Goodwood Festival of Speed 2019

I have been visiting Goodwood in Sussex to enjoy the Festival of Speed for several years now, and the event has grown larger with the years, but this year it seems larger than ever, and has changed even more, driven by its popularity. The two car and bike events attract more than just those motorsports enthusiasts, but have been wonderfully conceived as family events, and most noticeably the atmosphere is relaxed with few restrictions. It would appear that over the years this area has been blessed by an abundance of good weather compared to Silverstone and Brands Hatch, two motor race venues I have frequented over the years when serving as a Marshal with the BRSCC — as Assistant Chief Pits for nearly thirty years.

It has been very much a family event for me, though when the children were young I tended to take along Clients from my days as Sales Manager of a Retouching Lab, which is the way I first met the Duke of Richmond and Gordon as Charles Settrington, a top class and highly creative Advertising photographer, as the Retouchers I worked with, executed the retouching he briefed for his clients such as Osborne and Little. The Installations fronting Goodwood House are by Gerry Judah, a longtime colleague of his from those photography days.

I think this Saturday was the hottest of all my visits here, and what has been the hallmark of every event here has been the noticeably relaxed atmosphere that prevails. In the most crowded places, the goodwill of all present pervades. One year at a previous Festival of Speed was how when I spotted a stationary truck with a viewing possibility stationed strategically with a view from the Moulcomb corner to the Flint Wall, my daughter cheekily asked whether I might be allowed to take photos from there and, as he answered, he took my camera bag from my shoulder and told me where to climb aboard, and said he’d hand it up to me! This has been an ever-present willingness to help visitors enjoy the events to the utmost. Another such occasion, I commented on a printed notice on a vehicle high up the hill, saying, I paraphrase: “If you need anything, just ask and I will do my utmost to help — just ask”. I got chatting to the driver and in the course of conversation I mentioned that I had stayed at the House in one of the circular towers, and mentioned it’s decor, and he replied, telling me he it was called The Toile room, and that Lady March had chosen the curtains and needed matching wallpaper, but none existed, so the same fabric was duly mounted on metre-wide backing so the match was made! And he it was was who had the task to hang it! He offered to drive me even higher up the hill for the view, where we watched aircraft leaving from above! He later drove me back down to the House, shortening my return to the car.

The single word epitomising a visit to Goodwood is ‘Welcoming’ — I cannot recommend strongly enough just how relaxed anyone can feel in the vastness of this place. I took fewer photographs than ever, yet the variety is still present. Thank you to everyone who make these such enjoyable days. Let the pictures tell their own story of what I saw.

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Festival of Speed 2018

 

 

 

I always really look forward to visits to Goodwood, and this year’s Festival of Speed was no exception, but it was tinged with a certain amount of concern for my guest on this occasion, my younger daughter Lizzy, as she was not too well, suffering stomach problems. I tried to balance my compassion for her not being well, with my longing for company for both the event and the journey to and from Bedford, and the long day’s travelling, and for her added trip back to her Ayesbury home after returning to her car parked at my place. Selflessly and hopefully, truthfully she assured me it was just fine.

The larger part of the outward trip was reasonably clear, but the very last section as we neared Goodwood, the traffic, now all headed for the same destination was a slow crawl, with only unaccompanied motorcyclists able to travel smoothly. However, I can report that every one of those around me accepted the situation with good nature and maintained adequate spaces between each other, and even held back at junctions for others to join the queue.

We arrived naturally later than hoped, but calmly gathered what we needed from the car and walked through the cool woods till we arrived by the house, and concours d’elegance cars displayed on the lawn. A visit to the house was our first port of call for relief and then to view the Porsche installation, and take a few photos before heading for the enclosure by the track to watch some of the cars heading up the hill, and sit down with a programme to decide where to visit. Mindful of Lizzy we stayed here a while before heading up the hill and to the Rally section in the woods, where my camera geared received a less than welcome coating of very dry chalk dust! I did get a few shots of those cars in the trees, but we soon made our way back towards the house, to spend time watching, shooting and chatting with a friendly couple we met from Staffordshire.

I also chatted to a photographer who was waiting to capture shots for Lexus. We shared an amusing cameo when we were both shooting the rotating actions of the drifting cars in the track by the House — I showed him a shot I had captured of one particular car, amidst the tyre-smoke, and he flourished his review screen with an identical image (probably taken at identical moments in time to within a thousandth of a second!) we shared identical smiles of pride!

Lizzy and our new friend from Staffordshire also shared shots, on their phones of a celebrity, Tom Hardy at an adjoining table, who for a short spell was swamped by others all hoping for photo opportunities, but the group moved on to probably find less attention.

I once asked my elder daughter whom I had taken along to a much earlier FoS, to give Lizzy a description of this event and she gave her a description, which is forever indelibly written in my consciousness — “Ascot with Cars” — I simply cannot beat that! The atmosphere at these two established annual events at Goodwood; the Festival of Speed, and the Revival Meeting, stand out as some of the most friendly and relaxed events in the British calendar of events related to motorsport.

Whilst mentioning established events, a very prominent feature of the Festival of Speed is the Art Installation in the front of the House. Since 1997, the works of Artist Gerry Judah have been the focal point of these events, as he produces tremendous creations which are also an advertisement of great British engineering by local welders, Littlehampton Welding and naturally numerous others who contribute to these structures each year since.

I have been lucky enough to be invited over several years, and it has always been a delight to receive these invitations and then live in anticipation for a couple of months till the day of the event arrives. It has now become an equally anticipated event for my family, and those days never disappoint.

The gallery of images from this year’s event, I hope gives a smidgeon of the atmosphere we enjoyed and represents a day we cherish. It is also both an ongoing library of my photographs, and often a way of testing myself, as in a few sequences of cars exiting the darkness of the woods after the Flint Wall into a short stretch of bright sunshine prior to a plunge into the last section of woods before the top. Anticipation is key, but also control, and it is easy to get ahead of oneself when panning from the darkness into the light, there is no glimpse before the cars exit the gloom.