Goodwood Festival of Speed preview
Goodwood’s Festival of Speed is 25 years old and the highlights this weekend should provide a fitting anniversary
In 1936 the current Duke of Richmond and Gordon’s gifted grandfather – racer and aviator Freddie March – invited motoring chums to take part in a hillclimb at Goodwood House, his magnificent family seat near Chichester, and started a tradition. One that accelerated when the estate’s wartime aerodrome – RAF Westhampnett – was opened to racing in ’48. A decade later its first world championship sportscar round was won by all-time top gun Stirling Moss, the 500cc victor on day one. Gracious yet grounded, Goodwood always did its major events differently. The then-duke entertained racing royalty at home, in an intensely dangerous era when respect and fellowship underpinned the greatest sporting rivalries. With event organiser the British Automobile Racing Club, the venue rekindled the spirit and spectacle that drew enthusiasts in their droves to Brooklands until 1939. Thus a new set of‘ brand fans’ was born. Freddie March’s genes – his insatiable need for speed – skipped a generation (the next Duke preferred four-legged horsepower, raced at Goodwood since 1802). Fortunately for us they live on in Freddie’s grandson Charles, head of the dynasty since his father’s death last September. While dreams of reopening the motor circuit, closed in July 1966, remained over the horizon, mired in council red tape, the inaugural Festival of Speed in June ’93 paved the way for the first Revival in ’98. That small experimental gathering in his front garden – on Le Mans weekend, with the sport numbed by James Hunt’s early death the previous week – was a runaway success. Around 25,000 curious folks attended the renaissance, and the seed flourished rapidly into an extravaganza of extraordinary breadth and depth, an aspirational ‘bucket-list’ destination for competitors and petrolheads globally. Starting today (Thursday), four days after the British Grand Prix, eight F1 teams are supporting this weekend’s Silver Jubilee edition. Alongside the very latest in winning technology, it focuses on the Festival of Speed creator’s 25 personal favourite memories from its history; subjective snapshots reflecting heroes, great marques, tireless endeavour, ultimate achievement and abject failure selected by the Duke of Richmond and Gordon, the visionary to whom pilgrims owe an enormous debt of gratitude. With more than 600 cars and motorcycles taking part in the hillclimb or peppering the paddocks around Goodwood House, backdrop to Gerry Judah’s Seven Decades of Porsche installation, there is something for everyone before the final shootout determines who enters the history books. F1 world champions Sir Jackie Stewart, Emerson Fittipaldi, Mika Hakkinen and Jenson Button – looking forward to driving a screaming 1968 Honda RA301 on Sunday – head the dramatis personae. NASCAR king Richard Petty, triple Indy 500 winner Johnny Rutherford and sportscar legend Scott Pruett lead US troupes. World rally champions Walter Rohrl and Sebastien Ogier, BTCC title winners Matt Neal, Colin Turkington and Andrew Jordan, and bike legends Giacomo Agostini, Carl Fogarty and Freddie Spencer are due too. But among the greatest cars of the past, present and future, the prospect of Pikes Peak winner Romain Dumas launching an all-out assault on Nick Heidfeld’s 20-year-old course record of 41.6s in Volkswagen’s sensational electric I.D. R monster is what fans are looking forward to most. Change will keep the show fresh.