10 reasons to attend the Goodwood Festival of Speed

It’s almost two years since Goodwood last hosted a public motorsport event, but the stars, cars and fans are now set to flock back this weekend. Here are 10 of the key elements that will make this year’s Festival of Speed unmissable

Nowhere else can a motorsport fan encounter such a vast range of moving history from such a variety of motorsport categories than at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, which makes its welcome return this weekend after the COVID-19 pandemic caused 2020's event to be cancelled.

From Formula 1 icons to Group C sportscar greats, giants of the World Rally Championship stages and oval-conquering Indycars, over the next four days the grounds of the famous estate will be a rich melting pot of legendary machinery as past and present heroes take in a reminder of all that makes motorsport good.

Share Or Save This Story

Author Marcus Pye

Raised initially within earshot of South London’s fabled Crystal Palace circuit, racing engines are the soundtrack to my life. Car enthusiast Dad and godfather took me to British Grands Prix of the 1960s, which sowed the seeds of my passion. Reading Autosport every Thursday morning, following my hero Ronnie Peterson’s exploits, fuelled it.

Volunteering as a BARC junior at Thruxton in the mid-'70s led to lap-charting for commentator Simon Taylor, Autosport's publisher, and grid/pit marshalling. Landed my dream Autosport job aged 19 in July 1977, working under legendary editor Quentin Spurring and Robin Bradford. A staffer for 20 years (1000 issues!), freelance since 1997, I’m its longest-serving writer.

Over 45 seasons I have reported 1200-plus events - covering F2, F3000, F3, club and Historic racing to hillclimbs and sprints at towards 100 venues - and commentated worldwide, most notably at Goodwood and the Spa Six Hours.

My driving CV lists almost 550 competition cars spanning 140 plus marques. Since 1981 I’ve contested over 200 events, from Brands Hatch to Daytona, scoring the occasional result. Co-owning and racing the Chevron B40 in which Keke Rosberg won Enna-Pergusa’s European F2 round the weekend after I joined Autosport and an F5000 Lola T332 were special!

A lottery windfall would see me buy a Chevron B8 (my favourite car from boyhood), Lola T294 and March 782 - and expand my racing sticker archive, popular on Facebook. Beyond the sport and family, my abiding interest is classical music.