LADIES DAY AT GOODWOOD

21 May 2013

CHANGING GEAR TAKES ON A NOSTALGIC TWIST AS GOODWOOD INTRODUCES THE WORLD’S FIRST LADIES DAY AT A MOTOR SPORT EVENT

Elegant and smartly-dressed ladies visiting this year’s Goodwood Revival on Saturday 1 September stand a good chance of taking home flowers and bottles of champagne – traditionally the reserve of victorious racing drivers – as Goodwood introduces motor sport’s first, and only, Ladies Day. Throughout the day a leading team of fashion gurus, possibly including style-leaders such as Twiggy, will be looking out for the most immaculately-groomed ladies in the crowds, and awarding spot prizes of finest Veuve Clicquot champagne and flowers to the lucky few.

The Goodwood Revival is the only meeting in the world set entirely to a period theme, with every detail faithful to that golden age of style, grace and glamour:
1948-1966. No other vintage fashion event anywhere takes place on such a vast scale: the event is usually attended by over 110,000 visitors, the overwhelming majority of whom are suited, booted and groomed from the tips of their ‘femme fatale’ red fingernails to their stilettoed toes, proving that the Revival is far more than a series of races for historic vehicles.

Mini adventures, maxi style and a ‘New Look’ at fashion will be on the cards from 31 August – 2 September, as tens of thousands of stylish boys and girls once more raid their wardrobes and adopt the glamorous dress of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, a time when men were men and women were glad of it.

"Finding the perfect outfit to do justice to the theatre of the surroundings is a key part of the fun of coming to the Goodwood Revival. While there isn’t a specific dress code at Goodwood, the venue seems to encourage visitors to make a welcome effort," says the Revival’s founder Lord March.

Many of the leading vintage clothes suppliers across the UK bring their wares to the Revival Market – a unique shopping village dedicated solely and strictly to the design sensibilities of the pre-1966 period. The Market has become a great fashion network opportunity with fashionistas and serious vintage devotees meeting up to exchange tips, upgrade costumes from last year and even buy a better hat or foxier fur wrap for the event the next day.

The period of 1948 to 1966 – during which time Goodwood Motor Circuit was an active venue for top-class international racing – offers tremendous scope for choosing a ‘look’ to adopt for the event. Gentlemen can make women swoon in a tightly tailored Forces uniform; or adopt the debonair urbanity of Cary Grant; the country casual look of a James Herriot is always popular, as is the unashamedly mean and moody leather and denim of a Marlon Brando or a pre-army Elvis.

Women, too, have remarkable style icons to emulate: the sultry, smouldering glamour of Forties silver screen sirens Rita Hayworth or Ava Gardner; the voluptuous goddess dresses of Marilyn Monroe; the timeless classicism, grace and beauty of Audrey Hepburn; the perfect little suits and accessories of Jackie Kennedy and Grace Kelly; or the sheer mini-skirted, swinging joie de vivre of Twiggy. So much fashion, and only three days to dress up for!

GLAMOUR AT THE REVIVAL

21 May 2013

PIT LANE PIN-UPS TO SET PULSES RACING AT THE GOODWOOD REVIVAL

Historic competition cars and motorcycles won’t be the only things racing at this year’s Goodwood Revival; drivers’ pulses will be too, as a dozen glamorous girls line up on the starting grid.

The 12 ‘grid girls’ – courtesy of Revival partner Oilexco – will be dressed in colourful Swinging Sixties PVC outfits, all the rage in Carnaby Street at the time. The girls will be parading on the starting grid and performing essential duties before each race over the Revival weekend, holding up row positioning boards to assist the competitors in placing their vehicles in the correct starting position, and of course, looking gorgeous. The grid girls are a new edition to the Goodwood Revival, sponsored by Oilexco Incorporated, an emerging oil producer focusing on undeveloped UK oil and gas discoveries in the North Sea.

These pit lane pin-ups will be joining a cast of more than 60 selected actors and actresses to add a sense of style and theatre to the Goodwood Revival. The Goodwood Actors Guild (GAG) has been set up specifically to add to the authentic atmosphere of the Revival and the members play their part in creating the magical step back in time that is the Revival, the world’s only motor sport meeting set entirely in period.

All around the Goodwood Motor Circuit site, there are many actors, role-playing and acting out scenes from a bygone era. Spivs selling nylons and watches from beneath their coats; Mods and Rockers hanging out and dancing, then being ‘moved on’ by the local bobbies; comedic workmen preparing to dig a hole in the most inappropriate places; Airline Captains, with a string of adoring air hostesses in tow; the Dad’s Army home guard and even iconic figures such as Marilyn Monroe, George Formby and Laurel & Hardy are all to be found at the Revival.

