The circuit originated as the perimeter track of RAF Westhampnett, constructed during World War II as a relief airfield for RAF Tangmere. The first race meeting took place on 18 September 1948, organised by the Junior Car Club and sanctioned by the Duke of Richmond and Gordon. The winner of the first race was P. de F. C. Pycroft in his 2,664 cc Pycroft-Jaguar, at 66.42 mph (106.89 km/h). Stirling Moss won the 500 cc race, followed by Eric Brandon and "Curly" Dryden, all in Coopers.
Goodwood became famous for the Glover Trophy non-championship Formula One race, the Goodwood Nine Hours sports car endurance races run in 1952, 1953, and 1955, and the Tourist Trophy sports car race, held here between 1958 and 1964. Mike Hawthorn and Graham Hill had their first single-seat races at Goodwood. Roger Penske visited in 1963, and Jim Clark and Jack Sears competed in 1964. The accident that ended Stirling Moss's international career happened at St. Mary's in 1962.
The original circuit featured a fast left-hand curve between the Woodcote corner and the start-finish line, with the pit lane on the infield side of the curve's exit. After Giuseppe Farina won the 1951 Goodwood Trophy in his Alfa Romeo 159 at over 95 mph (153 km/h), increasing car speeds prompted organisers to replace the curve with a chicane in 1952. The chicane was initially made of straw bales and boarding; brick walls were constructed in 1953. Despite a number of accidents, the brick chicane survived until the circuit's closure in 1966, before it was rammed and destroyed in the mid-1970s by a Team Surtees transporter leaving after a test session. When the circuit was restored in the late 1990s, the chicane was remade using polystyrene blocks.
In July 1960 and again in July 1962, Donald Campbell demonstrated the Bluebird CN7 Land Speed Record car at Goodwood ahead of shipping it to Australia, where it broke the record in 1964. The 30-foot-long Bristol Siddeley turbine-powered streamliner produced 4,500 hp and had a theoretical top speed of 450 to 500 mph; its Goodwood laps were conducted at "tick-over" speed, reaching a maximum of 100 mph on the straight due to the car having only four degrees of steering lock.
The circuit's last race meeting of the original era was a club meeting organised by the British Automobile Racing Club on 2 July 1966. The owners chose not to modify the track with additional chicanes to control modern car speeds. The lap record from the original era was 1 minute 20.4 seconds, set by both Jackie Stewart and Jim Clark in the 1965 Glover Trophy, the final Formula One race held at the circuit.
On 2 June 1970, the circuit claimed the life of McLaren founder Bruce McLaren during a testing session. The accident happened on the Lavant Straight when a rear bodywork failure on his McLaren M8D Can-Am car caused it to spin and leave the track, hitting a bunker. That car subsequently went on to win the opening event of the 1970 Can-Am Championship.
Racing returned to the circuit in 1998, following the success of the Festival of Speed hillclimb. The Goodwood Revival is a three-day festival held each September for cars and motorcycles that competed during the circuit's original 1948–1966 period, with historic aircraft adding to the vintage atmosphere. In 2008, Sunday attendance reached 68,000 — 9,000 more than in 2007. The track is now used for classic races, track days, and try-out days; nearly all spectators dress in period attire.
In 2009, the Mongol Rally moved its starting point from Hyde Park, London to Goodwood, with entrants parading on the circuit. The "Breakfast Club," introduced in March 2006, is a semi-regular themed monthly gathering open to all, with themed vehicles displayed on the start-finish straight.
The circuit hosted the 1982 UCI Road World Championships for cycle racing. The men's professional race saw a late breakaway by American rider Jacques Boyer closed down by a pack led by his teammate Greg LeMond. The National Finals of the Greenpower schools electric car racing challenge take place at Goodwood annually; corporate participants include teams from Lola, Jaguar Land Rover, Bentley Motors, and Prodrive. The circuit served as a filming location for the drama series Downton Abbey and was added to Gran Turismo Sport as a free update in May 2019.
In 2020, the Festival of Speed, members', and Revival meetings were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and replaced by a combined event called Speedweek. The all-time outright lap record of 1:09.914 was set by Nick Padmore in an Arrows A11 during the 2020 Goodwood Speedweek timed shootout.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.