Well, it’s inevitable that not everyone will enjoy the event regardless of weather, activities and the number of people who turn up on the day. I understand a number of traders pulled out at the last minute for reasons that Iain F may be able to elaborate on, so in that regard it was a little disappointing. The issue of traders is often contentious but, as has been pointed out to myself and others in the past, many traders now work mostly online and the cost and time involved to travel, in some cases, large distances to events with no guarantee of numbers of visitors, puts some off. Must admit I got my head royally chewed off by many when I commented on the lack of traders after my first Spring Rally!
The weather yesterday didn’t help although I’ve been to colder and wetter rallies (MX5 and others) so this one wasn’t so bad, but I appreciate it will have an impact on how people perceive the event. That is the big problem with the spring rally ie the unpredictability of the British weather, which we can hardly blame the club for. You can generally be a little more confident about the weather for the National Rally though.
Yes, it was unfortunate about the Spitfire hangar and flights. If nothing else, it would have been a sight to see them in the hangar and even better watching them take off and land, but as some else said, this was beyond the control of the club so again, we can’t criticise them for it.
I’m not sure what the OP was expecting for the track parade. There’s no way the Goodwood marshals were going to let 500+ cars loose to blast around at high speed. This was not a track day. It was just a bit of fun and for many, just being able to say they’ve driven around one of, if not the most historic racing circuits in Britain was pleasure enough. I suppose with hindsight if everyone hadn’t been parked on the track then it could potentially have been done in several sessions but the logistics would have been a nightmare, giving everyone time slots and then herding them to and from the track. No doubt there would then have been complaints that this took up most fo the day and there wasn’t time to see or do anything else. Like I said though, this was not a track day. I thoroughly enjoyed the track parade despite the slow speed. I saw plenty of people having lots of very short(!) races and generally having a laugh which was what it was all about.
So the moral of the story is simple - you can’t please everyone so you just have to do the best you can and hope the majority find something interesting. For what it’s worth, I enjoyed it despite the cold and lack of traders. I was fortunate to be marshalling which kept me busy for 2-3 hours and it was great watching everyone come in and the track fill up with cars. A big thanks to Iain F and OC team as well as Mal, Terry and the Solent Area guys for organising the event.
To the OP, don’t be put off by this event. Make sure to go to the National Rally in September when I’m sure you will find the weather and the event/activities generally will be even better.