Goodwood Festival of Speed
It was also a chance for me to have some quality father-son time however when he turned up he was not alone! In fact he brought his new (since February) girlfriend along who he'd forgotten to mention...at all. Awkwardness ensued and luckily (for him) we were able to buy another ticket.
We knew we had to get up early expecting some traffic (arriving about 9:30am) but really the queues for the car park wasn't too much to complain about. What we didn't expect was the time to walk and queue to the main entrance. It must have taken half an hour with no toilets along the way. You couldn't ignore the amount of helicopters flying in or out which I mistakenly took as a famous person taxi service. Alas it was just a pleasure flight, a very popular one at that. Next year, to avoid the queues, we'll either get there earlier or camp for the whole weekend.
Once inside the grounds we skipped past the new car showroom and crossed the track towards the house and massive tubular shaped Jaguar E-type art installation. It was a lot more busier than I had expected and any chance of viewing cars were usually met by a swarm of people three layers thick. We were keen to see the Formula 1 cars and any drivers so headed for the paddock and F1 area. Again, the crowds made it difficult to see or photograph with a lot of shots of just backs of heads. One highlight was hearing the Lotus F1 garage progarmming the car engine to rev the Star Spangled Banner in tune.
We hung around the F1 marquees then found the driver entrance to their invite only garden restaurant. They were a few autograph hunters who must have been committed fans or greedy ebayers as I didn't recognise most of the drivers. I did 'pap' Lewis Hamilton's dad who was giving out his signature. Had to laugh as an excited (but obviously poor in sight) fan rushed up asking for Lewis' autograph to his dad. I even saw Nigel Mansell (sans Ned Flaunders tashe) being bombarded by autograph hunters looking completely hassled as he tried to go about his business.
My dad had told me previously that he was to meet up with a Japanese business customer at 1pm at the Kennels somewhere on the Goodwood grounds. It wasn't on the programme map and even most stewards hadn't heard of it. When we eventually got the location, It was located way off the main public area past one of the more interesting and expensive car parks. However, to get there meant crossing the service road when the supercars were going on track. The safety stewards were being a right pain not letting anyone cross at the slightest sniff of a car in sight so it meant we were late to meet. Managed to clock Nico Rosberg in a golf cart returning from a hillclimb then get soundblasted by the overhead Vulcan bomber. Eventually we got through and walked another 10 minutes to the Kennels, Goodwood's member's clubhouse. We had lunch but still no sign of the Japanese businessman. Either he had the same problem as us or his English let him down with the wrong place.
Wandered around a little more taking in the sights behind the house then back to the front just as Brian May doing guitar solo on a pickup truck and a gospel band had parked on a huge American truck and trailer. Way OTT but very funny and entertaining. After Brian got whisked away, another guitarist was waiting to play more rock as he did a Brian May himself on the house rooftop!
Towards the end of the day it seemed that the programme timings were slipping ad so the last Formula 1 session was at least 30 minutes late. We headed to the start line of the race course to meet up with my dad and to try and get a good viewing position. Throughout the day we could see how useful getting grandstand tickets were (though the extra £40 each on top did seem outrageous). Instead we managed to get into the BP uncovered grandstand for free and stood right next to the starting position perfect for seeing the wheel-spins.
By 5pm my dad wanted to go home but we carried on wandering the festival and came across the action sports arena where the Red Bull X-fighters were wooing the crowds with their motoX stunts. A nice end to the day apart from the traffic queues at Arundel on the way home.
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