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Goodwood, Good Times
By BRYAN SOMEN
SPECIAL TO THE RAFU
Saturday, Oct. 18, 2008
Take a trip back in time to England, for one of the world’s most celebrated auto racing revivals.
Photos by Bryan Somen
Dr. Ernie Nagamatsu roars down the track in his 1959 Buick Special, the Old Yeller II, during the 2008 Goodwood Revival Meeting Race, held last month at the Goodwood Estate in England’s West Sussex County.
Mrs. Nagamatsu donned a retro letterman jacket for
the occasion.
Los Angeles dentist Nagamatsu
owns and races the Hollywood-built
Old Yeller II and has participated in
seven Goodwood meets.
Bryan Somen
WEST SUSSEX COUNTY, England.–It is a beautiful clear mid-September morning in England as I ride on the west-bound train from the Coney Island-like seaside town of Brighton, which is located about 60 miles South of London. I am in great anticipation prior to arriving at a Historic automobile racing event unlike and unequaled by any other on the planet.
Today my attire is a smart-looking light-brown British tweed jacket, wool slacks, and tie with a proper English “flat cap” on my head. Why the unusually formal attire for an automobile racing event? I’ll explain later.
The Goodwood Estate, located near Chichester in West Sussex County, had been used by the Royal Air Force as a “Battle of Britain” base for a squadron of Supermarine Spitfires and Hawker Hurricane fighters to defend England during WWII. After WWII ended, Lord Freddie March, an avid automobile enthusiast, decided that a good use of his land would be to restore motor racing to the public that was deprived of such events during the war. Following a suggestion from a good friend, the former air base’s perimeter roads were converted into a permanent road racing circuit.
The first race was held in 1948 and many of the great drivers including Sir Stirling Moss, Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Phil Hill, Bruce McLaren, and Roger Penske have challenged themselves on this wonderful high speed circuit in following years. By the year 1966, the race cars were going so much faster, but Lord March did not wish to modify the track to slow down the cars so it was decided to curtail automobile racing at Goodwood.
The current Lord Charles March, Freddie’s grandson, enjoyed watching the Formula One and Goodwood Nine Hours endurance races when he was a young boy. He soon caught the racing bug and his goal was to recreate the racing started by his grandfather. In 1998, which was 50 years after the first Goodwood Motor Circuit race, the first Goodwood Revival Meeting Race was held and has consequently become the premier event on the world vintage racing calendar.
Back home in California, we have the Disneyland theme park where the employee “cast members” dress as Disney animation characters. The Goodwood Revival is England’s racing version of a theme park, but for car lovers and automobile racing fans. The spectators dress in period clothing from the 1940s, 50s, and 60s. Ladies are dressed in high couture dresses with wide belts, glamorous hats, high heels, and nylon stockings. More casual period wear includes Capri pants, colorful short sleeve blouses, scarves, dark sun glasses, and pumps.
Men wear outfits including British military uniforms, bikers in leathers, and English Lords with tweed coats. Even children are wearing kid-sized auto mechanic overalls or their British school uniform with hats.
One immediately feels like they’ve walked onto a giant and incredible period movie set, but instead of the extras being paid to walk around and play a part, the spectators have paid to become characters on this period auto racing movie set.
Everything, including the ATM which is hidden inside a British red period telephone booth, is made to look like the 1940s. As a contributing journalist for the Rafu Shimpo, I am also an exhilarated participating cast member for the show, while either on the grid (area where the race cars await the race), the paddock, or walking around the race course wearing my highly coveted “Press” arm band. The strictly limited number of Press and Photographer passes for the Goodwood event is the most coveted by the members of the world’s automobile media.
As a Press participant, admission and preferred parking is just the start of the perks that are granted. You have the privilege of working “inside the ropes” while witnessing incredible views and angles of the cars on the racing circuit. You can get close to and talk with the legendary drivers invited to attend.
Breakfast and lunch are provided in a private dining area every day of the event. Sunday’s lunch menu included the most tender and delicious roast prime rib, Yorkshire pudding, baked potatoes, and cooked vegetables. Dessert included an expansive cheese plate, cookies, and a variety of pies.
Of course, with these benefits comes the serious responsibility for verbally and visually capturing the spirit, the feel, and the excitement of the event and publishing articles through widely-read media outlets. Just a few weeks before the event, I was excited and honored to have my media accreditation accepted. I want to send my thanks to Janet Bradley of Goodwood Motor Circuit Press & Public Relations Officer and her staff for their generous hospitality. Everyone at her office does a terrific job providing us “media types” with all of our needs. We’re really blessed to work with such highly enthusiastic and caring professionals.
For the past 10 years, Lord Charles March and the Goodwood Racing Company have staged two major automobile events which include the Festival of Speed (a hillclimb on the grounds next to the Goodwood estate) and the Revival Meeting races on the motor racing circuit.
Ernie Nagamatsu owns and races the legendary 1959 Old Yeller II Buick Special which was built in Hollywood. Ernie and his wife, Elaine,were fi rst invited by Lord March to bring the Old Yeller II in the year 2000 to participate in his Festival of Speed. They have raced in 7 Goodwood events with their car.
