Goodwood Festival of Speed

The Goodwood Festival of Speed is an annual hill climb featuring historic motor racing vehicles held in the grounds of Goodwood House, West Sussex, England in late June or early July; the event is scheduled to avoid clashing with the Formula One season, enabling fans to see F1 machines as well as cars and motorbikes from motor racing history climb the hill.

History

Founding

The Goodwood Festival of Speed was founded in 1993 by Lord March in order to bring motor racing back to the Goodwood estate — a location steeped in British motor racing history. Shortly after taking over the estate in the early 1990s, Lord March (as he is formally known) wanted to bring back motor racing to Goodwood Circuit, but did not have the necessary permit to host a race there. Therefore, he instead hosted it on his own grounds. With a small selection of entrants made up of invited historic vehicles, the first event that took place on Sunday 13 June proved to be a success, taking in a crowd of 25,000 despite a date clash with the 24 Hours of Le Mans that year. For the following year, the event expanded to two days, and in 1996 added one extra day on Friday. After its date clash for the first event, Lord March would ensure that the event would never be allowed to clash with either Le Mans or Formula One races.

Features and attractions

Between 2000 and 2004, one of the unique features of the event was the Soapbox Challenge, a downhill race for gravity-powered cars. However, as accidents became frequent, costs of cars became higher, and safety rules became tighter, it did not return in 2005. The specially-built forest stage for rally cars was introduced that year. The other unique feature from 1997 until present is the spectacular Gerry Judah sculpture in front of Goodwood House incorporating rare racecars.

One of the other most popular attractions is the Sunday Times Supercar Run for road-going supercars, which has been running since 2000. It is now common for speciality car manufacturers to show off their latest sports model, including newly released mass-produced sports models and working concept models.

Other popular attractions at the event are the real life replicas of the Wacky Races cars, which serves to provide lunchtime entertainment for the crowds, and the airshows, which usually include the RAF Tornado and Red Arrows, and in 2004 and 2005 a low-flying Boeing 747; a low-flying Airbus A380 appeared at the 2008 event.

For a change of pace, also held is the Cartier Style et Luxe, an auto show which takes place close to the track, similar to the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. Entry is usually by invitation, and this provides some leeway as to which type of vehicle can enter, usually resulting in a more varied event than usual Concours d'Elegance. Unlike most concours shows, the Cartier Style et Luxe is judged by a panel of selected judges consisting of celebrities from all around the world to car designers. Since its beginning, the poster art has been illustrated by renowned motor racing artist Peter Hearsey.

Other factors also make the Festival of Speed unique as a motor sport event. Thanks to the event's classification as a hill climb, its location and desire to reflect the style and history of motor sport, visitors are afforded close views of the action - separated only by a few metres and reinforced straw bales from the track. Visitors are free to walk around several paddocks where the cars and drivers can be seen at close quarters. The atmosphere of the Festival of Speed, when compared to the separation of fans from drivers and machines common to most top end motor sport events, encourages participation by the fans.

The record time for the hillclimb was set in 1999 when Nick Heidfeld drove a McLaren MP4/13 Formula One car up the hill in 41.6 seconds (100.385 mph). For safety reasons Formula One cars are no longer allowed to do official timed runs, and will often focus on demonstrations that are spectacular rather than fast. In 2006 Heikki Kovalainen completed the course in a Renault R25 F1 car and was unofficially timed below 40 seconds.

Other events

The Festival of Speed has a sister event, the Goodwood Revival Meeting. This event, normally held in early September, relives the glory days of the Goodwood Motor Racing Circuit.

For 2010, an unofficial fourth day was added to the event prior to the opening day. Dubbed the Moving Motor Show, it was added in response to the cancellation of the British International Motor Show aimed exclusively for buyers of new cars, allowing them a chance to test the cars on the course. Following its success, it was announced the MMS would return in 2011.

The 2010 event also included the running of the new McLaren MP4-12C.

Incidents

There have been two separate fatal accidents at the event.

The first was during its inaugural meeting in 1993, when vintage racing motorcyclist Chas Guy was killed in practice following the completion of the course when his Vincent motorcycle developed a steering wobble known as a tank slapper, throwing the rider into a tree. Since then, motorcycles are not timed for their run.

In 2000, driver John Dawson-Damer lost control of his Lotus 63, and crashed into the finish line gantry, killing himself and marshal Andrew Carpenter. Another marshal, Steve Tarrant, survived but sustained serious injuries to the lower part of his right leg. Since his recovery, despite his disability, he continues to marshal to this day. The gantry has since been made wider.

Hillclimb fastest lap times

Goodwood Festival of Speed Lap Times