Category: 2009

At the end of the last post I had three hours to kill before Jenson Button appeared on the Mercedes stage. I wasn’t all too fussed about that actually, I only wanted to go because you don’t see Formula 1 drivers every day and I actually knew he was going to be there rather than chancing a meeting in the paddock.

It was 12pm and I was starting to get hungry. I headed to the concessions to check out the prices. £5.50 for a basic burger, £7 for a decent one. I take the packet of McCoys crisps from my bag and walk on in search of an event programme.

You need a programme at Goodwood because without it you don’t know when to get trackside, and you don’t have a hope of planning your whereabouts to coincide with drivers arriving/departing the paddock. Relieved of £12, but given a ‘free’ radio (ok I’m paying for it, just tell me I am, yeah?) and another magazine about the people attending, I immediately thumb the programme to figure out what to do next: go to the track, then explore paddock. The programme seller was positioned between gaps in hospitality marquees so I got my first good look at this year’s sculpture.

Audi Sculpture, Goodwood House, from 2009 Goodwood Festival of Speed

I cross the bridge and immediately spot celebrity chef and 2008 Mille Miglia entrant James Martin signing autographs. I choose not to do same, or even get a photo, because I don’t care about James Martin.

Cars are starting to run up the hill again now so I take up station by the bridge to watch – this is the sportscar section and I want to see the new Audi, Peugeot and Aston in the flesh! First though, a massive group of Porsches. I’m sure if you were a fan in their era you would have found this section riveting, and they did look and sound great, but really.. there were a LOT of them.

1969 Porsche 917K, from 2009 Goodwood Festival of Speed

One of the drawbacks at Goodwood is the need to rub elbows to get anything like a decent view if you are not in a grandstand. The covered grandstands cost a fortune, though there are freely available open grandstands dotted around the place – unfortunately not in this location. This meant trying to peer around the side of the people next to you, who were trying to do the same to the people next to them! When they stay back you can get a really good view.

Finally the new cars arrived! You can see the Pug in the set of four above, it wasn’t a good photo unfortunately – you couldn’t hear it coming so it was a rush job!
The Aston shot was much better.

2009 Lola Aston Martin LMP1, from 2009 Goodwood Festival of Speed

And by this time I’d practised so when the near-silent Audi R15 appeared I was ready.

From 2009 Goodwood Festival of Speed

Little did I know I would have a closer encounter with the Audi later.

Directly after the classic racing bikes were a small group of modern era Formula 1 cars. No 2009 cars are allowed to take part in the Festival runs due to this season’s test ban regulations, and the running here would bizarrely count as testing and as the track commentator said, quite what they would learn doing burnouts up a 1.1-mile narrow lane remains unanswered. The F1 teams had to run older cars instead, most choosing 2008 versions with Red Bull running a 2006 Toro Rosso in a current Red Bull Racing livery. BrawnGP were the only team to bring a 2009-spec car which remained on static display in the main paddock – they claimed it is the same chassis that will appear in Germany this weekend but I think that’s PR guff. Despite this minor setback the drivers put on an excellent show, notable Timo Glock who was doing burnouts galore and getting his car sideways throughout his runs!

Timo Glock, Toyota TF108, from 2009 Goodwood Festival of Speed

David Coulthard took the morning run for Red Bull before taking the helicopter to Wimbledon where he was spotted on TV that afternoon. Interestingly, his motorhome was seen at the Renault World Series event at Silverstone.

David Coulthard, 2006 Red Bull STR1, from 2009 Goodwood Festival of Speed

Also running on Sunday were Marc Gene in a Ferrari F2008, and some guy called Pierangelo Masselli in a Ferrari F300 of 1998. I got a photo of the ’98 car, and a video of the ’08 car which I’ll keep back for now. 😉

Ferrari F300, from 2009 Goodwood Festival of Speed

Needless to say all of these cars were very loud and very energetic! I’m not sure if my hearing is going and it probably is after attending events like this, but they did seem a little quieter than usual, it’s probably me though. There was a definite difference in sound between the 2008 cars and the Red Bull and earlier Ferrari, which were both more shrill and peaky with their higher-revving engines. Once the cars had departed I headed into the infield to have a wander around, not really sure where to go next. I elected to locate some lunch and was surprised to find they were charging £5.50 for a burger!! A bit of meat in two bits of bread. Okay so it was top organic stuff from their own farm, with a fresh salad in it instead of the muck from McD’s, but still, there’s a principle at stake here. You don’t pay that for a burger. So I stuck to my packet of crisps and head to the Mercedes stand because I’d heard they were bringing the new SLR Stirling Moss Edition. Sure enough, they had!

SLRs past and present, from 2009 Goodwood Festival of Speed

I adore this car. They’d placed it next to the SLR of the type Moss had driven in events such as the Mille Miglia in the 1950s. The similarities are striking, yet the new car is unmistakebly modern. I have no idea how they did it. Several other Mercedes were on display of course, but I wasn’t that interested – what did catch my eye were the signs proclaiming Jenson Button’s interview session in this very pavilion at 3pm, so I decided I should have to come back for that. I had three hours to kill.