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LinkedInGoodwood launches new Mini race at 77th Members’ Meeting
Goodwood will launch The Betty Richmond Trophy, a new race at the 77th Members’ Meeting this year for pre-66 Mini saloons and variants.
Celebrating 60 years since the Mini began capturing the hearts of the nation, the one-make race, taking place at the event on the 6/7 April, 2019, will showcase some flat-out racing and some of the closest battles of the weekend.
The race has been named after The current Duke of Richmond’s grandmother, Elizabeth ‘Betty’ Richmond. Her husband Frederick ‘Freddie’ Gordon-Lennox, the 9th Duke of Richmond, was passionate about cars and planes, and was himself a successful racing driver. After World War II, it was Freddie that turned the perimeter road around RAF Westhampnett into the Goodwood Motor Circuit, which officially opened in 1948.
The Duke was on good terms with Alec Issigonis, the designer of the original Mini, and in 1959 managed to take delivery of one of the first Minis produced.
The current Duke, Charles Gordon-Lennox, states: “Betty was really the one responsible for my love of motorsport. She used to buy books on cars, which she then got my grandfather to give me. She also encouraged my grandfather to spend time with me at the circuit, taking me round to see the cars and meet the drivers. It was an eight-year old’s dream.
“It is, therefore, entirely fitting to name this new race at the 77th Members’ Meeting after my grandmother who is really the person, more than anyone, who got me hooked on cars, bikes and racing.”
Last week Goodwood announced it will debut the John Duff Trophy, an new race for pre-1930 vintage racing cars at the 77th Members’ Meeting.
