RAF Westhampnett was constructed during World War II as a relief airfield for RAF Tangmere. After the war, the Duke of Richmond and Gordon sanctioned the use of the perimeter track as a racing circuit. The first race meeting took place on 18 September 1948, organised by the Junior Car Club. The inaugural race was won by P. de F. C. Pycroft in a 2,664 cc Pycroft-Jaguar at 66.42 mph. Stirling Moss won the 500 cc race — a category that would later evolve into Formula Three — on the same day.
The original circuit layout featured a fast left-hand curve between Woodcote corner and the start-finish line, with the pit lane situated on the infield side of the curve's exit. As car speeds increased, the dangers of the fast curve became apparent. After Giuseppe Farina won the 1951 Goodwood Trophy race in his Alfa Romeo 159 at over 95 mph, the curve was replaced by a chicane in 1952. Initially constructed from straw bales and boarding, the chicane was rebuilt in brick in 1953 and remained in place until the circuit's closure in 1966.
Goodwood became famous for several prestigious non-championship events. The Glover Trophy was a celebrated non-championship Formula One race held at the circuit. The Goodwood Nine Hours was a sports car endurance race held in 1952, 1953, and 1955. The Tourist Trophy sports car race was contested at Goodwood from 1958 to 1964.
The circuit hosted many of the great names of the sport's golden age. Mike Hawthorn and Graham Hill both drove their first single-seater races at Goodwood. Roger Penske visited in 1963. Jim Clark and Jack Sears competed in 1964. The accident that ended Stirling Moss's international racing career occurred at St. Mary's corner in 1962.
Donald Campbell demonstrated his Bluebird CN7 Land Speed Record car at Goodwood in July 1960 at its initial public launch and again in July 1962. The car — a Bristol Siddeley turbine-powered streamliner producing 4,500 hp with a theoretical top speed of 450 to 500 mph — could only be driven at "tick-over" speed at Goodwood due to its four degrees of steering lock, reaching a maximum of about 100 mph on the straight.
The final lap record of the pre-closure era, 1 minute 20.4 seconds, was set by both Jackie Stewart and Jim Clark in the 1965 Glover Trophy, the last Formula One race at the circuit.
Goodwood held its last race meeting for over 30 years on 2 July 1966, a club meeting organised by the British Automobile Racing Club. The owners chose to close rather than install the additional chicanes that would have been required to accommodate increasing car speeds safely. The decision preserved the circuit's character but ended its active life at the height of the 1960s motor racing boom.
In the years following the closure to racing, Goodwood remained in use as a private test track. On 2 June 1970, McLaren founder Bruce McLaren was killed during a testing session on Lavant Straight when a rear bodywork failure on his McLaren M8D Can-Am car caused it to spin and leave the track, striking a bunker. The accident robbed the sport of one of its most significant designers and team builders.
Following the success of the Goodwood Festival of Speed hillclimb, competitive racing returned to the circuit in 1998 with the inaugural Goodwood Revival. Held annually each September, the Revival is a three-day festival exclusively for cars and motorcycles eligible to have raced during the circuit's original active period, 1948 to 1966. Period dress is strongly encouraged among spectators. In 2008 the event drew 68,000 attendees on the main Sunday. The Revival re-created the endurance races and trophy events of the original era, including the Sussex Trophy and the Royal Automobile Club Tourist Trophy, allowing surviving examples of the period's machinery to race in appropriate context.
Goodwood Circuit hosted the 1982 UCI Road World Championships for cycling, a race notable for an attack by American rider Jacques Boyer that was closed down by a pack that included Greg LeMond, who would later win three Tour de France titles and two Road World Championships. In 2019 the circuit was added to Gran Turismo Sport as a free update. In 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic caused the cancellation of the Festival of Speed and Revival, which were replaced by a combined event called Speedweek; during the event, Nick Padmore set the circuit's all-time outright lap record of 1:09.914 in an Arrows A11.
Goodwood Circuit's combination of high-speed sweeps, narrow width, and immediate proximity to spectator areas made it one of the most atmospheric venues in British motor racing. Its deliberate closure in 1966 — chosen over compromise — preserved a layout that other circuits abandoned through incremental modification. The Revival has since become the world's most celebrated historic motorsport event, ensuring that Goodwood's circuits, cars, and culture remain alive and accessible in a way that most closed tracks never achieve.