Goodwood 2010: Cathedral Paddock (with video)

There are two paddocks at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. The main area is called the Formula 1 Paddock and it holds not just modern and classic F1 cars but also Le Mans, DTM, rally and motorbikes, but there isn’t quite enough room so there is an overspill paddock on the other side of Goodwood House called the Cathedral Paddock. It tends to house specialist stuff like early GP cars, touring cars from down the years, NASCAR Cup cars, old sportscars plus anything from any sub-theme chosen – this year was the Panamerica.

It is an eclectic mix in a secluded, out of the way location which feels as though it could be easily missed by many visitors and I suspect many either don’t know it is there, or choose to ignore it because the good stuff is in the big paddock. I don’t know if that is true but it is always quieter than the rest of the Festival, and I very nearly missed it thinking there wouldn’t be much to interest me, I told myself off and went anyway.

I was immediately glad I did. Where else do you find pre-war Grand Prix cars sitting in a line, opposite a line of Bathurst 1000km racers from the 70s and 80s, and around the corner from a variety of BTCC, NASCAR and Le Mans racers? If your life is F1-only perhaps it won’t interest you but please, if you do like to check out the other stuff do yourself a favour and visit this paddock.

Cathedral Paddock – the cars form up in the foreground before going up the hill;

1905 Darracq 200hp; 1911 Fiat S74 & 1910 Vauxhall Prince Henry; 1925 Bugatti Type 39;

Touring cars made famous at the Bathurst 1000km;

Jaguar, BMW and Chevrolet touring cars from the BTCC and ETCC from the 80s to today; Current BTCC driver Tom Chilton was having a good poke around those cars and chatting to their owners/drivers:

Michael Waltrip’s NASCAR Cup Toyota; NASCAR tyres; the late Dale Earnhardt’s NASCAR Chevy Monte-Carlo – note the FoS organisers have given it the #3 on their entry sticker;

This year’s featured marque was Alfa Romeo, here are some historic cars from decades ago;

Here are some Alfa Romeos from the last 30 years;

Quite a varied mix! The photos don’t show the far more relaxed atmosphere in this area of the Festival, it is a mix between the bustle of the main paddock and the chilled out vibe in the Style et Luxe exhibit alongside this paddock. The best way of expressing this is by showing it to you, this is what it is like in the Cathedral Paddock:

I’ve come to really like this paddock and on my next visit I plan to take my time in there.

All images and the YouTube video used in this post were taken by Patrick Wotton. You may use them if you assign the appropriate credit and link to this blog.