Period vehicles such as a fleet of ‘Glam Cab’ Ford Cortinas, as used in the British comedy classic, ‘Carry On Cabbie’, will also form part of the set, with the glamorous ‘gals’ driving VIP groups and famous racing drivers around. There will also be a display of the finest period road-going machinery in the form of a second hand Supercar sales lot, where members of the public will be harassed into dodgy dealings by shady salesmen.

The Goodwood Revival gives a chance for all visitors to revel in the romance of motor racing as it used to be. The lovingly restored motor circuit is unchanged from its heyday, and great lengths are taken to ensure that everything on the site is exactly as it was. All Goodwood staff and GAG members dress in appropriate period clothing from the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, and each year more competitors and spectators get into the effervescent Goodwood spirit by dressing the part, considering it all part of the fun.

Leave the modern world at the gate and enjoy a magical step back in time.

F1 in SCHOOLS

20 May 2013

THURSDAY ISLAND STUDENTS EMBRACE FORMULA ONE TECHNOLOGY!

Students from Tagai State College Thursday Island Secondary Campus, on Thursday

Island north of Cape York in the Torres Strait, are about to become involved in a

worldwide Formula One design and racing competition thanks to the efforts of the

Queensland Government, local sponsors and the not-for-profit organisation, Re-

Engineering Australia Forum.

Ms Alana Baird, the REA Forum Queensland Projects Manager, says the Design and Technology

Hub will provide students with state-of-the-art 3D CATIA CAD/CAM/CAE software valued at

millions of dollars, desktop-sized smoke and wind tunnels, a computerised NC router and an

electronic 20-metre race track.

This technology will be used by the students to design, make, test and race miniature F1 style

cars in REA Forum’s nationwide Schools Innovation Design Challenge. The team which wins the

SIDC each year automatically receives entry to the worldwide F1inSchools competition…withthe next finals taking place in Malaysia. It

’s all part of inspiring the next generation to consider

innovation based careers.

She adds,

“REA has been focusing on the regional areas of Australia since the competition was launched.

In fact, our first Technology Hubs were located in country towns. We wanted to show kids that

you don’t have to live in the city to access world leading technology. And we hope that by

doing this that we can stimulate industry in more remote areas.”“

With technology like high speed broadband, email and web conferencing – provided by our

partners Telstra and Webex - designers and engineers can be located anywhere…whetherthey

’re involved in a national or a global project. That is why this technology is a part of

everything we do at REA. We have ended the tyranny of distance. We will be using Webex to

link a classroom from Cooktown State School when we do software training for 24 teachers and

students from Thursday Island Secondary Campus in the lead up to the Hub launch.”

Thursday Island Secondary Campus Acting Deputy Principal, Paul Charles, says the new Design

and Technology Hub will provide the students with an amazing opportunity to expand their

horizons,

“This Hub and the REA competition will enable our students to get involved in design, styling,

aerodynamics, finite element analysis, computational fluid dynamics and manufacturing. They

are going to learn all of the disciplines that make up engineering and manufacturing. There are

even adult engineers in Australia who don’t have access to this level of technology. Not only

that, the collaboration technology will bring them closer to the mainland. They’ll be able toshare their ideas and talk to students right across Australia.

”“The Thursday Island team will have the opportunity later this year to compete in regional and

state elimination finals and, if they are good enough, go on to the SIDC National Finals. The

winner of that represents Australia in the F1inSchools World Finals.”

Adds Ms Baird,

"The Thursday Island community has developed a sense of pride in their students' achievements

and their involvement in the REA program. It is extremely encouraging to see so many young

people embracing the manufacturing and engineering technology, and it's especially great to

see an increase in number of young women embracing the opportunity to experience this

world's best technology.“

Thanks to this group of sponsors the Hub has become a reality. Funding was received from

Torres Strait Regional Authority, Black & More, Torres News, Waiben Light Marine Services,

Yorke (Masig) Island Council, and the Workplace Excellence Program’s Manufacturers’ Starter

Initiative.

GOODWOOD REVIVAL PREVIEW

20 May 2013

EXCITING NEW INNOVATIONS BLEND WITH TIMELESS TRADITIONS AT THE GOODWOOD REVIVAL

Never one to rest on his laurels, the Earl of March will introduce a number of exciting new additional attractions to this year’s Goodwood Revival, being held at the Goodwood Motor Circuit from 31 August to 2 September.

