2012 Goodwood Festival of Speed

Sometime soon I'm gonna make it to Goodwood and next year might be the time as Race Retro is looking unlikely with the Paddy Hopkirk Gala on the same weekend in February.
Whats the story with tickets as I have seen people post pictures on Facebook of three or four different tickets for each day, do you need one for the rally stage, the hill and the various paddocks or does one ticket do all???


Oh if anyone wants to give me a complimentary ticket for the weekend I won't refuse it  

Speedy wrote:Sometime soon I'm gonna make it to Goodwood and next year might be the time as Race Retro is looking unlikely with the Paddy Hopkirk Gala on the same weekend in February.
Whats the story with tickets as I have seen people post pictures on Facebook of three or four different tickets for each day, do you need one for the rally stage, the hill and the various paddocks or does one ticket do all???


Oh if anyone wants to give me a complimentary ticket for the weekend I won't refuse it  

One ticket gets you in. All tickets must be pre booked and are sent to you by post. Extra option to pay more at time of booking to give you access to grandstands. Internal shuttle a la ploughing match to take you up /down the hill to/from rally stage using tractors and trailers (wickedly dusty).

Its like an Irish rally service area - you really can get up close and touch all the cars. In the rally area there is unfettered access to drivers.

Better start saving up for it now so  

Speedy wrote:Better start saving up for it now so  

You bet! Let's get a DRM possee there in 2014!   I'm up for it! Cheers, Steve

As James rightly says one day ticket is acess all areas. Grandstand tickets are extra, programme with a radio was £15 this year!! On the radio you can hear all the live commentary which is excellent, you know whats going on all the time. I have plenty of spare radios!!!

There are free grandstands to stand in as opposed to sit in. There is a good one on the inside of the first bend onto the main straight. Good close viewing behind the bales for most of the first half of the track.

Cathedral Paddock has all the Brooklands cars, Feraris, Alfas, Le Mans cars, Saloon, NASCAR cars. You can touch every car if you so desire. Drivers are roaming about before and after their stint.

To the side of the house are the Supercars and the styling cars. How about a Bugatti Royale (one of only 5) a 10 million pound car with no posts or rope around it?!!! All the current supercars are there and easy to see.

Over on the cricket field an amazing area of LSR cars, stack of real car trade stands and other stands for models, books, clothes etc

F1 paddock can be very busy. ALL are last years cars (no testing!!), with them are the motobikes (Agostini, McGuiness, Schwantz), sports cars older GP cars, Le Mans cars this years Le Mans winning Audi as it finished, how about a 55 Fangio Mille Miglia Mercedes with Sir Stirling at the wheel, or an C Type Auto Union right there in front of you - both are priceless machines!! There are the F1 drivers but a nightmare to see. Too many security and hangers on. Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton are always there (not every day!!) and they do really sign a ton of autographs I saw them.

Nearby a line of Martini sponsored race cars and a line of Porsche 911s, the Le Mans winning Bentley and its sister car from what was it 2003?, over to the right Hirvonens WRC Citroen and Ogiers VW.....ermmmm right next to the tractor and trailer to take up to the rally field. Get on early in the day the queues are horrendous after 11am. You can walk up but its up hill and rough in places!!

The tractor ride takes 10 minutes its bumpy, dusty, or wet if it rains. The rally stage has easy acess to some good corners. But there are a lot of trees which play hell for either a clear picture or shadows across the track. The service area is open to everyone. All cars and drivers are available for photos, autographs or a chat. The bigger the name the worse it is!!

It was the 20th anniversary this year. I have only missed 2. You cant really do it in one day. Two days is fine. Avoid Sunday like the plague. Pace yourself, work out what to do. You will walk miles. A friend tracked how far he walked a few years ago 12 miles on Friday, 11 on Saturday and then he ran up the hill at the end of the day for fun!! Whatever you will be completely cream crackered by the end.

As a friend once remarked there IS something for everyone. If its sunny is great, if its raining its a nightmare.

Tickets arent cheap but they give you a lot!! Book as early as you can, they are usually sold out with a month to go.

An hour long programme about 2013 Goodwood Festivel of Speed was on ITV 4 (Freeview Channel 24) at 21.00hrs on Wednesday and Thursday this week. So I guess you can catch up on their iPlayer. But check your TV listing for repeats.

There was not much on the rallying part of GFS but the programme will give those who have not been a flavour of just what its is like.

Chris

Hi Chris,

Thanks for that. I've recorded the programme last night - saw it was just finishing on ITV1 so set the recorder for ITV1 +1 and have the whole show still to see. There was another Goodwood FoS show a few nights back, looking back on the first 20 years of the event. Great viewing, and not just because Yasmin Le Bon was leaning forwards provacatively!  

Cheers, Steve

I caught a bit of it the other day - surprise winner in the hill climb. Check out James Hunts sons interview. Talk about a clone of his dad. All he was missing was a set of race overalls with a "S£x - the breakfast of champions" badge.

Not really a surprise...............

Just to say that the winner of the timed hillclimb was Justin Law in a Silk Cut Le Mans Jaguar. I havent checked back over the years but pretty sure Justin is always in the top few. Its a big wide car to thread up the narrow part of the hill and he knows how to pedal it.

IF Sebastian Loeb had driven the Pike Peak Peugeot it would have won easily. At the end of Friday Justin Law also had a Transit van inside the top ten..... but it does have a XJ220 engine in the back and a ladder on the roof (note this is not one of the Transit Supervans.)

Third fastest was the Drayson Racing Eclectric car, the one that recently set the a new Land Speed Record for electric cars - incredible technology and it can go around corners too!!

Not every car is timed after a very serious accident a few years ago. No F1 car is officially timed either.

Chris

Chris, was that the same Transit that Top Gear had on the programme a few years back when the UK presenters took on the Top Gear Australia presenters? There can't be all that many Transits with a V64V engine mounted in them!  

Cheers, Steve