Cars and stars thrill at Goodwood Festival of Speed

Goodwood's glorious weekend of motoring action attended by thousands
AT SPEED: James Wood demonstrated a 1935 Alfa Romeo P3 at the Goodwood Festival of Speed (Photo JEP)AT SPEED: James Wood demonstrated a 1935 Alfa Romeo P3 at the Goodwood Festival of Speed (Photo JEP)
AT SPEED: James Wood demonstrated a 1935 Alfa Romeo P3 at the Goodwood Festival of Speed (Photo JEP)

As a designated government pilot event, the Goodwood Festival of Speed was able to provide thousands of attending spectators with a 'back to normal' weekend of high-speed motoring at Goodwood in West Sussex, write Colin and James Beckett.

The four-day motoring extravaganza, the ultimate motoring garden party, saw capacity crowds, complying with the latest government regulations, visit to watch the cars and stars of the motoring world drive a mouth-watering array of cars 'Up The Hill' - the main drive to Goodwood House, home to event organiser, the Duke of Richmond.

Vale racers, James Wood and Quirina Louwman, were both in action at the event, and both drove a famous Ferrari 375 car. Wood also drove an Alfa Romeo P3 from 1935 and an Arash A8 GT car.

FERRARI DRIVERS: James Wood and Scuderia Ferrari driver, Marc Gene, pictured at Goodwood (Photo JEP)FERRARI DRIVERS: James Wood and Scuderia Ferrari driver, Marc Gene, pictured at Goodwood (Photo JEP)
FERRARI DRIVERS: James Wood and Scuderia Ferrari driver, Marc Gene, pictured at Goodwood (Photo JEP)

The Ferrari 375 visited the Festival of Speed from its home in Holland, where it forms part of the Louwman Museum - the Dutch national collection. The car was a designated team car for Scuderia Ferrari at Silverstone in 1951 for the British Grand Prix, a race won by Froilan Gonzalez for the Italian marque - their first ever F1 success. The following year the car, in its white colour scheme as the Grant Piston Ring Special, was driven in America at Indianapolis during qualifying for the 1952 Indy 500 by US racer, Johnnie Parsons.

Wood drove the car on the opening day of the event, with Louwman taking over behind the wheel for the remainder of the weekend. Former Buckingham University student, Marc Gene, the official Scuderia F1 brand ambassador and F1 test driver, was at Goodwood to represent the famous team, and said, "The Ferrari 375 is such an amazing car with so much history. Ferrari scored their very first F1 win with a car like this. Four cars came to the UK for the British Grand Prix seventy years ago this week, and this was one of them. It was a special moment for all of Ferrari to see this car in action."

Wood's appearance in the Alfa Romeo, a car he has driven at Goodwood previously, formed part of the event's 'Shootout', with cars running against the clock to record the fastest time of the weekend, while he drove the Arash AF8 GT car during Supercar runs 'Up The Hill'. Wood said, "The Goodwood Festival of Speed is an amazing event and again was a superb! It was great to see the crowd back and enjoying motorsport. The Duke and his team did an amazing job to get the event on, and everyone is now looking forward to the Goodwood Revival in September."

Three-time FIA F1 World Champion, Sir Jackie Stewart, who lives in Ellesborough, was also in action at the event. Driving an F1 Tyrrell car, in which he won one of his world titles, Sir Jackie said, "Again the Festival of Speed has allowed the motoring world to celebrate together. It is a truly wonderful event and I am happy to have been able to participate once more."

FAMOUS CAR: Quirina Louwman (pictured) and James Wood both drove this 1951 Ferrari 375 at Goodwood last weekend (Photo JEP)FAMOUS CAR: Quirina Louwman (pictured) and James Wood both drove this 1951 Ferrari 375 at Goodwood last weekend (Photo JEP)
FAMOUS CAR: Quirina Louwman (pictured) and James Wood both drove this 1951 Ferrari 375 at Goodwood last weekend (Photo JEP)

* Andrew Howard and Jonny Adam finished Sunday's third round of the British GT Championship in third position. The duo, driving a Beechdean AMR-entered Aston Martin Vantage GT3, were placed third at the end of a two-hour race won by the Richard and Sam Neary driven Mercedes AMG GT3.

* Quainton's Mark Biswell excelled at Leicestershire's Mallory Park circuit last weekend, racing in four events at the East Midland Racing Association (EMRA) organised event. Rising his Bizzle Bikesport Honda CB500, Biswell recorded a best result of second from his races in the Dunlop CB500 Championship, finishing behind Richard Blunt on Sunday afternoon. Two third place finishes and a fifth rounded out his successful weekend. He will continue his race season at Donington Park's Thundersport GB race meeting on July 24-25th.

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