What To Expect At Goodwood FOS This Year

Is it really that time of year again? July, almost? Tennis? British Grand Prix? Where have the last six months gone…? But with the arrival of Summer comes the imminent arrival of the Goodwood Festival Of Speed; a celebration of cars and drivers at the Earl Of March’s house in Chichester. And it looks as though 2008 will be another fine festival with much to see and do. So who’s going, who’s not and the all important question, will it rain?

It was announced earlier in the year that Lewis Hamilton would be attending again and driving a McLaren up the famous hillclimb. Last year the Briton arrived on Sunday and sent the crowds into hysteria. UK pundit Steve Ryder interviewed the young driver at the top of the hill and Hamilton spent a good long while signing autographs for his fans. This year I hope Goodwood organise Hamilton’s appearance a little better, the 2007 showing was over rather abruptly when Lewis suddenly disappeared, probably due to fears over crowd control.

Hamilton won’t be the only British driver attending though, and in fact the whole festival is themed around British success in motor sport. The show will be celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of Hawthorn’s championship winning season, the blonde Briton becoming the first local-lad to take the crown. It’s almost a given that Stirling Moss will be around and I’m sure Damon Hill will make an appearance at some point over the weekend.

Of the current crop of drivers though, Jenson Button will there with his Honda team. It isn’t known yet if the one-time winner will attempt the hillclimb on a bicycle again, his 2007 effort causing a little embarassment. David Coulthard isn’t on the bill to be at Goodwood at the moment, which to me seems a little strange. The twice-winner of the British Grand Prix was supposedly there last year as well, but I didn’t see him and instead watched Michael Ammermuller drive the Red Bull. Speaking of F1, test and other racing drivers, here’s who’s doing what and when at Goodwood 2008…

Please note that these details may change and it is best to keep an eye on the official Goodwood Festival Of Speed website to keep up-to-date as who’s doing what on what day.

Judging by this list there are going to be some awesome cars again driven by some of motor sport’s greatest drivers. And according to the slightly revamped website, there are some seats still available for the grandstands if you don’t fancy standing around all day. Last year my girlfriend and I appreciated getting tickets for one of the stands; it made a useful shelter for when the heavens opened. And speaking of rain, will it do the same this time around? Who knows, there’s still another two weeks to go and my crystal ball isn’t that good. But be sure to see posts and photographs on BlogF1 from the event.

Image by Harry_S, uploaded to Flickr and licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic.