Good News! After all three events were canceled last year due to the pandemic , the Goodwood Festival of Speed is back for 2021. This year celebrates some of Motorsports greatest legends, and you will get to watch some of the best cars and motorcycles take part as they tackle the 1.1-mile track come July. You can also tune in live for all the action.
High Octane Festival of Speed is Back after a year's absence
After much uncertainty looming around this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed and several negotiations with the British government, the annual festival held at the West-Sussex venue in the UK has been given the go and will take place between July 8 and 11. }
There was initially a lot of speculation about the Festival of Speed being delayed. This would have been at least until the 19th of July, which would have capped the number of spectators at the venue to just 4000 people. However, with the Festival of Speed being selected as a pilot event for the Events Research Program (ERP), it won’t have to adhere to this rule. The festival of speed (FOS) usually receives well over 150,000 people in attendance annually.
With this latest ruling, all ticket, grandstand, and hospitality pass holders, which include those who have ‘rolled over' tickets from last year's scrapped event, will all be eligible to attend the as scheduled.
The organizers verified the news via social media that it is now a participant of the Events Research Programme (ERP). The program is the UK government's effort to conduct scientific investigations about the spread of Covid 19 at venues like sporting tournaments and recommends measures to conduct these events safely.
Being a pilot event, all attendees will be subject to additional constraints imposed by the government. This means that all guests must have either received both doses of the Covid vaccine two weeks prior or must have documentation for a negative lateral flow test in order to attend the festival.
This year's scheduled four-day event celebrates 'The Maestros - Motorsport's Great All-Rounders’. The late Stirling Moss will be among the legendary racing drivers celebrated at this year's event.}
Mario Andretti, who raced in F1, IndyCar, and Nascar through much of his illustrious career, has already confirmed his attendance. Several current Formula One teams are also expected to participate. Both McLaren Formula One drivers Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo are all set to light up Goodwood's course.
What Is The Goodwood Festival of Speed?
The Goodwood Festival of Speed is a timed hill climb event held annually and is a celebration of manufacturers, drivers, and motorsport. It takes place in summer around the same time as the British Formula One Grand Prix.
The Festival of Speed is significant in that one can witness a number of extremely special and rare cars rev out their engines, all at the same venue. Fans get to witness several vehicles with everything from vintage and classic racing cars and motorcycles to super-exotics and futuristic EV’s, all taking to course.
After taking over the estate in the early ’90s, Charles Gordon-Lennox (the duke of Richmond) launched the Festival of Speed in an effort to reintroduce motor racing to the Goodwood estate, a place rooted in British motor racing heritage. It has since been hosted on the grounds of Goodwood Estate in the English countryside since 1993.
The current record for the fastest time over the 1.1 mile course is held by the electric Volkswagen ID.R at 39.9 seconds. It was set by Romain Dumas in 2019. We can’t wait for this year's crop of electric hypercars to take on Goodwood to challenge this record.