THE DUKE OF RICHMOND

The Autocar Awards are our annual celebration of the best new cars and the people behind them. Kicking off this year's 42-page coverage, Steve Cropley meets the winner of our most prestigious award

- Steve Cropley

The Duke of Richmond, who we proudly reveal as the winner of this year's Issigonis Trophy, attributes the rise of his world-beating Goodwood motorsport events - spearheaded by the Festival of Speed, 30 years old in 2023 - to the influence of a single, seminal car book that his grandfather gave him when he was just nine years old.

Called The Automobile Book, this important tome was one of a few that at the time contained big, opulent, double-page images of the world's greatest cars. The powerful appeal of these was enhanced by the emotional writing style of the book's American author, Ralph Stein. He influenced many enthusiasts and motoring writers of the time, robustly convincing his audience that a love of cars was something to be proud of and to be savoured.

The fact that young Charles Gordon-Lennox's grandfather was a distinguished man of motoring himself-having designed cars, won the Brooklands Double Twelve and opened the Goodwood racing circuit in 1948 on the family estate was a huge positive influence. But when the 9th Duke of Richmond closed the circuit in 1966 (for various personal reasons that included concern that 3.0-litre Formula 1 cars had become too fast for it), his 10-year-old grandson was "horrified". He began to dream of staging Goodwood motorsport events himself, an itch that persisted through his school days and then in London, where he built a thriving photographic career, eventually setting up his own advertising photography agency. However, the family plan was always for Charles to return to Goodwood to help his father (then the 10th Duke) run the estate, and he duly moved back in 1991.