British racing's greatest event

Unprecedented demand for Goodwood Revival Meeting tickets meant they were sold out by early August, but thanks to the wonders of live streaming on the internet you don't have to miss a moment of the action from this weekend's 18th edition no matter where you find yourself on the planet.

From Papua New Guinea to Patagonia, via nearby Portsmouth, the extraordinary pomp of the world's most popular and best-attended motorsport theatre gets under way with a North American P51 Mustang performing dawn patrol duties overhead at 0800 on Friday. From there it's action all the way, on and off track.

Seventy five years on from the Battle of Britain - a pivotal moment in World War 2 - more than 20 Supermarine Spitfires and Hawker Hurricanes are due to fill skies over RAF Westhampnett (whose perimeter road became Goodwood Motor Circuit in September 1948) on Sunday afternoon.

Matching the aviation activity for quality if not, perhaps, ultimate poignancy this year, will be three days of the very finest racing on the demanding high-speed 2.4-mile track - unchanged since 1952, when the Woodcote chicane was installed - which tested racing's greats and aspiring aces until its sudden closure in July 1966.

Goodwood's major meetings were social occasions in period. Just as the Duke of Richmond and Gordon - who as Freddie March had successfully raced MGs in the 1930s - imbued the events with glitzy get-togethers for competitors, his grandson Lord March maintains the family tradition as a generous host.

Played out before packed spectator banks, the Revival is altogether more frenetic than the relaxed two-day Members Meetings reintroduced in March 2014 after a 48-year hiatus, but the competition is equally fierce. With a record number of British Touring Car Championship racers joining Le Mans winners, past masters and the world's leading historic racing specialists, sit back in your favourite chair and be entertained at home if you can't be there.

The Revival isn't just about the racing, however good it may be © Gibson/LAT

From the band of the Royal Marines' trumpet fanfares signalling cars and motorcycles onto the track for the weekend's 17 races - including the Settrington Cup pedal car dashes for juniors - to the presentation of cigars to smiling victors, the Revival is the most photogenic event of the season.

That racers, officials and onlookers espouse the 1950s and '60s dress code (viewed with some incredulity when Lord March announced it for the inaugural event in '98, yet now the genteel stage setting that binds the retrospective) and post-'66 non-emergency vehicles are banned from the campus makes it work.

The return of stars from Goodwood's contemporary era - Stirling Moss, Tony Brooks, Jack Brabham, Dan Gurney, John Surtees, Jackie Stewart and countless others during its second heyday - has given enthusiasts of all generations a priceless window on the past, when racing was dangerous and utterly heroic.

Reuniting them with the finest cars, pooled from around the globe for a broad spectrum of classes (and, in many cases, better prepared than ever) for cavalcades and demonstrations is magical. But the tension ramps up before the bowler-hatted race director drops the Union Flag to start the races before a capacity attendance.

This year's wheeled warfare begins on Friday evening with the Freddie March Memorial Trophy race, a special one marking the 60th anniversary of the last of three Goodwood Nine Hours enduros in 1955. Aston Martins won them all, upsetting the form-book, but face greater opposition in the 90-minute charge to dusk that finishes, evocatively, in a blaze of headlights.

As lead Revival commentator, my guide to the spectacular racecard can be read below. But there is so much more to enjoy at the event.

Cavalcades of American Gassers (hot rods), Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupes, Land Rovers and a Bruce McLaren tribute will be on track each day. But Lord March's Battle of Britain remembrance on Sunday, and a Lotus 25 and a BRM P261 demonstration commemorating the outright period lap record of 1m20.4s set by Jim Clark and Jackie Stewart respectively in the 1965 Daily Mirror Trophy race, will be unforgettable.

MARCUS PYE'S GOODWOOD 'GRID'
Our man ranks the Goodwood timetable, which kicks off with the Freddie March Memorial Trophy on Friday at 1810, before resuming at 0915 on Saturday (until 1745) and again on Sunday from 0915-1800

FRONT ROW:

FREDDIE MARCH TROPHY
Goodwood 9 Hour cars, 1952-55

Sixty years after Peter Walker/Denis Poore completed a marque hat-trick, it's difficult to envisage an Aston Martin winning despite Simon Hadfield's record. Derek Bell and Andy Wallace head the Jaguar C-types, while Chris Ward and Phil Keen are in Cooper-Jaguar T33s. Watch for the mighty Cunningham, svelte Alfa Romeo 3000PR and unique HWM-Cadillac.

GOODWOOD TROPHY
GP, F1, F2 & Formule Libre, 1948-55

Mark Gillies could add a fifth Revival title in Dick Skipworth's ERA R3A, but Paddins Dowling, Nick Topliss and David Morris will chase hard. Calum Lockie and Andy Wolfe lead Maserati's challenge, while Alfa Romeo's spans P3s and 308. Tom Hardman's MG Bellevue Special was raced here by Basil de Lissa in the fifties.

EARL OF MARCH TROPHY
500cc Formula 3 1948-59

Absent since 2011, the motorcycle-engined 'wasps' graced the circuit's opening meeting in 1948, when Stirling Moss won. Goodwood champion Sam Wilson (Kieft) faces the Coopers of 17-year-old Peter de la Roche and George Shackleton in the Norton-engined vanguard. Look out for the distinctive JR Terigi, Revis, Cousy and ex-Don Truman Bardon-Turner in the 18-marque pack.