The car was originally designed and raced by Max Balchowsky who owned Hollywood Motors garage in Los Angeles and he would later go on to create cars for many movies, including Disney’s “Love Bug” and Steve McQueen’s Mustang in “Bullitt.” Max’s passion was to build “backyard” specials or “home built” cars that could beat the exotic European Factory Team sports racing cars from manufacturers like Jaguar, Aston Martin, Ferrari, and Maserati. The Old Yeller II was very successful and was driven by the likes of Dan Gurney, Carroll Shelby, Bob Bondurant, and Billy Krause.
For the special celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Goodwood Revival Meeting and the 60th anniversary of the racing circuit, the weather gods must have performed a miracle and provided absolutely gorgeous blue skies with billowy white clouds in the distance. As noted in the Daily Telegraph newspaper: “It was the seventh wettest summer since records began.”
The great weather must have been one of the reasons for the record high attendance of approximately 124,000 this year. Ernie and Elaine were again invited to bring Old Yeller II because they’ve been a crowd favorite each time they participate at Goodwood. Ernie and the team were nearly floored when they opened this year’s official program and saw the Old Yeller II and Ernie’s name prominently singled out for the Sussex Trophy race group, consisting of 30 of the rarest and most desirable exotics of their era including D-type
Jaguars, Birdcage Maseratis, Ferraris, and Listers.
Ernie and Elaine generously help to promote racing to young people by inviting kids to come into their paddock to sit in the driver’s seat. With their little hands on the steering wheel and pretending to be Formula One champions like Michael Schumacher or Lewis
Hamilton, their parents take pictures to capture a special moment they will not forget.
Ernie’s crew includes Mike Lilywhite, who operates a garage located near the track and Erik Van der Schaaff who lives in the Netherlands, but has helped the Old Yeller II team for 7 racing events.
On a sunny Saturday morning, the crew makes some final adjustments to get the brake bias correct as the left front brake is “grabbing” hard and they had to fix a major leak in one of the carburetors. The fl oat in the carburetor was stuck and it was shooting out fuel, and the two crew members with additional help from a neighbor team frantically found the problem just before the race started.
At the allotted time for Saturday afternoon’s Sussex trophy race, Old Yeller II’s mighty 401 cubic inch Buick Nailhead engine roars from the paddock, takes a warm up lap, and stops at the assigned grid position behind one of the beautiful girls holding marker signs.
When the last car is in position, the starter drops the British flag (like the starts for Formula One) and there is smoke and excitement everywhere as the cars absolutely fl y down the front straight heading for the first right-hander called Madgwick. Ernie keeps just behind the really fast group of cars ahead and runs the entire race without any mechanical problems. The fans enjoy a nice piece of driving.
West Sussex County, England.–After the race, it’s time to celebrate a spectacular day and to meet with Lord March along with other racers at the Grand Ball held at the circuit which is converted from a large hanger for this year’s surprise theme, “China: Sussex to Shanghai.” There were 1500 invited guests with many dressing in the evening’s theme. Elaine is absolutely spectacular wearing a long gold sequined Chinese cheongsam dress.
Sunday is the final day of the program and even though there is no more racing for the Old Yeller II team, Elaine and Ernie are busy talking with fans, handing out cards and pins with pictures of the car, and giving Hershey’s chocolate to the kids.
It’s also a good day to relax and check out the recreation of the famous London Motor Show at Earl’s Court. The large hall is filled with exotics ranging from vintage 1940s models up to today’s future classics in a setting that is reminiscent of when they first debuted to the public.
There is an aeronautical concours d’elegance with pre-1966 vintage aircraft vying for the Freddie March Spirit of Aviation award. Also in the air is the sound of live big band jazz and golden age hits to entertain you while enjoying a sip of Veuve Clicquot Champagne and eating beautifully prepared hors d’oeuvres.
If you need that one extra accessory to complete your period outfit or want to have a completely new look from head to toe, check out the vendor area with all the vintage apparel you can imagine. There are also art dealers, book shops, and even vintage car dealerships so you can return home with a souvenir that will always bring back great memories.
For those of us honored to have the very special press armband, we arrive before dawn each day to meet in the press room to get a “download” of the upcoming events. We check our email for any last minute requests from out publishers while viewing the monitors showing the current action around different points on the track.
I make my preliminary plans for the day and discuss with the experienced photographers from major international automobile magazines on how they position themselves along the track throughout the day. Afterwards, I meet with the Old Yeller II team at the Paddock area and proceed to the outside of the chicane before the front straight as the angle is just right in the morning sun.
Later in the day, I move to the first corner which is named Madgwick, where I position myself to take pictures along the embankment above a tire wall. During the one hour Royal Automobile Club TT Celebration race for closed-cockpit GT cars, all of a sudden and without warning, a hard-charging Barrie “Wizzo” Williams, driving a 1964 Shelby Cobra, lost complete control while at high speed and hit the tire wall just a few feet below where I was sitting. The very hard impact straight on into the tire barrier crushed the entire front of the Cobra immediately in front of me. The Safety Team arrived quickly at the scene and fortunately, both he and I walked away unscathed. That was a really exciting moment!
