[woodingboys]

Thank you Clive for all your support in helping to add some innovative features to our Goodwood track and thank you for joining us on the day along with a number of other luminaries from the Slot Racing world. 

Thanks also to Mervyn from Slot Track Scenics who joined us and was responsible for all the building of the track, to David for his help in constructing the Magnet Racing buildings and to a number of close friends who helped with other elements of the setup. It has been a fabulous collaboration by many benefactors, which has made it all the more enjoyable to see it up and running.


Life for me has been a busy old time since hatching the plan to create this large scale replica of the beautiful Goodwood Track, but its outing at Bicester Scramble brought together so many threads of my life on this mortal coil, that I would like to try and capture them in this post in an attempt to add interest to the purpose of its creation.

Why bother?
In the hope of appealing to some kindred spirits out there I would be grateful for your indulgence in understanding the purpose of building this track and what it meant to me.

Outside of indulging my own selfish reasons for building some sort of legacy, I had two primary objectives: 

1. Broadening awareness of Mission Motorsport and helping to raise funds for theme
   
2. Supporting the Scalextric Brand and deepening the relationship I fostered between them and Mission Motorsport.
   

So What?
As mentioned in other posts this track will be at this year's UK Slot Fest where the plan is to offer those enthusiasts who come along on the Saturday a chance to take part in some competitive racing based on the famous Goodwood Revival grids. (I have just come off the phone after chatting through the concept with @Woodcote and we feel sure there will be plenty of appeal for what we will offer).


Back in 2016 I tried and failed to generate some interest around a national Mini Championship on the basis of build it and they will come…. Well sadly the Slot Car world is already pretty busy it turned out and the offer of racing at UK Slot Fest with your Mini’s didnt garner much interest.


So this time I am hoping to appeal to the digital racers or historic fans amongst you to start preparing for a bit of fun at Gaydon on the Saturday (more details to come - watch this space).

But before all that, what happened at Bicester to cause Clive to write such a lovely note?

"Love it when a plan comes together!"
Sunday the 7th January 2024, just 9 months after sharing the idea for Goodwood, represented the culmination of many various threads that I had been pulling together throughout the year (many of them had been active in my past well before Goodwood sprung into life):

• Scalextric Digital
  
• Veteran Charitable Support
  
• Mental Health
  
• Cancer Support
  
• Race of Remembrance
  
• Classic Cars
  
• Innovative slot track ideas
  
• Corporate Team Building
  
• Entertainment
  

At the tender age of 60 I suspect I am no different to many of us on these forums who are looking back on their lives and keen to leave a legacy to be proud of. 
17 years of being a tearaway child, followed by 20 years of military service, followed by 23 years of corporate IT sales has left me in a very privileged position to be able to help less fortunate veterans.

Having used my Havenwood track for the past 10 years to help raise money for various charities, it was an obvious concept for me to try and do something similar, but with a greater focus, for Mission Motorsport. A charity that uses motorsport as an excuse to get reclusive, isolated and vulnerable veterans out of their abodes and into a social environment for a chat. Goodwood features heavily on the 100+ events that Mission Motorsport organise each year and hence it seemed an obvious target for constructing a replica.

Combine that with a growing number of Goodwood esque Scalextric cars appearing in their annual release reinforced that concept and my love of historic racing meant there was little doubt in my mind of what to build.

Thanks to some chums at Hagerty, we were able to setup in their wonderful Clubhouse located on the Bicester Heritage site. Charging people £5 a go for 5 minutes of marshalled racing, we managed to raise a few hundred pounds in the 3 hours we were operating (the venue was also being used for other things).

Scalextric had kindly donated a race set as a prize, which went to a very talented 9 year old who managed to get a out of the box Scalextric Mustang, operating at 60% power around the track a couple of hundreths over 8 seconds. (What was your best time Gary Skipp?).

Thanks again to the team at Margate they provided a number of cars to help keep the fleet running and hence I hope to be offering some ‘Arrive and Drive’ experiences for those who can join us at Gaydon in May and are happy to do their best with ‘Out of the box’ (OOTB) spec cars. 

However, if you would like to try and come and set some new record lap times, there will also be grids for you to bring your finely tuned  1960’s Saloon Cars or your 1980’s Capris or your 1960s GT/sports cars. And as if that wasn't enough do be sure to bring your racing buddy with you as we will be hosting Pro/Am style races with driver changes in the pits.

And as if that wasn't enough to get you plotting your strategy to the podium of “Goodwood at Gaydon”, there will plenty of tactics to be thought through with the single lane chicane and the single lane pit lane. 

I will do my best to keep you updated on when Goodwood will be out in the wilds at various public events throughout the year so please do come and say hello, have a go and support our veteran community whilst having a bit of fun….

Finally one last thank you to Jaguar Classics who brought one of their E Type recreations to Bicester and very generously donated the Scalextic Legends set of BUY 1 and ECD400, Salvadori and Hill. Big thank you :-)