Goodwood: Anticipation

The classic racing season starts at Goodwood on 28-29 March. But Gordon Russell’s bike is still in pieces

The bike I’ll be racing at The Member’s Meeting is still in pieces. It’s a 350cc Offenstadt Yamaha, which was made in France in the 1970s and raced in GPS back in the day. It’s got a strange cast ally box section frame and really interesting trailing link forks. Unfortunately the forks were incomplete when we got the bike, so they’re being re-engineered by Martin Wimmer (former GP rider from Germany) who’s clever at that sort of thing. It should be back together soon and hopefully we can get it to a test day at Mallory before Goodwood. I think I’ll let Martin ride it first.

The bike race at The Member’s Meeting is for 250s up to 1984 and 350s up to 1981, and we’ve got a full grid of 35 bikes. There are some other interesting bikes as well as the Offenstadt including a Harley-davidson RR250, two Juchems, and my son Michael is racing a Harris Rotax. Charlie Williams is bringing a Bartol Yamaha. There’s a bike race on both days.

The Members Meeting is a great event. The atmosphere is like The Revival Meeting, but without fancy dress, fewer spectators and the cut-off date for the cars and bikes is mid-eighties, so the saloon car race has Ford Capris and Rover 3500s bashing doorhandles.

It’s March, so wrap up warm and wear wellies. And you need to make a weekend of it. The party and fireworks on Saturday evening are brilliant. It’ll also be the first race of my 52nd consecutive season of bike racing. I can’t wait.

⏢ Day tickets £89 + £39 GRRC membership. Goodwood.com