Complementing the nostalgic appeal of the world’s most authentic historic motor race meeting will be some innovative features not seen at previous Revival meetings. These will include the redevelopment of the popular Revival period garage into an exciting 1930’s-style art deco building, housing a range of mouth watering machinery in stylish art deco settings, to recreate the automobile showrooms and exhibitions of old. Expect to see a mouth-watering selection of historic Ferrari road cars on display in the showroom to help celebrate the 60^th anniversary of the celebrated Modena marque. The familiar Revival wooden country garage façade will be relocated behind the Chicane Grandstand area.

Away from these car displays, the inaugural Freddie March Spirit of Aviation ‘concours d’elegance’ for pre-1967 aircraft will bring together around 30 of the world’s finest, most elegant, original and rarely-seen aeroplanes.

By contrast, a selection of pre-1967 touring caravans, being towed by appropriate period vehicles, will form part of a display to help mark the Centenary of the Caravan Club. The sight of immaculate classic caravans being pulled around the legendary Goodwood Motor Circuit promises to be a surreal experience for all. Almost as ‘far out’ will be some groovy mid-1960s hippie era American chopper motorcycles on display on the Goodwood lawns.

The racing on the circuit will also see some key changes for this year. The improved Revival line-up to make the weekend even more action-packed and enjoyable.

This year will see an all-new grid of production-based sports and GT cars of the
mid-1960s. The Fordwater Trophy has always been a name synonymous with road-based racing GTs, and this year, for the first time, it will feature a grid full of rapid racing versions of the popular production sports cars that adorned Europe’s roads and race tracks from the 1963 to 1966. These will cater for a wide variety of cars, from exotic thoroughbreds such as the Porsche 904 and early 911, Ferrari 275GTB, Alfa Romeo TZ1 and rare TZ2, through to the more specialist British sporting vehicles like the Lotus 26R and 47, Marcos 1800GT, Sunbeam Tiger and TVR Griffith, as well as rare specials such as the Elva GT160, Mini Gem GT and Lenham GT. These exciting sports cars will add an interesting new element to the racing and are certain to provide a fabulous dice as they sprint around the circuit.

Complementing the GT cars in the Fordwater Trophy will be the Madgwick Cup, which offers a diverse grid of small-capacity sports-racing cars from the mid-1950s. These lightweight and streamlined baby racers were the mainstay of sports car racing at Goodwood, forging a thriving industry of ‘production’ race cars for a long line of enthusiastic customers. At the forefront was Colin Chapman, and a gaggle of his sleek Lotus 11 and Lotus 15 cars will race against stiff opposition from Elva, Lola, Kieft and Willment. Taking them on will be the ground-breaking rear-engined Cooper ‘Bobtail’, as well as overseas thoroughbreds such as the Ferrari 500TRC, Maserati 200S and Porsche 718 RSK. These diminutive cars take to the Goodwood track for the first time since 2003 for what is effectively a miniature version of the ‘big banger’ Sussex Trophy. The action promises to be fast, furious – and extremely competitive.

The one-hour, two-driver Royal Automobile Club TT Celebration race remains the jewel in the Revival’s crown. Nowhere else in the world will you see such a spectacular grid of super-rare GT cars racing in anger, driven by great aces past and present. The grid will once again feature a breathtaking £30million array of internationally-renowned historic cars. Expect to see Jaguar E-type Lightweight; Ferrari 250 GT SWB, GTO and 330 LMB; AC Cobra and the original Shelby American Cobra Daytonas; Aston Martin DB4GT and Project car; plus thundering Chevrolet Corvettes. Drivers expected to take part include Le Mans winner Derek Bell and F1 aces Sir Stirling Moss and Johnny Herbert.

Following last year’s thrilling St Mary’s Trophy saloon car race for 1950s machinery, in 2007 it’s the turn of the 1960s cars again. Once more leviathan American saloons such as the Ford Galaxie, Falcon and Mustang will battle with the nimbler Mini Cooper, Lotus Cortina Mk1, Alfa Romeo 1600 GTA, BMW 1800 TiSA and Jaguar Mk2. It is expected that they will be joined by more unusual racers such Dodge Dart, Plymouth Barracuda, Mercedes-Benz 300SE, Hillman Imp and Vauxhall XX4/90. The St. Mary’s Trophy continues as a two-part race staged on both Saturday and Sunday, with an aggregate result. Celebrity touring car drivers will again pair up with the cars’ owners.

Other Goodwood Revival racing highlights will include the single-seaters, with the Richmond Trophy for Formula One cars (1948-1959); the Goodwood Trophy, which now becomes a race entirely for GP ‘titans’ based on designs from before the Second World War; and the Glover Trophy for 1960s Formula 1 cars, which will once again see a spectacular gathering of 1.5-litre GP cars using fabulous-sounding V8 engines. Meanwhile, the Chichester Cup for Formula Junior cars heralds a return for the rear-engined cars with drum brakes, which last appeared at the Revival in 2004.

