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I was within sight of Sir Jack's accident in 1999, and nasty it certainly was. He was dicing with another car (Jackie Oliver I think), and they both tripped over a backmarker who tried too hard to get out of the way at the entrance to Lavant corner. Sir Jack's McLaren M4 rode over the other car's wheel, and was launched backwards into the top third of the tyre wall.
Now, the fact that it wouldn't have taken much more of a deflection to put him in the crowd meant that the FIA had serious misgivings about the circumstances. As the Goodwood circuit originally closed in 1966 due to the excessive speeds attainable by F1 and Sports GTs by that stage, it was decided that the anachronistic running of a 3-litre F1 race should be abolished, so that there there was no question of modifying the circuit to suit out-of-period cars.
Despite sustaining a couple of cracked ribs, I don't think it was very long before Sir Jack was appearing at car events again, albeit as a spectatior. On the video for this year's Goodwood Revival, Sir Jack is interviewed about his plans, and assures the interviewer that preparations for his forthcoming retirement may have to be reviewed....
I don't think the old boy wants to stop just yet!
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