Best of British: Duke of Richmond
The aristocrat who is the driving force behind the Festival of Speed and Revival
‘It was an excuse to get some cool bikes and cars together’
‘My parents were not keen on me getting a bike’
Considering he owns the 12,000-acre Goodwood Estate, which contains an aerodrome, racetrack, two golf courses, farm, hotel, restaurants and a horse racing course, not to mention a RollsRoyce factory, it should come as no surprise that the Duke of Richmond is a petrol-head. Although growing up, bikes were off the menu. “When I was small I lived in the Midlands but we would always come to Goodwood in July for the horse racing and Easter Monday for the motor racing,” remembers the Duke. “Goodwood was owned by my grandfather, Freddie March, who was a real car and bike guy – not so keen on the horses but a huge fan of engines! He built the racetrack after the war and my love of vehicles is all down to him. He was a mercurial character and after leaving Oxford early he went to work at Bentley on the shop floor, which his parents weren’t too happy about. At that point he was Lord March, not that he told anyone at Bentley – one colleague even said ‘hey, Freddie, have you heard some Lord is working here...’ while they were on the production line as he had no idea who he was.
“Freddie inspired me tremendously as he used to send me books on cars and bikes and when I went to Goodwood he would take me out to the track, much to my parents displeasure.
“My parents were very unkeen on me getting a motorcycle, probably because I ‘borrowed’ their car when I was 16 and wrote it off, putting myself in hospital for four months! If I couldn’t be trusted with a car, what would I have been like on a bike? Anyway, I managed to persuade them to allow me to buy a Morgan three-wheeler, which in retrospect was even more dangerous. The rear wheel fell of it once, it was lethal.
“I stuck with cars until I was about 30, at which point I was living in London on the King’s Road working in film photography. A bike made total sense and so I bought a BMW K1 in the slightly disgusting yellow/red scheme.
“I soon got into sportsbikes and seeing as my family owned a track, it made sense to make the most of it! I used to organise trackdays for my friends, which is when I discovered what a fantastic track it was. “The circuit was built in 1948 but closed in 1966 for various reasons and there had only ever been one bike meet there in the late 1950s, despite Freddie’s love of twowheels. The track flows beautifully and that was when an idea formed. “In the early 1990s I took over running the Estate and quite quickly I decided to set up a motor event, which became the Festival
of Speed. It was basically an excuse to get some cool bikes and cars together but it got out of hand! Bikes were key, they had to be part of the event, and John Surtees was fundamental in ensuring we had an amazing line-up. Although it was nearly the first and last Festival. “One of the riders, Chas Guy, died after crashing his Vincent. I was horrified and assumed that was it, the event was over, but Dennis Carter [the clerk of the course] said to me ‘that’s motorsport, we carry on.’ It was bloody awful, but we did – that first weekend was a true rollercoaster of emotions.
“The second FoS nearly didn’t happen as it was such a massive effort to put it on but the reception was so positive that we felt we had hit on something special. And in 1998 we introduced the Revival. “The circuit had been slapped with a noise abatement order in the 1970s, which took years to get removed. Once we got it off the Revival could happen and motor racing returned to Goodwood – with bikes at its heart.
“The motorcycle races are a huge part of the Revival and we have had the best of the best racing – Sheene, Gardner, Corser, McGuinness, the quality of the riders in that one race is probably higher than any car race. It’s such a special event and they all want to win, bike racers are so competitive which is why it is such a good show.”