Late in the afternoon, as the sun went down below the orange-colored horizon, Lord March offered his thanks and appreciation to all of this year’s competitors and racing fans while the Spitfire, Hurricane, and P-51 Mustang made their final low altitude high speed fly-bys for the weekend. I get a ride back with the team to the Chichester train station and catch the train back to Brighton where I have a late dinner at a great little Chinese restaurant.
Plan Ahead for 2009
Tickets for the 2009 Goodwood Revival and Festival of Speed go on sale in November. To order advance tickets, email the Ticket Office at bookings@goodwood.co.uk or telephone 01243 755055 or visit their website www.goodwood.co.uk
Photography tips
If you haven’t already done so, get a digital camera. The biggest difference between 2008 and when I was here in 2003 is that I switched from film to digital cameras so there is no longer any need to carry film. It’s so much easier to take just a few memory cards. The cameras I took to Goodwood included a Canon EOS 40D digital SLR and Canon PowerShot G9 pro-level point-and-shoot.
As a racing fan and photographer, what’s great about Goodwood is that there is no chain-link fencing. A race is so much more enjoyable without the ugly chain link fencing mandated at American tracks because of our litigious society. They would have no such thing at Goodwood. It just wouldn’t be right in the English sense of tradition.
For general photography, a mid-range zoom from 28mm to 70mm gives you the ability to take “people” shots and nice car shots. For taking shots of cars on the track, my favorite, and the favorite of most motorsport photographers is the Canon 70-200mm zoom lens. At Goodwood, spectators can get close to the track in many places including the front straight grandstands if you pay the extra fee. Thus, there is no real need for a super-long 300mm-plus lens (unless you are a professional photographer).
While shooting a moving car, I’m panning the camera with the car framed in my viewfinder. I like to use a shutter speed slower than 1/500th of a second so there will be some blurring of the wheels to show the car is moving. You can also be creative and take shots at slower shutter speeds, longer then 1/60th of a second, to get some blurry images that are sometimes very spectacular.
Because there is no chain link fence, spectators expect to be able to take great photographs with their own cameras so the pro photographers spend most of their time sitting or kneeling down so they don’t obstruct the fan’s view. If you’re standing in someone’s way, they let you know immediately (I know from personal experience).
The Canon 70-200mm lens is quite expensive (about $1,700), but you can rent them from professional photo equipment stores like Calumet. If you shoot a lot and really want to enjoy the results, then it’s worth the investment (hey, you’ve probably lost more recently in the stock market anyway).
Thoroughly understand and practice using your camera well before a big event. You want to be able to set it up correctly or make quick adjustments without having to spend time looking in the instruction manual (which you should also keep in case you forget something.)
Side Trips
While in England, you have to at least spend a few days, and a few British pounds, in London. It was my first visit to one of the greatest cities in the world. I would highly recommend taking one of the city tours in the double-decker buses. It’s a little touristy, but you get to see all of the main sights including Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London along with the Tower Bridge, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Trafalgar Square, the London Eye, and much more.
The package also included up to 3 walking tours, a cruise on the Thames River, and discounts for fish and chips and afternoon tea. Also, don’t miss going to Piccadilly Circus. It’s like Vegas with all the neon lights, entertainment, shows, and restaurants. The nearby China town on Gerrard Street is not as large as the ones in Los Angeles or San Francisco, but it takes up several city blocks and there are many fine places to eat.
If you’re an aviation enthusiast, take the one-hour train north from Kings Cross station in London to Cambridge. Then take City bus #7 to Duxford which stops right at the Imperial War Museum. This is an impressive museum complex consisting of aircraft from around the world, but mostly focusing on British and America planes. Aircraft include a Concorde, a WW2 Lancaster bomber, a De Havilland Comet (the first commercial jet airliner), a Lockheed SR71, and much much more. There is also an airfield there so I took a ride from the grass strip in a 1930’s era British Tiger Moth biplane.
As I mentioned earlier, Brighton is like New York’s Coney Island with a boardwalk, carnival rides, and games. The beach is actually made up of small smooth pebbles instead of sand. There is a great little free museum showing artifacts from Brighton’s early fishing days and fish mongers still catch and sell the same kinds of fish that were caught back in the 1920’s. I’m usually open to eating most kinds of seafood, but the jellied eel just didn’t sound very appealing.
For a vintage automobile racing enthusiast like myself, the weekend at Goodwood is not just another event with exotic cars. While thinking back and looking at my wrinkled Press armband, I’ll always remember the picture perfect weather, the beautiful women in their glamorous dresses, the roar from the engines as the cars stream down the front straight, the sound of the P-51s and Spitfires flying overhead, and the applause for the winners crossing the Finish line.
The Goodwood experience is created by a greater underlying spirit. For the racers and attendees, it’s a longing for tradition, a longing for good times and joyous memories, a longing to pass down to future generations, and a longing that the history at this special place will never fade away.
Cheers! |
