Glorious! Now Goodwood Festival gets green light...

VROOM, vroom! Motor racing has witnessed some breath-taking comebacks, none more extraordinary than when the late, great Niki Lauda roared off the grid at the Italian Grand Prix just six weeks after he’d been given the last rites following a catastrophic crash at the Nurburgring.

This time, I can disclose, it’s the turn of the Duke of Richmond and Gordon, who, at the age of 65, has wrenched the Goodwood Festival of Speed back on track after it had seemingly fallen victim to the coronavirus, like so much of this summer’s sporting action.

Fans, who travel from around the world to watch the festival at the Duke’s 12,000-acre West Sussex estate each July, had been bitterly dismayed by its cancellation.

But I can reveal that the Duke, who initiated the festival in 1993, has rearranged the sporting calendar to ensure that it will eventually go ahead after all.

‘Despite everything, it’s going to happen,’ a friend tells me. A spokesman for the Duke confirms: ‘It is going ahead, but in October rather than July.’

But it is not a complete victory for fans hungering to see past masters, such as

Mario Andretti — a world champion both in Formula One and IndyCar — and to watch vintage single-seaters steam up Goodwood’s famous hill-climb course. ‘It will be behind closed doors,’ adds the spokesman.

Fans will, though, have the consolation that the action will be televised.

It’s a vital factor — for the estate as much as for the fans. ‘You’ve got the sponsors to consider,’ an aficionado explains. ‘If you don’t go ahead, they might not come back next year.’

The Duke acknowledges as much via the festival’s website, which candidly states: ‘As we rely so heavily on our headline events, their absence places not only future events but even the long-term future of the estate under considerable strain.’

The chequered flag can’t come soon enough.