The Sussex Trophy for sports racing cars ‘in the international spirit’ (1955-1960) is certain to be one of the weekend’s most exciting races. This will be a full-on battle of the 1950s ‘big banger’ sports cars, featuring Lister ‘Knobbly’, Jaguar D-type, Aston Martin DBR1 and DBR2, Ferrari Dino, Maserati 300S and T61 ‘Birdcage’, plus rare hybrids like the Tojeiro-Jaguar. Professional racers Stuart Graham, Tiff Needell, Peter Hardman, Tony Dron and Barrie ‘Whizzo’ Williams are sure to set the pace. The Freddie March Memorial Trophy, for cars that contested the legendary Goodwood Nine Hour race, will once again take the form of a 12-lap sprint, featuring classic sports-racing cars such as Jaguar C-type, Aston Martin DB3S, Maserati A6GCS, Ferrari, Allard and HWM. The Centenary of Brooklands will be honoured with a loud selection of ‘big bangers’ from the pre-war banked motor racing circuit. The Brooklands Museum Trust will also be the chosen charity for this year’s Revival.

The ever-popular Barry Sheene Memorial Trophy for motorcycles is always one of the most exciting races ever seen at the Revival. This is the only historic motorcycle race in the world that regularly attracts Italian exotics such as Benelli, Ducati and Aermacchi in significant numbers. Battling against them will be British Manx Norton and Matchless machinery. Lining up to race are planned to be a host of famous motorcycle champions, including Wayne Gardner, Niall Mackenzie and Troy Corser.

This year’s Revival will feature a special Tribute to Roy Salvadori, one of the most popular and versatile British racing drivers of the 1950s and 60s. Goodwood will also celebrate 40 Years of the Cosworth DFV Engine in a series of special track demonstrations at the Revival. Ford’s Cosworth-designed Double Four Valve engine came to the fore in F1 racing in 1967 just a few short months after Goodwood Motor Circuit closed its doors to competitive motor racing. Indeed, the promised performance increases of this and similar engines was a contributing factor in the demise of racing at Goodwood. Nonetheless, the circuit was used extensively in the testing and development of many DFV-powered cars, and in marking the anniversary of perhaps the world’s most famous engine we will gather together around 20 iconic racing machines to have used it.

THE WEEK IN F1

20 May 2013

All the facts, fiction, rumour and innuendo….

Well let’s say it, the Hungarian Grand Prix was a BORE!!! The only thing that livened up proceedings was the decent into chaos at McLaren. It all started quite normally on Friday with the usual suspects all being at the front of the field after first practice, except that BMW had put Kubica on soft tyres and bugger-all fuel which left him at the top of the time sheets by just under two tenths from Massa. In the afternoon session Alonso was the only one to drop under the 1minute 21 barrier ahead of Kovalainen in the Renault. The Ferrari’s were starting to look like they may struggle for a race win here with the pair of them being over half a second back.

For the new boys, Vettel was showing off his class by being immediately on the pace of Toro Rosso team mate Liuzzi but Yamamoto in the Spyker was showing the downside of having no car time since last year and was consistently around two seconds slower than Sutil.

Apart from that most teams were about where you would expect them to be although the much revised, “all will be better soon” Honda was woefully slow.  Saturday mornings practice session didn’t change that much although the Ferraris looked much happier. And then came qualifying………

Session one saw Hamilton on top from Kovalainen followed by Kubica, Massa, Alonso & Raikkonen. At the other end of the spectrum, both Hondas missed the cut along with Sato, Vettel and the Spykers. Yamamoto would not have made it into the top 16 but may have been a bit closer to Sutil had he not been held up by Fisichella for almost an entire lap when he was supposed to be on a quick one. This was to have more telling consequences for Fisichella than Yamamoto come race day.

Session two saw a Ferrari fiasco reminiscent of the old days. Massa had a moment of his first flying lap which left him outside the top ten and when he pitted for another set of tyres, the team failed to put in any more fuel. He made it to the end of the pit lane before stopping and had to be dragged back to his pit box to top up. By this time his nicely warmed tyres were cold and in the end he could do no better than 14th and out of the top ten shoot out. Another one to miss out was a thoroughly confused Kovalainen who after changes to his Renault, dropped from P2 in Q1 to 12th. At the top of the list stood Hamilton and Alonso in the mid 1m 19s followed by Trulli, Raikkonen, Rosberg, Heidfeld and Webber.

