IN THIS FEATURE The perfect race meeting A catalogue of highs A flash back to pre-Goodwood days TT - Revival highlight

Then a flash back to pre-Goodwood days, when Brooklands was a functional racetrack and Bentleys fought with straight-eight Alfas and supercharged Mercedes-Benz SSKs. The Alfa Tipo B monopostos dominate, their exhaust beat contrasting with the straight-eight Bugattis' blare (different firing orders), but one of the most intriguing sights and sounds is of the 24-litre Napier Bentley spinning its wheels up the pit straight followed by the frantic wail of a 750cc supercharged MG Q-type. And what about the pair of Morgan three-wheelers? Vee-twin JAP engines of 1260cc, just one rear wheel and two gears, and there they are running confidently mid-field. It's heroic.

Saturday night and it's the masked fancy-dress ball in a converted hangar on the infield. The theme is old Venice (apart from the Spitfire and Mustang in their low-level flying display as we drank Champagne outside), and the prize surely goes to BMW GB PR chief Chris Willows who looks for all the world like Elton John at his most baroque. My wife got to know Nick Mason, too, by nearly poking him in the eye as she pointed delightedly at another towering hat.

St Mary's Trophy, on Sunday

Sunday, and part two of the St Mary's Trophy has the cars' owners racing instead. Grant Williams is the favourite, in a his grey Jaguar Mk1 which has worn its BUY 1 registration number ever since Roy Salvadori raced it in the 1950s. He's on pole, and streaks past into Madgwick (the first, and complex, corner) with tyres characteristically smoking as the tail flails. He just can't help himself.

But disaster! The Zodiac runs out of track as everyone fights for the line, edges into the gravel and gracefully rolls. The damage doesn't look severe but its race is run. So is that of Desmond Smail's little DKW Sonderlasse, which pop-bangs to an unfixable halt. The race is stopped while the Zodiac is moved, and a lap after the re-start Williams is in the pits because his Jaguar's bonnet isn't shut properly. This is excellent news for us because he's rejoined at the back of the field and will have to be especially sideways to make up ground. Which he does, but meanwhile that amazing A35 has taken the lead, driven by Rae Davis. Williams catches the Austin, Justin Law's Jaguar and Jim Woodley's A105 in pursuit, but is a couple of car-lengths behind as the flag drops. 'I thought there was another lap to go,' said Grant Williams. You could almost hear the lower lip trembling.