Festival of Speed

Goodwood

23rd - 26th June 2022

The Festival of Speed is one of those odd motorsports events where you get spectators turning up who only have a vague idea of what they are watching and are more interested in the event as a whole rather than the track action.

This is not a bad thing. It is introducing different motorsports to kids as there are more families enjoying the spectacle than you would see at a regular meeting, which means they might just become life long racing fans if they like what they see.

As a quite tall guy I get a good view of the proceedings, but for the younger spectators it can be a problem. So on a few occasions at Goodwood I chatted to parents and made room for their offspring to stand in front of me. From the squeals of joy coming from them they liked what they saw, especially the drifting!

It is a very audiovisual form of motorsport and even as an older motorsports fan I look forward to watching it, despite seeing it countless times. So I’m sure the young fans were enjoying the spectacle, and if they liked it they might come back when they have children of their own, keeping live motorsport a viable event for all the family.

One young fan who first went to Goodwood as a four year old was Max Chilton who went on to become an F1 and IndyCar racer. He returned this year to Goodwood to complete in the main event, the hillclimb, driving the McMurtry Automotive Speirling fan car. This is a purpose built car for attacking the hill, and attack it he did!

When he flew past us there were gasps from the crowd it was that fast, 0-60mph in a 1.5s and 39.08s to get up the hill is a record he set winning Shoot out Sunday.

The car is an all-electric a single-seater with a closed-cockpit weighing 1000kg, and has a power-to-weight ratio of 1000bhp per tonne with 2000kg of downforce from the complex fan system that sucks it down on to the track while hitting a top speed of 149mph!

In second place was the Porsche 718 GT4 ePerformance driven by Richard Lietz who posted a 45.502s run.



Ben Mitchell took the last podium place with the Formula 2 ex-Marc Surer BMW-powered March 782 race car.

The other Electric Vehicles taking on the hill were also impressive regarding their speed and grip levels, and had some top notch drivers like Romain Dumas in the Ford Pro Electric super van.

However, the noise and sound of a traditional petrol engine is still what most of the Goodwood festival fans want to see. 

They were not to be disappointed. Every era and class of motorsport vehicle can be seen, NASCAR, Rally, historic and modern F1 are demonstrated or raced up the hill during the four day event.

There were some major highlights over the weekend, some making more noise than others. Nigel Mansell was making some nostalgic noise celebrating his 30th anniversary of winning the F1 world championship title. He drove a few different Ferraris up the hill and his Williams FW14B over the weekend.

But for me the reunion of the 1990s giants of MotoGP Doohan, Roberts, Schwantz and Rainey was what I wanted to see.

Wayne Rainey, who was paralysed while leading the at the 1993 Italian Grand Prix in Misano  when he slid into a gravel trap breaking his spine against the raked surface designed as a safety feature for car racing, was back out on his championship-winning 1992 YZR500.

Yamaha had been hard at work heavily adapting this bike for his first visit to the FoS.

This was one very special event and something that only happens at Goodwood. The former race stars (still stars in my eyes) on original bikes back together was amazing to see, even if it was only a demo run. I think Wayne got a bit carried away, getting a bit of air under the front wheel on one run, great stuff!

Before the racers take on the hill they are directed to the holding area just before the bridge across the track. This is a great place for photographers and is worth spending a bit of your time here to soak up the atmosphere.

The interaction between these huge rivals from back in the day was great to see as they checked out each other's race machines, and the recognition from the stars of other racing disciplines was obvious. I think their weekend at Goodwood was as memorable for them as it was for the fans that had come to see them. 

The holding area is a great place to snap the racing stars. You can find them walking round the paddock, but it’s a bit hit and miss and it’s packed so you need to be on your A game if papping the stars is your thing.

Using the Goodwood app, which is excellent, or if your are a little more old school, the glossy programme, it’s easy to work out when the racers will arrive in the holding area with their cars. Keep your eyes peeled, you might just see someone you wouldn’t expect, yes that is Caitlyn Jenner!

So the paddock, holding area and the hillclimb are the main areas that you will visit but there is so much more. Another obvious attraction is the main feature in front of Goodwood house. It always has a theme, and this year it was a celebration of 50 years of BMW M sport which was also celebrated on track during the weekend with some iconic cars taking to the circuit.

Moving up the hill the action got a little dirty with the off road area and the rally stages. This year the rallying was running in the opposite direction to last year, which meant the jump was head on to the spectators which is much better. If action pictures are what you are after, then this was the place to be.

It’s a bit of a maze around the rally stage, but if you keep heading up the hill you will see most of it and eventually pop out of the tree line in the rally paddock.

Moving round to the left of the rallying start line is the top paddock for the hillclimb. Here is where the cars are held until everyone has completed that stage. This is where there are a few free to use grandstands so you can take the weight off while watching the cars and the drivers.

From here you can get a ride from the many tractors towing flat beds with seating back down the hill. Obviously they will transport you up the hill from the lower paddock as well, but you will miss out on seeing some of the corners on the hill.

Back at the bottom of the hill (we walked down) there is a large retail village, car show rooms, corporate hospitality and loads of other stands demonstrating everything from the latest electric vehicles to racing simulators.

During our two days at Goodwood we didn’t spend much time here, as the track action, paddock and pits held our interest more so than looking at the latest EV.

It has something for everyone, so is worth walking through at least once and keeping an eye on the Goodwood app as they do reveal new vehicles with all the razzmatazz that goes along with it.

That concludes our review of the Festival of Speed 2022. In summary, it’s an excellent well organised motorsports event that is just different enough to justify the not inconsiderable expense. We will be back next year to capture the action from the spectator photographer's view point.

Photographic Post Script

Most of the photos used in this report were taken with the 70-200mm f2.8 matched to 1.4 / 1.7 and for the rally jump shots the 2.0 teleconverters. Camera body I used was the Nikon D7200 crop body for a bit of extra reach, whereas my shooting buddy RPW Photography used a mix of the D810 and a D4 with the same lens setup.

You don’t really need a long lens for most of the photos seen here as you are quite close to the action, especially at the bottom of the hill. This setup also has the added advantage of being light and portable. Also, as the crowds are packed together you can pan round without bumping into people as you would with a long focal length lens.

Around the paddock the excellent Nikon 24-120 f4 is the weapon of choice on the full frame cameras, and the much under looked 18-120mm kit lens for the DX crop body.

I do have dedicated short focal length f2.8 DX lenses but the exercise here was a light kit set up and the 18-120mm is super light and very sharp. The f2.8 only comes out when I’m working inside these days.