TV star & ex-Formula 1 racer Tiff Needell to appear in an SD1 Rover at the Goodwood 73rd Members’ Meeting

Television star and ex-Formula 1 racer Tiff Needell is the latest big name to be added to the Goodwood 73^rdMembers’ Meeting line-up as the star-studded entry list for the March 21-22 event nears completion.

Needell, whose father Tony contested the inaugural Members’ Meeting at Goodwood in 1949, will race in the Gerry Marshall Trophy for Group 1 touring cars of upto 1982 vintage, which is named in honour of the 1970s tin-top cult hero.

The Fifth Gear and former Top Gear presenter, who started the 1980 Belgian Grand Prix for the British Ensign team and can also list a British Touring Car race win and a podium finish at the Le Mans 24 Hours among his many achievements, will race a 1981 Rover 3500 SD1.

Tiff and the Rover he will be driving

Other pictures of Tiff and SD1 Rovers (The most beautiful cars of its era)

The car, which carries the famous Daily Express livery, is the same machine in which Needell finished ninth in last year’s Gerry Marshall Trophy. He will once again share the former Dave Price Racing and Tom Walkinshaw Racing car with its owner, Peter Mallett.

Goodwood House Captains Emanuele Pirro (Torbolton), Jochen Mass (Darnley) and Nicolas Minassian (Aubigny), all of whom will lead their respective teams in pursuit of the Goodwood House Trophy, have all now had their cars for the Gerry Marshall Trophy confirmed.

Formula 1 Grand Prix winner Mass will pilot a 1982-spec Rover 3500 SD1 in the Sanyo livery made famous by Jeff Allam’s British Touring Car exploits while five-time Le Mans 24 Hours winner Pirro – second in last year’s race – will drive Philip Perryman’s 1977 UFO Jeans BMW 530i; a car that makes its Members’ Meeting debut in 2015.

Minassian, who was unable to compete in last year’s event, has secured a seat in Duncan McKay’s BP Ford Capri III 3.0S, which was driven by Darren Turner last year. Anthony Reid, whose Methuen House took the prize in 2014, was last week confirmed to drive a Triumph Dolomite Sprint.

They join a top-line list of current and former professional racers in the Gerry Marshall Trophy, which includes 2012 World Touring Car champion Rob Huff, BTCC title winners Andrew Jordan Tim Harvey, Robb Gravett and tin-top heroes Steve Soper, Darren Turner, Rob Austin, Stuart Graham and Patrick Watts.