Lewis Hamilton Confirmed For 2008 Goodwood Festival Of Speed

After much anticipation, British Formula One sensation Lewis Hamilton has now confirmed his attendance at the 2008 Goodwood Festival of Speed. In 2007 Lewis made his British debut in an F1 car to the huge delight of the assembled 50,000 Festival goers. For 2008, Lewis will once again scream up the challenging 1.16-mile Goodwood hillclimb in his McLaren-Mercedes Grand Prix car on Sunday 13 July.

The presence of Lewis at the Goodwood Festival of Speed harmoniously ties in with the 2008 theme of 'Hawthorn to Hamilton - Britain's Love Affair with World Motor Sport'.

Hamilton will be joining a very long list of other famous racing and rally drivers and bike racers, whose careers spanned from the ‘50s to present day, at the July 11-13 Goodwood extravaganza.

Silverstone Classic

One of the headline races at the Silverstone Classic on 25-27 July will be the World Sportscar Masters Series tackling a 90-minute race running into the dusk of Saturday evening. Sports-racing cars from the mid-‘60s through to 1973 will include Lola T70s, Ford GT40s, Chevron B16s, two Ferraris and a rare Porsche 908 with pit-stops, driver changes and headlights lighting the track as the evening sun drops below the horizon.

The Denny Hulme Trophy Race with Hagerty will celebrate the racing life of the Kiwi, who won the 1967 Formula 1 World Championship and also starred in the type of cars racing in World Sportscar Masters.

In the summer of 1968, Hulme took two victories at Silverstone in the Lola T70Mk3B owned and entered by Sid Taylor, winning the sports car races at the International Trophy and Martini Trophy meetings, as he dominated the RAC Sports Car Championship. At Silverstone this July, as many as ten T70Mk3Bs will grace the grid, and at least four of them are major contenders for victory.

The cars of Richard Meins, Shaun Lynn and Jon Minshaw are all potential winners, along with the T70 shared by Chris Beighton and Jon Finnemore. Two Ferraris will take on the Lolas and Fords, with Paul Knapfield (712) and David Hart (512M) putting the prancing horse in contention for the podium, while the very rare Porsche 908 of German racer Walter Mathai is another front-runner.

However, the best of the 2-litre cars will be right up with the V8 brigade and the smaller Lola T210s/212s will be challenging for victory. Anthony Hancock, Charlie Kemp and former GT ace Geoff Lister are the drivers to watch in the 1800cc Ford-powered cars. Up to 15 Chevrons will pack out the grid, with both B8 and B16 models from the celebrated Bolton marque.

Girls Only Track Day

Further to our mention in the March issue of the ‘News, Simon Hope of H&H Limited has long been trying to get more women into racing and with the help of Emma-Jane Gilbart-Smith is putting together a track day for ladies only. Simon and Emma-Jane believe that if more women enjoy the experience of driving around a track they may just want to do more.

They will be offering a low key day on the track, with or without tuition, in your own or a borrowed car, including a friendly lunch, as well as laps as a passenger with experienced drivers. Please contact Emma-Jane on +44 (0)7771 790 373 if you are interested.

	Peter Collins and Lewis Garrad at Bandol at the start of the 1954 Alpine Rally Photo courtesy Midland Automobile Club

Technology and Nostalgia at Shelsley Walsh

The Midland Automobile Club is again organising the “Peter Collins Celebration” alongside the British Hill Climb Championship meeting at Shelsley Walsh on August 16 and 17. So, not only will visitors be able to see the F1 technology in use by the large modern racing cars, but also they can enjoy the pure nostalgia of some ‘40s and ‘50s racing and rally cars.

The guest of honour will be Peter Collins widow Louise, who is flying in from the USA especially for the occasion.

To date some 20 cars driven by Peter Collins, or similar models, will attend with their current owners, including Ferraris, Aston Martins and HWMs. The Cooper 500 driven by Peter in the late ‘40s will be competing in the hands of Alan Dunkerley.

In the early 50s Peter was a member of the Rootes Works Sunbeam Talbot Rally Team. The actual car he drove in 1954 will be at Shelsley and so will the navigator of the car, Lewis Garrad. He was a 17-year-old novice at the time.

Crown Princess Mary and Crown Prince Frederik admire the Royale's 12.7 litre engine with father of the bride Prince Henrik of Denmark

Royale Wedding

Donington Park owner Tom Wheatcroft's Bugatti Royale re-creation took centre stage recently at a Royal wedding in Denmark.

Following the wedding the car was used to take His Royal Highness Prince Joachim of Denmark and his bride, the new Princess Marie Cavallier, from Mogeltonder Church to Schackenborg Castle, on a route lined by tens of thousands of Royal watchers and broadcast live on Danish TV. The wedding was attended by Queen Margrethe and Prince Henrik of Denmark together with members of the Danish and other Scandinavian royal families.

Tom offered the car to the Prince at a reception in Aarhus last year when a number of cars from the Donington Grand Prix Collection went on display at the Art Gallery in the city.

Prince Joachim is a motor sport enthusiast and races a Ford Cortina in historic races. In a different kind of assignment from their usual race-prep activities, the Royale was prepared by Hall and Hall.

The car is now back on display in the Donington Grand Prix Collection, and retains the distinctive "Crown 41" registration plate, which was allocated to it by the Danish Royal Family.

Le Mans Classic – Second Title Sponsor

EFG Bank is to join Richard Mille Watches as main sponsors of the Le Mans Classic event. EFG Bank is a trading name of EFG International, a global private banking group with 50 locations in more than 30 countries, which recently announced its entry into the French market with the acquisition of Sycomore Gestion Privee.

Since the first event in 2002, Le Mans Classic has made steady progress, and for this year's event expects to welcome around 100,000 spectators.

U2TC Pole Position

The main sponsors of the Coppa Intereuropa event, Bosch, offered a special treat to the U2TC drivers, with 45 minutes of track time on the Sunday. They didn’t want a race, but something different and fun. At first they wanted to offer cash prizes of 1000 Euros to the winners, but this was not allowed under Italian rules.

U2TC Pole Position was to be a timed test, first of all of the fastest flying lap time, giving each driver one out lap, one flying lap and one in lap. The teams’ pit stop times were then taken and a prize awarded to the team who could make the fastest driver change. There was also an award for the two drivers who could get closest in flying laps times, so cars in the smaller classes could also compete.

The event came directly after the Alfa race in which many of the U2TC drivers were competing, but that was OK, they would be allowed out of parc fermé and cars would be sent off for Bosch Pole Position in two groups, with the Alfa competitors in the second group.

Clearly it was going to be tricky to time and 32 pit marshals and timekeepers were enlisted.

Well, it was fun, and it was different, but the whole thing descended into chaos when the Alfas were not allowed out of parc fermé (although some went anyway and were waved through) and cars were sent out randomly depending on when they appeared in the pit lane. Then, suddenly the pit lane was closed and it was all over.

Winners were Dominik Roschmann, who achieved the fastest lap, Richard Shaw and Jackie Oliver, who made a lightning pit stop (some 12 seconds from wheels stopping to wheels rolling), and father and son Gabriel and Dion Kremer, whose laps times were very similar indeed. They were completely surprised to find out they’d won, as they hadn’t planned to do that.