From Ferrari California to ‘Captain America’
The start of my Goodwood Festival of Speed weekend was literally on the startline of the hillclimb. I was booked in for a passenger ride up the hill in a Ferrari California, and what a great way to start the weekend it was. Driver Pat Blakely showed me just what the car could do, and my only regret was that I wasn’t allowed behind the wheel!
It was great to see so many familiar faces at the Festival this year, such as David Piper – who could be seen pottering about the Goodwood grounds on a Monkey bike look-alike – Bruno Senna, David Coulthard and Andy Green in the Dunlop enclosure, where Motor Sport’s Simon Taylor was conducting interviews.
Motor Sport managing director Juliet Parker and I managed to catch up with Jacky Ickx and Derek Bell in the Dunhill Drivers’ enclosure. But we didn’t stay there for long with all the action on track – world rally ace Sébastien Loeb was at Goodwood for the first time and the organisers had managed to gather £100 million worth of pre-War Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union Silver Arrows machinery. American star Jesse James was a crowd favourite in his Trophy Truck. He was almost constantly in action – be it on the hill, the forest rally stage or the Bowler off-roading course, and he got more and more air off the jumps as the weekend progressed.
Cartier held its 15th Style et Luxe Concours d’Elegance and hosted a Veuve Clicquot champagne reception in the Goodwood House garden before the winners were announced on Sunday. Jenson Button was there with his girlfriend Jessica who is about to start taking driving lessons: she certainly has a good teacher at her disposal…
Lord March had also invited Hollywood legend Peter Fonda to the event, where he was reunited with a replica ‘Captain America’ Harley to coincide with the 40th anniversary of Easy Rider. I met him briefly at the Cartier reception on Sunday and tried out the bike for size, with Peter cheekily warning me not to “sit on my hot pipe”!
After lunch Cartier’s Concours judges, made up from an array of celebrities from the world of art and design including supermodel Yasmin Le Bon and Lord Linley, chose the 2009 Best of Show winner: the 1938 Hispano-Suiza H6C ‘Xenia’ coupé.
We seem to say this every year, but I trust few would disagree that this year’s Festival of Speed was one of the best yet. Roll on the Revival…
Louisa graduated from London Guildhall University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications and audio-visual production. She previously worked in television production at advertising agencies J. Walter Thompson and M&C Saatchi and joined the editorial team at Motor Sport in January 2007. As well as being the marketing manager she is responsible for the content in the Desirables and Auctions pages. 
ferrariguy:
July 13th, 2009 1:12pm
I love the California Ferrari, you’re so lucky!
Sounds like a good year at Goodwood
Marshall Gardner:
July 22nd, 2009 2:09am
Dear Nigel, (with cc to Louisa)
Spoke with John Felix last moth who recommended that we send you a CD with the details of the 1964 Fairlane Thunderbolt which we have done and hopefully you have received the CD?? We also posted a copy to Louisa Skipper at the same time.
Good possibility that the 1964 Fairlane Thunderbolt will be at Goodwood in September in the Prototype race . . . if you have reviewed the CD you will see that the 1964 Fairlane was built by Holman & Moody, then went to Alan Mann, then on to Martin Barriane . . . now in Germany
The CD reviews the FIA HMSC documentation of this historic Road Racing Car
Wanted to follow up to provide any further details you might like?
Let us know if we can assist further
My Best,
Marshall Gardner
Aic International Corporation
Dallas, Texas USA
214-634-2900
e-mail: aicdallas@att.net