Author: Pat W

Photos from Goodwood Festival of Speed 2009

Goodwood on Sunday was fantastic!

From 2009 Goodwood Festival of Speed

I have uploaded 319 photos of various quality from the day, you may view them here, if you so choose:

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/PatrickWotton/2009GoodwoodFestivalOfSpeed#

I had a fantastic day which capped a great weekend, and I was well and truly shattered at the end of it, so tired! Absolutely 100% worth it though and I recommend the event to anybody (with a few caveats – more on that another time).

As you will have hopefully seen on my Twitter feed or in the photoset above I got photos of Stirling Moss, John Surtees, Jenson Button, Jay Leno, Jesse James and a huge number of classic, priceless racing cars. I’ll tell you all about it as soon as I can sit down to write the posts! That’s a plural because I may do a large post or several smaller updates, I need to work out which will work better.

In the meantime I hope you enjoy the photos, and I’ll also point you in the direction of first-time attendee Lukeh who’s blog post sums it up perfectly. I’ll link to more people’s blogs/photos in future entries.

2009 Goodwood Festival of Speed

Tomorrow I will be attending the Goodwood Festival of Speed for the 3rd time.

I had been considering it for a while and had pretty much decided against it until midweek, when I realised I urgently needed – yes needed – to get to a motorsport event, not having been to one since September. Luckily the tickets were still available on Thursday morning (is this normal or are sales slow?) so this is a very last-minute decision but one I don’t regret at all.

I will be attempting to tweet comments during the day to @TooMuchRacing but this will very much depend on the phone signals. There will be a lot of people in one place in a rural area so the network may get overloaded, in which case you’ll have to wait for me to upload pics from my camera when I get home tomorrow night (don’t tweet and drive, kids).

In the meantime, feel free to enjoy my photos from 2002 and 2003 visits in my Picasa album. I am not claiming they are masterpieces but I hope they give a flavour of the event!

I’ll probably be fairly incognito not being one to shout about myself, and I’ll be attending as a fan rather than trying to get any media access as many bloggers do – so this blogger will be deploying in stealth mode. Not to mention I have nothing to identify myself as TooMuchRacing other than telling people. I intend to have a busy yet relaxed day, if possible.

Will blog upon my return!

Weekend Preview: 4-5 July 2009

Feature Events

Goodwood Festival of Speed

– Goodwood House, Chichester, West Sussex, England, UK
– www.goodwood.co.uk/motorsport/

This event grows every single year without fail, it was huge when I attended in 2002 and 2003 and reportedly it is even bigger now, with an expanded rally stage and other updates. Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button and Sebastien Loeb will be present among the luminaries of racing history such as Stirling Moss, Jackie Stewart (tbc), Damon Hill, Al Unser Sr and Rusty Wallace. The big news though?

I am hoping to attend on Sunday! I’ll be looking for last-minute tickets Thursday morning and if I’m successful I will be tweeting to @toomuchracing throughout Sunday, for as long as the battery and network signal allow.


IndyCar Series

– Camping World Fifth Annual Grand Prix at the Glen
– Watkins Glen International, New York, United States
– (9/17)
– www.indycar.com

After a long oval swing lasting several months the IndyCars make their return to the roads at the sweeping Watkins Glen circuit, utilising the full GP layout as opposed to the shorter N-word layout.

This is a good race track, nice and fast out the back and despite being narrow and bumpy it does have a couple of possible passing spots for those willing to go for them.

TV Guide:
UK – LIVE on Sky Sports 2 at 6pm Sunday
USA – LIVE on ABC at 1pm ET Sunday

MotoGP

– Red Bull United States Grand Prix
– Laguna Seca, Monterey, California, United States
– (8/17)
– www.motogp.com

The first of two visits to the US for the premiere class of motorbike racing, they’ll go to Indy later in the summer. For now a visit to California and a track which is notorious for being hard to pass at, even on bikes, and with vicious unrelenting gravel traps.

If anyone can advise of US TV coverage in the comments below, I’d be grateful.

TV Guide:
UK – LIVE on BBC Two at 10pm Sunday night
Delayed on Eurosport

 

Other Events


NASCAR Sprint Cup

– Coke Zero 400
– Daytona International Speedway, Daytona, Florida, USA
– (18/36)
– www.nascar.com

TV Guide:
UK – LIVE on Sky Sports 1 at 1am Saturday night / Sunday morning
USA – LIVE on TNT at 7.30pm ET Saturday

If you’re not into staying up all night to watch NASCAR, this race is repeated in the UK both directly before AND after(!!) the Watkins Glen IndyCar race on Sunday on Sky Sports 2.

