Thank you all for your generosity and kindness. The Duchess has asked that I pass on her thanks and deep appreciation to all involved.
Hopefully you will have all seen the display, outside the Jackie Stewart Pavilion, from GreenPower cars. These cars are built by children from the Sylvia Beaufoy Centre (SBC) at Petworth. The youth club relies on charitable donations and engages young people to compete as teams in the GreenPower challenge, the all-girls team doing particularly well!
The funds from the day have been allocated; £5000.00 to SBC and £12,630.00 each to Winston’s Wish and Best Beginnings.
The day could not have happened without our sponsors; Silver Fox Racing (Frank Slevin), Graeme Porter, Andrew Sharp (SMS Direct) and Andrew Crabb (Porsche Mid Sussex).
Additional support came in the form of specific donations made on the day by Ian Hall to each charity.
We were approached by David Martin, who is running a project car. The circuit staff agreed that this car could use the circuit during the lunch break for Octane to photograph. Latterly David joined us all on track in the afternoon. In return his foundation, based in the USA, donated over £6000.00, thank you David.
The quiz night at The Star and Garter in East Dean was a roaring success. We nearly filled the place and Jamie Rockall from The Kennels gave up his time to both compose the quiz and act as quizmaster on the day…many thanks Jamie! Jim McDonald and his staff at the pub looked after us so well with great simple food. Most of you know, I love simple fare, as you all did too based on comments made the following day—we shall return!
The day itself was just brilliant, blessed with wall-to-wall sunshine. No off’s, no black flags, just a great day. Our Chief Instructor, the one and only John Powis, looked gloomy, as he could not find reasons to levy his charity fines upon anyone…next time John!
Our ride cars were in great demand; the Southern GT40 with Glenn Mason, the AC Cobras with Ian Hunter & Stephane Lizambard, the McLaren with Andy Stevenson and the fabulous 1929 Bentley with Nigel Batchelor. Thank you for wrecking your tyres in pursuit of raising funds and putting face splitting grins on faces.
The two sessions lead by John P in the safety car were nothing short of ear splitting—with Nigel’s Bentley and my 1934 Lagonda side by side, filled with children who clearly thought that it was a race between two chitty bang bangs! The rest of the field followed us around to experience the Roy Salvadori moment when he said “Give me Goodwood on a summers day”!
The circuit staff, led by Gabriel and Millie, shone. Nothing was too much trouble. The marshals all got stuck in and went the extra mile, witness the lunchtime project car outing. Thank you so much.
All the golden envelopes were sold, the team efforts of Andy, Jan and Jenny Ross et al persuading you to buy, and we had some great winners and great quality prizes. Donations came from Goodwood, Peter James, The Earl of March and the Star and Garter, Goldtrack, 20th Century Cars and Porsche Mid-Sussex, along with many others to whom we are indebted. Of particular mention is the super silent auction gift from author Peter James, the successful bidder having a character name rights in his next novel, in addition he brought along copies of his latest book for the golden envelopes. Last but not lease, a big thanks to Mandy Shepherd for the incredible painting taken home by a very lucky winner!!
Our post-day dinner, held as usual at the Earl of March, was as we have come to expect, a superb supper served. Suzie, our host, in excellent form with all of us looked after so well.
Finally, thanks to Jan Harding who behind the scenes organises so well and has the sometimes-thankless task of herding cars and cash! However, it is to all of you, our supporters, that we say thank you. Without your sense of humour, commitment and cash the day would not happen, so heartfelt thanks from us all.
In the words of MacArthur “We will return” in June of 2024. Watch this space and the website and we very much hope you will all return too.
Paul Auston
Jan Harding
