Goodwood Festival of Speed 2010 – Report and Picture Gallery

Report and photos by Simon Wright and Janet Wright

The Goodwood Festival of Speed 2010 honored the centenary of Alfa Romeo with a centre piece sculpture on the lawn in front of Goodwood house. Shaped like a giant four leaf clover (the Alfa Romeos emblem) it featured an old Alfa Romeo P2 car on one side and a new 8C on the other. At 20 metres tall, it towered over the whole show.

Each year Lord March and his team manage to better their previous performance and make the Festival of Speed bigger and better than the previous year. This year, themed Viva Veloce – The Passion for Speed, was no exception, and to fit in everything, they added an extra day. Thursday became the Moving Motor show day, where manufacturers could show off their latest creations, and the public could try the new models.

Friday saw the start of the traditional Festival of Speed [FoS], with the practice day for the main event weekend.
Each year a mouth watering array of motor sport vehicles are assembled from all around the world, and past and present competitors are invited to drive. This year, besides the Alfa Romeo Centenary celebrations, the FoS was celebrating 60 years of the Formula 1 World Championship and the Carrera Panamericana.

With cars and bikes representing most major types of motorsport, six current Grand Prix teams bought current and classic cars for both static display and for demonstration runs up the hill. Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull, Mercedes, Williams and Lotus all bought cars along, with current World Champion Jenson Button getting the chance to drive the ex-Alain Prost TAG McLaren MP4/2C on the Saturday, and Lewis Hamilton taking over driving duties for McLaren on Sunday. Formula 1 new boy Karun Chandhok had the opportunity to drive a Williams FW08, Red Bull chief designer Adrian Newey blasted up the hill in one of his 2009 Red Bull Renault RB5, while current championship driver contender Mark Webber drove the older 2005 Red Bull Cosworth RB1. Marc Gene entertained the crowds with tyre smoking donuts in the 2009 Ferrari F60, and Jarno Trulli was trying to drive as many Lotus GP cars as possible. On Saturday he drove the black and gold JPS Lotus 78 then as soon as his group returned down the hill he jumped straight back in to the yellow Camel Lotus for another run.

Several former World Champions were reunited with their championship winning car or bike, including Emerson Fittipaldi with his 1972 JPS Lotus 72, Sir Jackie Stewart with his 1973 Tyrell 009 and John Surtees with his 1964 championship-winning Ferrari.

Highlights of the meeting included Sir Jackie Stewart driving Jim Clark’s Lotus Indianapolis winner, using a replica open face helmet similar to the Jim Clark helmet. This was the first time that the car had been used outside of a museum for over 40 years. Other highlights included Jean Ragnotti in his Renault 5 Maxi Turbo Group B Rally car doing high speed 360 degree spins, without stopping, all the way up the hill, and Mike Skinner burning rubber and smoking his tyres all the way up the hill driving the 2007 Toyota Camry NASCAR car of Tomorrow.

Goodwood Festival of Speed 2010 – Picture Gallery

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[Source: Simon and Janet Wright]