10 reasons to go to Goodwood

Glastonbury or Goodwood this weekend? There's no question in my book (besides, I know rock-all about modern music) so the Festival of Speed wins. It's almost 22 years since the first one brought new colours - and 25,000 people - to Goodwood House's garden amid a motor racing world shellshocked by the sudden death of James Hunt, four days earlier.

Effortlessly flamboyant, James would have adored Lord March's sporting showpiece. Cars and jolly good parties were him, if not the formal dress code for Saturday night's ball. Doubtless he would have returned often, sharing the adulation accorded to heroes over the years, to drive shrieking Formula 1 Heskeths and McLarens up the hillclimb course with gusto.

While Hunt's famous grin never lit up the Festival of Speed, very few great drivers have resisted the monogrammed invitation to play on the magnificent West Sussex estate. The event's roster of alumni reads like a Who's Who? of racing, rallying and motorcycle competition. This year's 23rd edition - enticingly themed 'Flat-Out and Fearless: Racing on the Edge' - will only add to its reputation as the garden party of the gods.

Headed by Sir Stirling Moss, presiding over the reunion of seven Mercedes-Benz 300SLRs 60 years after his 1955 Mille Miglia victory, John Surtees (F1's senior surviving world champion since Sir Jack Brabham's passing last year) reigning king Lewis Hamilton and motorcycle megastar Valentino Rossi, the cast list for this fan-friendly event is extraordinary.

Here I present a subjective selection of 10 elements to look out for at the Festival of Speed from Friday to Sunday. Cameras and autograph pens are obligatory...

SIR STIRLING MOSS

No racer has a better batting average, across an incredibly wide variety of cars and disciplines, than Stirling Moss, who will enjoy another huge reception this weekend.

The most successful competitor in Goodwood Motor Circuit's 1948-'66 heyday, he scored 22 of his 216 career victories there, including four successive Tourist Trophy races, the second of them Aston Martin's '59 World Sportscar Championship clincher.

Ironically, the super-fast track that Stirling tamed like no other was also the scene of the huge accident on Easter Monday '62 that he was fortunate to survive.

Six decades on from his extraordinary 1955 Mille Miglia victory for Mercedes-Benz - with little Denis Jenkinson reading pace notes from the hot seat to his right - 85-year-old Moss will be reunited with '0722' and six of its sisters and relive that crazy 10-hour dash on public roads from Brescia to Rome and back.

Moss and 'Jenks' overhauled team-mate Juan Manuel Fangio (who started 24 minutes ahead) and beat the Argentinian F1 world champion by the astonishing margin of 37 minutes.

Stirling will drive the cars, lovingly tended by Stuttgart's technical boffins, in the presence of some period staff. He may have won only one of his 16 world championship grands prix in a Silver Arrow (the '55 British GP at Aintree in a W196) but the most versatile driver in history was invariably on target when he loosed his skills on road, track, hillclimb course or special stage.

Sir Stirling's autograph will be one of the Festival of Speed's 'top trumps'. Catch him if you can.

DEREK BELL

Goodwood was the springboard to international success for West Sussex's most famous motorsport son Derek Bell. OK, he wasn't born in the county, but was long domiciled there and started his illustrious racing career with a win at the estate's motor circuit in a Lotus 7 in 1964.

Within five years Derek was in Formula 1 courtesy of Enzo Ferrari, having graduated through F3 to F2, in which he not only finished runner-up to Clay Regazzoni (Tecno) in the 1970 European championship but also contested the final race of the two-litre era in '84.

But while 'Dinger' finished sixth in the 1970 US GP for John Surtees, competed in F5000 and won the '77 Oulton Park Gold Cup in a private F1 Penske PC3, his finest achievements came in sportscars.

Twenty-six Le Mans 24 Hours starts between '70-'96 garnered five victories, the first three with Belgium's Jacky Ickx (in Gulf-Cosworth GR8, Porsche 936 and 956 respectively) and the final pair with Germany's Hans-Joachim Stuck and American Al Holbert in 962Cs.

Bell won the World Sportscar Championship in '85 and '86, three Daytona 24 Hours races and finished third at La Sarthe in '95, sharing the Harrods McLaren F1 GTR with son Justin and Jaguar's '88 winner Andy Wallace.

