Below is an onscene report from England’s Goodwood Festival of Speed by Dan Boys. Dan has made the trip from England to Evergreen Speedway many times in the past few years to race late models, and is currently competing in a racing league in Europe that uses NASCAR-type cars.
Dan sent along several photos, but I’m limited to one photo per blog post so I’ll get the rest out as soon as I can. Thanks, Dan, for the update.
Hello Chaps,
Here is a small report for you from across the pond with your European correspondent! I thought you would like the photos I’ve attached here! On Saturday I went to the Goodwood Festival Of Speed in a lovely part of England called Sussex. The festival has been going for 15 years now and last weekend around 100,000 people went to the Goodwood Estate to see scores of great looking race cars and well known racing drivers.
The event is held in the front garden of the Goodwood estate which is owned by the Earl Of March. The Earl has hundreds of acres of garden and woodland and also owns the old Goodwood racing circuit which ran Formula 1 and Formula 2 cars in the 50s and 60s. There are two events each year at Goodwood, one being the Festival Of Speed and the other being the Revival meeting. The revival meeting runs on the old race track with classic racing cars from the turn of the last century to the 1970s. As the buildings and track are restored to their 1950s look the racing fans are encouraged to dress in period costume too! I went in 1998 and had a great time seeing the old drivers race again.
The Festival Of Speed allows classic and modern race cars to take part in a hillclimb which is basically a 50 second run up the Earl Of March’s front drive!! The cars are encouraged to run at competitive speeds and while some have a crack at getting a good time up the hill there are many others who prefer to wave to the crowds or smoke their tyres as they drive along the course. There are two enormous paddocks of cars that fans can go and see up close – there are no barriers or restrictions and you can take as many photos as you like. The manchinery ranges from the first race cars of the 1900s through to this year’s Formula 1 racers. There are scores of cars and it will take you the whole day just to walk round them all!
The photos attached here show some of the great cars and drivers I had the pleasure of meeting. Amongst the ones you’ll know are Rusty Wallace and Mike Skinner. Wallace drove his 05 Dodge on the course and Skinner drove a Red Bull Camry cup car. Unforunately a lack of time and a jostling crowd meant I couldn’t trade notes with him on racing at Evergreen Speedway. Also in the NASCAR paddock was Taylor and Theresa Earnhardt, Landon Cassill who I’m told is a Hendrick development driver, Gene Filton and a car owner who owns what is thought to be the oldest original NASCAR in existence, a ‘49 Oldsmobile which was great to get upclose too.
I also met Al Unser Sr but didn’t bring anything for him to sign, so I dashed across to the souvenir area and picked up a nice little 1/43 model of his 92 Menards Indycar, rushed back and got him to sign the perspex case. We also had Johnny Rutherford and Jay Leno visiting. No one knew who they were so they just wandered around without getting hassled!
There were dozens of well known European drivers at the event. Kazuke Nakajima, Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button all drove up the hill in their current cars and alot of Grand Prix champions and winners ran demo runs including Stirling Moss (who gets mobbed every time), Jacques Laffite, Marc Gene, Pedro De La Rosa and John Surtees, all well known names in Formula 1. We dodged the rain and a great day was had by all! The Japanese guy in the photo is Nakajima with an early 90s Benetton in the foreground and the old guy in the Mercedes is Stirling Moss. That was the closest I could as I was about 4 from the front and just had hold my camera in the air and hope I got a good picture).
I hope you enjoy the photos!
Best regards,
Dan
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