3-5 July - Goodwood Festival of Speed 2009
http://www.goodwood.co.uk
The Festival of Speed is far more than just a hillclimb: it can
justifiably claim to be the world's biggest and most diverse
celebration of the history of motor sport and car culture. It is
the only occasion where you will see the greatest competition cars
and star drivers from all eras in action: everything from 19th
century steam carriages to current Formula One; fabulous racing
motorcycles; classic rally cars to 3000bhp dragsters; plus motor
sport legends like Moss, Surtees, Fittipaldi and Andretti rubbing
shoulders with today's hottest properties such as Lewis Hamilton,
Jenson Button, Fernando Alonso and Petter Solberg.
Motor racing first came to Goodwood in 1936 when the 9th Duke of
Richmond held a private hillclimb through the park. Five years
earlier he had won the Brooklands Double 12, and then in 1948 he
went on to open the famous Goodwood Motor Circuit. These early
events inspired his grandson, the present Earl of March, to bring
motor sport back to Goodwood. This resulted in the first Festival
of Speed, held in 1993 in the picturesque parkland surrounding
Goodwood House.
Since the inaugural meeting, the Festival has become established
as a key event in the motor sport social calendar. But it is not
all about action on the hill. A 2.5-kilometre
loose-surface rally stage - cut into the wooded area close to the
hillclimb finish line - has around 30 cars from the history of
rallying providing a thrilling demonstration of sideways driving
throughout all three days of the event. Unrestricted access to the
paddocks means that spectators and autograph hunters can get closer
to the cars and drivers than at almost any other meeting.
Away from the bustle of competition, you can relax with a picnic
on the lawns of the House among some of the most beautiful and
innovative automotive creations, which are judged in the Cartier
'Style et Luxe' design competition. You can explore the exciting
displays of our many exhibitors, or visit the Goodwood Technology
Pavilion
(FOSTech), that showcases a variety of exciting new technologies
from the motor manufacturers, design specialists and other motor
industry suppliers with a strong emphasis on future
environmentally-considerate motoring and personal mobility.
You can seek an adrenaline rush from the Festival's interactive
entertainment, including driving simulators and 4x4 driving,
children will delight in the special amusements to be found at the
Junior Festival of Speed and the Supercar Paddock will delight
visitors of all ages with a mouth-watering display of the very
latest exotica for the road.
The Festival is motor racing's equivalent of Ascot or Wimbledon:
an extravaganza of sound and colour that has been described as 'the
garden party of the Gods'. In combination with the rich period
theatre of the Goodwood Revival, the Festival of Speed ensures that
Goodwood is unrivalled throughout the world.
What happenend last July
2009?
With the annual Festival of Speed
now over for another year, Goodwood is reflecting on a fabulous
weekend that attracted a credit crunch-defying 152,000+ motor sport
fans - the second highest Festival attendance ever - as well as
over 120 star racing drivers and riders. These included
reigning World Champions Lewis Hamilton (F1) and Sebastien Loeb
(WRC), as well as the current F1 World Championship leader Jenson
Button. Below is a snap shot of just a few of the highlights
from a very memorable weekend at Goodwood.
Formula One: The F1
drivers and teams put on a great show for the Festival spectators
with spectacular demonstrations of car control and lurid
donuts. Lewis Hamilton said "It's a shame we're not allowed
to do donuts at races," but he more than made up for this at
Goodwood, as did Timo Glock in his Toyota and Red Bull Racing's
Mark Webber. The 2009 F1 World Champion elect Jenson Button
drove a mighty 1934 Mercedes-Benz W25, saying "I thought I'd give
it a go, although the brake and throttle are 'round the other way
to what I'm used to!"
Forest Rally Stage:
Five-time World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb was on stellar form
in his Citroen C4 WRC. Despite never having seen the Goodwood
course prior to his maiden run, he flung his C4 around with abandon
and instantly established a benchmark time considerably faster than
the next man. His team mate Dani Sordo also put in a
blistering performance on the stage on Sunday, as did legendary
rally drivers Walter Rohrl, Stig Blomqvist, Rauno Aaltonen, Hannu
Mikkola and Bjorn Waldegard throughout the weekend.