A special celebration of Derek's career features many of the key cars spanning three decades and underlines the remarkable versatility of one of Great Britain's most popular and enduring stars. It will be wonderfully poignant for fans to share the occasion with him on home soil.

FORMULA 1

While Formula 1 access is a virtual 'closed shop' to punters at Silverstone, where the British Grand Prix will be staged on July 5, it's open house to Goodwood's customers. That is one of the key reasons that fans - many of them youngsters, the next generation of enthusiasts - flock back to the Festival of Speed year after year.

Instead of a zoo-like 'do not feed the animals' scenario, in which the technology-laden cars are caged for the duration of world championship rounds, the rocketships are operated from awnings abutting team trucks strategically-situated down one flank of the paddock.

The opportunity to see everything close-up, with drivers and technicians relaxed away from the relentless pressure of competition, is worth the admission cost alone.

Home-grown champions Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) and Jenson Button (Saturday, with McLaren-Honda) have long espoused the Festival as a way to meet their supporters and put something back into the sport.

Rapturous receptions are guaranteed for the Brits, though Hamilton is not in attendance, and such is the cosmopolitan make up of eventgoers that they will greet Felipe Massa (Saturday for Williams) and last weekend's Austrian GP winner Nico Rosberg (on Sunday) too.

It is also a chance to see rising stars Alex Lynn (Williams, on Sunday), Stoffel Vandoorne (all three days with McLaren) and Pierre Gasly (ditto, but with Red Bull) in action, plus perennial visitor Marc Gene who saddles a 2010 Ferrari across the three days.

DON GARLITS

Drag racing has featured several times at the Festival of Speed - who can forget Swede Michael Malmgren's burnouts in his ProStock Chevrolet Camaro, top British quarter-mile car builder Andy Robinson's mighty Studebaker Commander or Bob Riggle's wheel-standing Plymouth Barracuda? - but the ballistic straight-line sport's names don't get any bigger than 'Big Daddy' Don Garlits.

The 17-time world champion started competing with a souped-up jalopy in the early 1950s and was at the forefront of chassis design for many years. Having lost part of a foot in 1970, Garlits bounced back in '71 with the first rear-engined Swamp Rat rail.

Just as Charles and John Cooper had done on the circuits 20 years earlier, it transformed the sport.

Not only was the layout safer but, once universally adopted, the ultimate Top Fuel class times tumbled and terminal speeds rose. Garlits dug ever deeper, pushing the latter through successive landmarks to 270mph.

Prior to his 'final' retirement in 2003, when he was past 70, he set bests of 4.737s and 323.04mph. Don will demonstrate his original 1957 Swamp Rat 1 dragster, a star exhibit at the fabled drag racing museum he operates from home in Florida.

RICHARD PETTY

With 200 wins on his slate, second generation racer Richard Petty, 77, is the greatest driver in NASCAR history. 'The King' is also the most recognisable outside his trademark number 43 racecar with his southern drawl, bristling moustache-topped smile and omni-present cowboy hat.

The seven-time champion from North Carolina is also a huge Goodwood favourite. Blown away by his reception previously, Petty returns having restored his bewinged 1970 Plymouth Superbird - characterised as 'The King' in Disney's animated film Cars - especially for the event.

MAZDA HERITAGE

Mazda Motor Corporation's motorsport history is synonymous with its raucous Wankel-system engines, in two, three and quad rotor formats. While the Hiroshima-based manufacturer's RX-2 and RX-3 touring cars established a winning reputation on track in the 1970s, its most iconic car remains the 787B with which Johnny Herbert, Bertrand Gachot and Volker Weidler won the 1991 Le Mans 24 Hours.

The spectacular Le Mans result - which made it the first [and thus far only] Japanese marque to win the world's oldest endurance race - was no overnight success story. The Belgian Levis International Racing team of Yves Deprez and Julien Vernaeve took a Mazda-powered Chevron B16 there in 1970. It lasted 19 laps.

Both the spectacularly-liveried 787B, designed by Briton Nigel Stroud, and the shapely Chevron (long-owned by Swedish car connoisseur Kent Abrahamsson) are in action at Goodwood.

A replica of the garishly-liveried Le Mans winner and an evocation of the LM55 Vision car, designed as an upload for the Gran Turismo video game, will look down on the campus from a 36-metre tall installation crafted from steel by Gerry Judah and anchored outside the grand house.