SECOND ROW:

ST MARY'S TROPHY
Production Saloons 1960-65

Seven leading BTCC contenders and Le Mans winners star in the ever-popular two-parter. Gordon Shedden/Matt Neal head the Lotus Cortina brigade, facing Jason Plato (Mini Cooper S), Andy Priaulx and Jackie Oliver (BMW 1800TiSAs) and Frank Stippler (Alfa Romeo GTA). Nine-time Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen's Ford Fairlane Thunderbolt will take some stopping.

LAVANT CUP
Drum-braked Ferrari sportscars

Extending last September's single-marque focus, Jaguar makes way for Prancing Horses of the 1950s. Five-time Le Mans winner Emanuele Pirro and James Cottingham (500 TRCs), elegant former British hillclimb champion David Franklin (225S Vignale), Christian Traber (250 GT Europa) and Chris Cox (412M) are among the favourites in the largely rosso corsa extravaganza.

THIRD ROW:

WHITSUN TROPHY
Unlimited sports prototypes to 1966

Mighty V8 stampede starring the ultimate Lola, McLaren, Lotus and Ford machines of Goodwood's original heyday. Can Oliver Bryant and Tony Sinclair (T70 Spyders) and Chris Goodwin (M1B) conquer extrovert Canadian Jay Esterer's awesome Chinook? Outright lap record holder Andrew Smith saddles one of six GT40s, while Roland Lewis gives his newly-rebuilt Hamill SR3 its debut.

BROOKLANDS TROPHY
Pre-1939 Endurance Sportscars

It's Great Britain versus continental Europe in this delicious field, redolent of Brooklands in the 1930s. Aston Martin, Bentley, Frazer Nash, Invicta, MG, Riley, Squire, Triumph and Vauxhall machinery, plus a quartet of Talbot AV105s square up to Alfa Romeo, BMW, Bugatti, Mercedes-Benz and Maserati. Patrick Blakeney-Edwards, Mark Gillies and Duncan Ricketts star.

FORDWATER TROPHY
Production-based Sports & GT cars, 1948-64

Nippy Lotus 6s, potent Jaguar XK120s and the Austin-Healey 100 of 1960s Goodwood racer Barry Sidery-Smith may be the class of the field, but Chris Harris will fancy his chances in a 'bathtub' Porsche 356. Exotica includes Fiat 'Ottovus', Alfa Romeo 1900 CSS Zagato and Lancia Aurelias, plus home-grown Connaught, 'Nashes and Jowett Jupiters.

FOURTH ROW:

RICHMOND & GORDON TROPHIES
Formula 1 cars of a type raced 1954-60

Twelve-time Revival race winner Gary Pearson (BRM P25) faces stiff opposition in a mixed front- and rear-engined grid embracing the cream of 2.5-litre grand prix cars. See Maserati 250Fs, Ferrari Dinos, Lotus 16s and Julian Bronson's Scarab square up to Lotus 18s and Cooper T51s that arrived after the technological tide had turned.

RAC TT CELEBRATION
Closed-cockpit GT cars, 1960-64

Sunday's blue riband enduro features five-time Le Mans winners Derek Bell/Emanuele Pirro teamed in one of two glorious Ferrari 250LMs and Tom Kristensen paired with Fred Wakeman in the American's Lister-Jaguar coupe. Cobras, Aston Martin DP212 and DB4GTs, Ferrari 'Breadvan', Jaguar E-types, Chevrolet Corvettes, Maserati T151 and Sunbeam Lister Tiger will also be factors.

FIFTH ROW:

GLOVER TROPHY
1.5-litre GP & 1-litre F2 cars, 1961-65

Andy Middlehurst (Lotus 25) bids for his fifth-straight Glover victory in John Bowers' car, but Nick Pennell has pushed him increasingly close. American James King - winner in 2008 - is back with his faithful ex-Dan Gurney Brabham BT8, as are Lotus 24 hotshoes Miles Griffiths and Sam Wilson, while Mark Piercy leads the Lola Mk4 challenge.

SUSSEX TROPHY
World championship sportscars, 1955-60

Another classic power (think burly Listers, Jaguar D-types, Cooper-Jaguar T38, Aston Martin DBR1 and DBR2, Tojeiro-Jaguar and Sadler-Chevrolet) versus agility (Maserati T61 'Birdcage' and Lotus 15s) battle is on the cards. With Oliver Bryant, Marino Franchitti, Sam Hancock, David Hart, Julian Majzub, Andy Newall, Gary Pearson, Bobby Verdon-Roe and Fred Wakeman out front expect fireworks.

BARRY SHEENE MEMORIAL TROPHY
Motorcycles, 1962-66

Superstars Troy Corser, Jeremy McWilliams, Kevin Schwantz, Freddie Spencer, James Whitham, Charlie Williams and classic racing star Duncan Fitchett are among the leather-clad lunatics who will delight bike fans in the annual two-parter. Manx Norton machinery dominates numerically in Goodwood's later set, but AJS, BMW, Matchless, MV Agusta and Hansen Honda provide credible opposition.