbring's 1978 BMW 320 as he hooned it around Goodwood. He was also joined by Porsche 935s, Zakspeed Capris and five Ferrari 512 BB LMs. Turn up the noise, peeps. 

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With freezing track temperatures, cold tyres and a pack of drivers high on adrenaline, the chance of first-corner incidents was high this weekend. Here’s what happens when a punchy Metro picks a fight with a Rover SD1.

Soak it up kids, you won’t get this kind of beauty with solid-state batteries and hub motors. 

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It takes a special (read: really, really brave) breed of human to take a F5000 car into a blizzard. As you can see in the footage above, a 1975 Lola-Chevrolet T400 can become quite a crashy handful on a straight bit of track. 

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The Ferrari Breadvan – a short-wheelbase 250 GT Berlinetta with a big boot –­ is unquestionably the fastest way to deliver ciabatta. But a Jaguar being doorhandled by WTCC driver Rob Huff is a quicker way around a tack. Just check out the footage of Huffy’s E-Type as he slides it around like he’s in a Formula Drift event. 

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It wasn’t just classic cars on track, as McLaren helped bring the action right up to the bleeding edge of now, by plopping its new 789bhp Senna hypercar on track for everyone to see. Check out that wing, yo. 

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With no ‘dirty air’ to worry about, the closeness of the racing at MM is astonishing. There’s constant bumper-to-bumper stuff, all while mid-drift. Just check out this footage of Ambrogio Perfetti and Mark Bates going at it in race-prepped 911s that led to a vicious battle during the Ronnie Hoare Trophy. 

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Given the size of its turbos, a 700bhp BMW M1 is a spikey thing in pristine conditions. So, when it’s say, March in the UK, it can be a bit of a handful. Just check out the footage above to see what we mean.