The Goodwood Festival of Speed 2014 was held June 26-29 at Goodwood House and the 9-turn, 1.16-mile Goodwood hill climb in West Sussex, England.
The central theme for the 2014 running of the Goodwood Festival of Speed was ‘Addicted to Winning – The Unbeatable Champions of Motor Sport’, celebrating drivers, riders, teams and manufacturers who have all swept before them in their chosen sport. Alongside the overall theme, the 2014 Festival also celebrated the centenary of Maserati. Many of the Modena manufacturer’s most iconic racing cars were gathered together on the hill, while a selection of fabulous Maserati road cars had a dedicated class in the Cartier ‘Style et Luxe’ Concours d’Elegance.
The hill climb is the Festival of Speed’s principal attraction. Taking place throughout the weekend, this challenging white-knuckled course starts as a tree-lined run through the southern corner of the Goodwood Estate which then turns to sweep past the front of Goodwood House before climbing a steep and narrow Estate road bordered by flint walls and dense woodland groves towards Goodwood’s equine racecourse on top of the South Downs. Each day, no fewer than 300 cars and motorcycles sprinted their way up the iconic hill climb in an breathtaking display of performance, power, pace and precision. The vehicles were grouped thematically into classes of comparable machinery, with the oldest running first.
Sebastien Loeb added victory at the Goodwood Festival of Speed shoot-out to his trophy cabinet with a stirring run during Sunday afternoon’s against-the-clock timed run. The nine-time World Rally Champion, who now races for Citroen in the World Touring Car Championship, had qualified second fastest in the fearsome Peugeot 208 T16 Pikes Peak car, and shaved almost a second from his Saturday time to take the top spot when it counted most in a time of 44.60 seconds.
Every year the lawn in front of Goodwood House is transformed by a magnificent automotive sculpture. After Porsche last year, it was Mercedes-Benz that took the spotlight in 2014 as the focus of the ‘Central Feature’ sculpture at the Festival of Speed. Once again created by Gerry Judah, this year’s art was the most complex and ambitious yet conceived at Goodwood and was a fitting celebration of 120 years of motorsport participation by Mercedes-Benz. Swooping over Goodwood House, the curve – which spanned 45 metres – tested the artistic and engineering ingenuity of the team of specialists assigned to making Gerry Judah’s concept a reality. Mercedes has plenty to celebrate this year, including 120 years of achievement in motorsport and 100 years since the famous 1-2-3 victory in the 1914 French Grand Prix.
Lord March said, “Once again the Festival of Speed has produced a thrilling spectacle on the Hillclimb and delighted hundreds of thousands of visitors who have brought their enthusiasm for motor sport to Goodwood. Our event theme was ‘Addicted to Winning’ and with reams guests that include seven Formula 1 world champions and some of the greatest drivers from NASCAR, rallying, sportscars and motorcycling, we’ve managed to gather more famous names from motor sport than ever before. And we were blessed with splendid weather all weekend too.”
source: http://www.sportscardigest.com/goodwood-festival-speed-2014-report-photos/
SportsCarDigest
No comments:
Post a Comment