Anniversaries: Audi celebrated its
100th anniversary in great style at the Festival, with a
jaw-dropping 'central feature' display outside of Goodwood House, a
popular exhibition site, and a mouth-watering selection of historic
Audi racing cars, including Auto Unions, quattros and R10 and R15
Le Mans racers. The centenary of both Bugatti and Morgan were
marked by Goodwood too with some truly desirable cars. The
75th anniversary of the German Silver Arrow racers saw a
record gathering of 14 examples from Auto Union and Mercedes-Benz,
and a paddock row filled with 14 Porsche 917s (40 years after its
introduction) proved to be a highly popular site. Fifty years
of the Mini was also honoured with various examples of the
Issigonis classic at the Festival.
Americana:
American entertainment legends Jay Leno and Peter Fonda were a big
hit with the Festival crowds, Fonda riding his famous 'Captain
America' chopper from the influential movie Easy Rider up
the Goodwood Hill throughout the Festival weekend. Cult US
television presenter Jesse James also delighted the fans with his
crazy exploits on his menacing 950bhp Baja-style 'Trophy
Truck. Equally alien to European sensitivities, the mighty
NASCAR stock car racers went down a storm.
Cartier 'Style et
Luxe': Judging was frantic in this annual automotive
design concours, with Will Young, Jasmin Le Bon, James Martin and
many other star judges finally declaring the stunning 1934
Hispano-Suiza H6C Xenia the Best of Show against some very stiff
competition. On Festival Sunday, the Cartier Lawn had the
added attraction of 'The Magnificent Seven, a collection of
desirable Ferraris owned by presenter Chris Evans, with six of the
seven resprayed in dazzling white to help raise funds for the BBC
Children In Need charity.
Timed Run Shoot
Out: For the first time in many years, Sunday
afternoon saw the fastest timed cars up the 1.16-mile Goodwood
hillclimb shoot it out against the clock in an exciting timed
run. Festival stalwart Justin Law aced the course to take the
Fastest Time of the Day award aboard a Jaguar XJR-12 in an
astonishing 44.40-seconds.
Other attractions over the Festival
weekend including a run of the very latest supercars and
interesting low-emission vehicles, spectacular air displays by the
Eurofighter Typhoon and Red Arrows, some stunning bike runs by many
top motorcycle riders, a record-breaking Porsche 48-hour human
endurance run, stacks of new model debuts in FoS-TECH and the
exhibition stands, the Wacky Races and Junior Festival of Speed,
plus hundreds of important historic racing cars and
drivers.
All-in-all, the competitors and spectators agreed, the 2009
Festival of Speed was a truly wonderful weekend of
entertainment. With so much to see and do, the spectator
feedback suggested that this was the best of the 17 Festival of
Speed events to date. Lord March and his team are already
hard at work planning the 2010 Festival, although before that they
have the 2009 Goodwood Revival to keep them busy, which takes place
this year from 18-20 September.
A few facts :
We've created some interesting facts and figures of some of the
bizarre and wonderful things that are taking place at Goodwood
:
• More than 150,000 visitors are expected to visit the
Festival of Speed to see their favourite star cars, motorcycles,
drivers and riders in action
• The estimated value of the 350 cars participating
in this year's Festival exceeds a staggering £257million
• 14 pre-War Auto Union and Mercedes-Benz Silver
Arrow Racers worth a cool £100million
• A record 120 star drivers and riders including two
reigning World Champions plus the current F1 World Championship
leader
• A scale model of the British Bloodhound Land Speed
Record car make its public debut
• Over 30 new production passenger car models are
seen for the first time
• A record gathering of Silver Arrow racers (14),
Williams F1 cars (13) and Porsche 917 endurance racers
(12)
• If laid end to end, the straw bales would stretch
for nearly 10 miles
• During the Festival 60,000 cars are parked up and
would stretch from Goodwood to the London Eye and back again if
parked end to end
• Over 5 miles of temporary roads laid
• More than 10,000 Goodwood organic burgers are
consumed
• Over two thousand bottles of Veuve Clicquot
champagne are quaffed
• 1,100 toilets will be installed
• Goodwood is located very close to Chichester and
Bognor Regis, which are statistically the sunniest places in the
UK
Photos : goodwood
