You may have noticed that it has been a long winter and , just as the daffodils were coming into bloom at Goodwood ,   the notorious Beast From The East made an unwelcome return and gatecrashed the 76th Members'  Meeting . This resulted in my spending the coldest days I have ever endured at a race circuit , with only some of the  RAC Rally stages I attended in the 70s and 80s being colder . But Goodwood was undaunted and pressed ahead with the meeting , and it was just superb . I have written a report for the book ( and see my  next  blog post for book news ) but I have rarely enjoyed an event more. It is impossible not to when there's my first ever Porsche 910 to admire, a pack of GT40s to inspect , some bonkers Group 5 monsters on track (I loved the Porsche 935 'Moby Dick' especially) , some hard charging pre war  Bugattis  and even the Begg F5000 car. It  had been flown in from New Zealand- just for the weekend naturally . The prices may be eye watering but it's worth every penny .   

Banger racing at Barford Stadium was always going to be a big contrast to the posh stuff down Sussex way but even so I wasn't prepared for the  stock hatch racer who , in an almighty strop at being pushed off, drove round the track in the wrong direction and then blocked the track in order to share his views - loudly- on his opponent's driving. Matters became even more surreal when the commentator's between race music selection was sabotaged and the crowd was  treated to Smokie's ' Who the F***k is Alice?' ...Nope , it really wasn't much like Goodwood at all . Only six quid to get in though- and that is a third of Goodwood's price . For its programme ....