There has been trouble brewing for a few months now between the McLaren drivers with Alonso feeling that he has not been getting the respect he deserves from within the team and that Hamilton has not been playing the team game. And on this day it all boiled over. It all began with Hamilton refusing to obey his teams instructions that he move over to let Alonso past. Alonso was supposed to be at the front of the queue at the start of the session, fuelled a bit heavier and it was intended that he would do at least one more lap in the fuel burn stage. He had a slight problem starting the car however and Hamilton beat him to the pit exit. Hamilton’s excuse that he didn’t move over because he didn’t want to let Raikkonen by did not amuse team boss Ron Dennis and Alonso was rightfully furious.

Then came the final light fuel runs. After one each, Hamilton was a tad faster. Alosno was first into the pits for fresh tyres while Hamilton crawled in behind him. Hamilton arrived to find Alonso still in the pit box despite having been reshod waiting for his engineer to tell him to leave. What ever you believe, Alonso waited/was kept waiting for around thirty seconds with Hamilton parked behind him. By the time Hamilton had his new tyres bolted on it was too late for him to complete another flying lap and Alonso had pole.

Within minutes the stewards announced that the matter was under investigation and eventually Alonso was bumped down to sixth place on the grid for impeding another competitor.  (See STEWARDS REPORT HUNGARY 2007 for full details of the decision).

This meant that Heidfeld had his first front row start for the year in the BMW with Raikkonen and Rosberg sharing the second row. Fisichella was also dropped from eighth to thirteenth for his blocking of Yamamoto. Much as had Alonso’s chances of winning gone, so had Fisichella’s of scoring points.

After all that, the race was the typical Hungarian yawn fest. Hamilton led from start to finish with Raikkonen never more than four seconds away but with no chance of passing on this awful circuit. Alonso made up a couple of places early but got stuck behind the much slower Ralf Schumacher in the Toyota and it took until the final pit stops for him to take that place. Heidfeld finished in third, ahead of Alonso who was followed home by Kubica, Ralf, Rosberg, Kovalainen and Webber, who would have probably scored a point or two had the Red Bull team not made another bad strategy call. Instead of swapping to a two stop strategy like most other teams, they left Mark on a three stopper and he had to stop from seventh with 10 laps to go to refuel. The Hondas were so good that the only one to finish, ran last for most of the race and finished…….. last.

To complete McLaren’s misery they were also docked constructors championship points for this race although that is likely to be appealed. Also rumour has it that Alonso will not be staying put at the end of this year. It has been suggested that if he doesn’t land another competitive drive he may well retire.

So the Hungarian Grand Prix is over for another year. Unfortunately lots of drama, but not much real racing. 

Race results

70 laps; 306.663km;

Weather: Sunny.

Classified:

Pos  Driver        Team                 Time 1.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes     1h35:52.991

 2.  Raikkonen     Ferrari              +     0.715

 3.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber           +    43.129

 4.  Alonso        McLaren-Mercedes     +    44.858

 5.  Kubica        BMW Sauber           +    47.616

 6.  R.Schumacher  Toyota               +    50.669

 7.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota      +    59.139

 8.  Kovalainen    Renault              +  1:08.104

 9.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault     +  1:16.331

10.  Trulli        Toyota               +    1 lap

11.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault     +    1 lap

12.  Fisichella    Renault              +    1 lap

13.  Massa         Ferrari              +    1 lap

14.  Wurz          Williams-Toyota      +    1 lap

15.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda    +    1 lap

16.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari   +    1 lap

17.  Sutil         Spyker-Ferrari       +    2 laps

18.  Barrichello   Honda                +    2 laps

Fastest lap: Raikkonen, 1:20.047

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                            On lap

Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari   Electrical43

Davidson      Super Aguri-Honda    Accident   42

Button        Honda                Engine     36

Yamamoto      Spyker-Ferrari       Spun        7

World Championship standings

Drivers:                    Constructors:              1.  Hamilton      80        1.  McLaren-Mercedes     138

 2.  Alonso        73        2.  Ferrari              119

 3.  Raikkonen     60        3.  BMW Sauber            71

4.  Massa         59        4.  Renault               33

 5.  Heidfeld      42        5.  Williams-Toyota       20

 6.  Kubica        28        6.  Red Bull-Renault      16

7.  Fisichella    17        7.  Toyota                12

 8.  Kovalainen    16        8.  Super Aguri-Honda      4

 9.  Wurz          13        9.  Honda                  1

10.  Coulthard      8

11.  Webber         8

12.  Rosberg        7

13.  Trulli         7

14.  R.Schumacher   5

15.  Sato           4

16.  Vettel         1

17.  Button         1