Each afternoon the set of seven sports racers will be fired up beneath the central feature in a unique rotary cacklefest before being released to the startline. Also running on the hill will be a Motul-liveried TWR Mazda RX7 of the type with which Win Percy won back-to-back British Saloon Car championships in 1980-'81 and a modern MX-5 Global Cup car.

TOP CELEBRITIES

As ever, a stellar entry of runners and riders guarantees top class action across the disciplines. For many, the opportunity to meet nine-time world motorcycle champion Valentino Rossi on his Goodwood debut will be as exciting as watching Jenson Button, John Surtees or Sir Stirling Moss tackling the hillclimb course.

The charismatic 36-year-old Italian - known universally as 'The Doctor' is joined in a sensational two-wheeled line-up by seemingly ageless Italian compatriot Giacomo Agostini, Jim Redman, Kenny Roberts, Freddie Spencer, Casey Stoner, Sammy Miller and Isle of Man TT heroes John McGuinness and Bruce Anstey.

World Rally Championship fans will raise an enormous cheer for Ulsterman Kris Meeke, 35, whose victory for Citroen in Argentina back in April made him the first Briton to win a round since the much-missed Colin McRae in 2002. Kris will demonstrate his DS3's agility on the hill before taking it into the spectacular Forest Rally Stage.

DRIFT CARS

Not the motorsport purists' bag, perhaps, but New Zealander 'Mad Mike' Whiddett changed a lot of opinions last year. Indeed, he left a massive impression on FoS-goers as he flung his fire-breathing 1000bhp Mazda RX7 up the hillclimb course wreathed in tyre smoke and only occasionally pointing forwards.

Twelve months on he has company in a special class showcasing extraordinary car control. Extrovert American Ken Block's Ford Mustang 'Hoonicorn' - a four-wheel-drive caricature of a '65 notchback powered by a seven-litre Roush Yates V8 engine making 845bhp - is foremost among Whiddett's rivals.

Also hell-bent on entertaining 'the right crowd' are Australian champion Luke Fink (Nissan LBD PS13 V8), Norway's Joachim Waagaard (BMW M4 V8), Pole Piotr Wiecek (Nissan Skyline R34 GT-T) and Irishmen Derek 'Buttsy' Butler (Nissan Soarer) and James Deane (Nissan 200SX S14). Be sure not to miss these bonkers interludes.

SUPERCARS

More than 40 mind-blowing machines representing 21 marques - from Audi R8 to Danish Zenvo ST1 - will take part in the tyre-frying Michelin Supercar Runs, but it's Aston Martin's awesome new Vulcan track car that will steal the show.

Factory racer Darren Turner - the McLaren AUTOSPORT BRDC Award winner of 1996 - is piloting the 800bhp+ seven-litre V12-engined stunner. Designed in-house by a team led by racer Marek Reichman, only 24 will be made with a price tag of £1.8m.

Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Maseratis and McLarens abound and Honda's new NSX is slated to make its bow. A host of top racers will put the cars through their paces in Saturday afternoon's timed Shootout. Sunday features the quickest pure competition cars of the weekend go head-to-head against the clock.

In the absence of state-of-the-art hillclimb machinery Nick Heidfeld's outright record of 41.80s for the 1.16-mile course - set in a McLaren-Mercedes MP4/13 in 1999 - will survive for another year.

OFFICIAL PROGRAMME

The definitive guide to the Festival action - teamed with a brilliant 'earwig' radio receiver so you won't miss any of the weekend's action, banter and expert commentary above the orchestra of engines - the official programme is not only a work of art, but also highly collectible. The 1993 edition, produced in a relatively small run, is highly-prized.

Within its stylish pages you will find photographs and brief biographies of virtually every car or motorcycle at the centre of the action on the hill or forest rally stage, plus features on star names and attractions.

Having scoured the globe for competition cars and bikes tracing the history of the twin sports, the entry list is an ever-moving feast. Watch for some surprises, confirmed after the publication's press deadline.

If you are a mega-fan - or attending with older children - you might like to target a set of autographs (Moss, Surtees, Bell, Garlits, Petty, Meeke and Rossi, plus a current F1 driver or two relaxing en route to the British GP at Silverstone) as indelible souvenirs of another memorable weekend in the fresh air at Goodwood.