For all other events I will list the UK time (BST not GMT) and channel only, if you are elsewhere you will have to look it up (check their website).

FIA World Touring Cars

– Porto
– Boavista circuit, Porto, Portugal
– (7/12)
– Eurosport: Race 1 @ 11.15am, Race 2 @ 4.30pm
– www.fiawtcc.com


World Series by Renault

– Silverstone
– Unable to locate any TV coverage


Grand-Am Rolex Series

– Daytona
– (7/12)
– www.grand-am.com


British F3

– Snetterton


German F3

– Lausitzring

* * * *

For those in the UK, don’t forget Top Gear on BBC2 at 8pm Sunday!

I am again going to be offline for a while. I should be here and there for a short time on Friday.
On Thursday I’m going to see Blur in Hyde Park, London (have waited a nearly decade for them to get back together!), and I’m not here Saturday either. Then Sunday I’m hopefully at Goodwood! If I make it I will recap the day, with pictures, during next week.

Weekend Preview: 27-28 June 2009

Feature Events

IndyCar Series

– SunTrust Indy Challenge
– Richmond International Raceway, Richmond, Virginia, USA
– (8/17)
– 300 laps
– www.indycar.com

A Saturday evening race as darkness falls at the short oval where traffic will be an issue, it could cause problems or it could help the racing as the better drivers through lapped traffic will run well.

TV Guide:
UK – LIVE on Sky Sports 1 at 1:30am Sunday morning
USA – LIVE on VERSUS at 8pm ET Saturday night for an 8.45pm green flag (why not a nice easy 9pm??)

Support races: USAC Silver Crown, USAC Sprint Car


MotoGP

– Alice TT Assen
– Assen, Holland
– (7/17)
– www.motogp.com

MotoGP is also on a Saturday as is the tradition at Assen.

TV Guide:
UK – LIVE on BBC Two at 12:40pm Saturday afternoon
Delayed on Eurosport

Support races: 250cc and 125cc available on the BBC Red Button

Other Events


NASCAR Sprint Cup

– Lenox Industrial Tools 301
– New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Loudon, New Hampshire, USA
– (17/36)
– www.nascar.com

TV Guide:
UK – LIVE on Sky Sports 1 at 7pm Sunday
USA – LIVE on TNT at 1.30pm ET Sunday

(The Nationwide Series at Loudon on Saturday night, Trucks are at Memphis also on Saturday)

For all other events I will list the UK time (BST not GMT) and channel only, if you are elsewhere you will have to look it up (check their website).


World Rally Championship

– Rally Poland
– (5/10)
– Eurosport and Dave
– www.wrc.com
This is the first time Rally Poland has been a part of the WRC.

DTM

– Norisring
– Nuremburg, Germany
– (3/8)
– live web streaming: just before 1pm Sunday
– www.dtm.tv
The UK TV deal collapsed when Setanta Sports did, let’s hope someone else picks it up. Check the webstream if you can, Norisring is nuts!
(supported by F3 Euroseries)

Superleague Formula

– Magny-Cours, France
– (1/6)
– Eurosport 2: Race 1 at 10am, Race 2 at 1pm followed by the new ‘extra time final’
– there may be live streaming on the website? I refuse to look at it.
– www.superleagueformula.com
The whole idea is a bunch of hokum clearly, but it features interesting if unspectacular drivers such as Enrique Bernoldi, Giorgio Pantano, Antonio Pizzonia, Yelmer Buurman, Adrian Valles, Tristan Gommendy and Ho-Pin Tung, all in powerful V12 single-seaters.

(also on the bill: Euroseries 3000, this is the series which picked up the old Lola A1 cars, no telly coverage as far as I know)

FIA Formula 2

– Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium
– (3/8)
– Eurosport: Race 1 live 12pm Saturday, Race 2 delayed 11:30pm Sunday night but there is live streaming online
– www.formulatwo.com
The first visit to Spa for this series should be a bit of fun!
(with the International GT Open and the Dutch Supercar Challenge)


Formula Nippon

– Fuji, Japan


Grand-Am Rolex Series

– Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Lexington, Ohio, USA
– (6/12)
– www.grand-am.com


Super GT

– Sepang, Malaysia
– (4/9)
– www.supergt.net/en

* * * *

For those in the UK, don’t forget Top Gear on BBC2 at 8pm Sunday!

I will be quiet on the blog and on Twitter for a few days because I’ll be offline, if anything crazy happens I’ll text it in but won’t see responses until Sunday at the earliest. Enjoy the weekend!