60 original Mini race cars to compete at the 77th Members' Meeting

The field’s growth comes with a change in format – with the race now split into three parts: two heats of thirty cars each will kick off the Mini racing action on Saturday, with the top 15 cars from each heat making their way into the Betty Richmond Trophy final on Sunday afternoon.

Each heat will also have its own dedicated qualifying session on Saturday morning, setting the grid for each heat that afternoon.

The Betty Richmond Trophy was announced in November as a new race exclusively for pre-’66 Mini saloons and variants. It is named after the current-Duke’s grandmother Elizabeth ‘Betty’ Richmond, and it was her husband Frederick ‘Freddie’ Gordon-Lennox, the 9^th Duke of Richmond, who turned the perimeter road around RAF Westhampnett into the Goodwood Motor Circuit in 1948. As a friend of Mini designer Alec Issigonis, and an admirer of small, cleverly designed cars, he took delivery of one of the first Minis in 1959, but it was Betty who fell in love with the car. The current Duke recalls her hurtling around the Goodwood estate in it but never being allowed out onto the public road.

Motorsport content manager, Matt Hearn, said: “Interest in the Betty Richmond Trophy has been incredible, with well over 100 great cars and drivers to choose from. We were poised to turn down a lot of fantastic cars, but we have managed to fit in two qualifying sessions and two heats into the schedule on Saturday. Clearly love for this British icon is unfaltering.”

Tickets to the 77^th Members’ Meeting are selling fast, but still available to Goodwood Road Racing Club and Fellowship Members. For information on how to join the Fellowship click here.

Photography by Drew Gibson, Nick Dungan, Steven Stringer and Giles Babbidge.