Goodwood Festival of Speed
Monaco Grand Prix victor and F1 World Championship front runner Lewis Hamilton is to headline this year's Goodwood Festival of Speed on July 11-13.
Last year the sensational Lewis made his British debut in an F1 car there to the huge delight of the assembled 50,000 festival goers.
This year, Lewis will once again scream up the challenging 1.16-mile Goodwood hillclimb in his McLaren-Mercedes Grand Prix car on Sunday July 13.
The presence of Lewis at the Goodwood festival harmoniously ties in with the 2008 theme of Hawthorn to Hamilton - Britain's Love Affair with World Motor Sport', and his McLaren Mercedes team will be just one of seven bringing tyre-smoking action to the tranquil parkland just a week after the British Grand Prix.
Hamilton burst on to the motor sport scene at the Australian Grand Prix in 2007, in much the same way that Hawthorn did at the Goodwood Easter Monday meeting in 1952.
Hawthorn went on to make history driving for Ferrari to become Britain's first F1 World Champion 50 years ago in 1958. The nation hopes that Hamilton will achieve similar success soon with the McLaren-Mercedes team.
This year's festival is all about recognising winning combinations such as these.
Britain has also long played a key role in the global motor racing industry, forging successful relationships with the rest of the motor sport world.
The festival will also acknowledge the influence and achievements of iconic British figures, including Stirling Moss, Jim Clark, John Surtees, Colin McRae, Roger Clark, James Hunt, Barry Sheene, Jackie Stewart, Derek Bell, and Colin Chapman.
Goodwood has confirmed that more than 90 of the world's greatest motor racing drivers and riders will be present at the world's largest celebration of motoring culture.
Confirmed drivers at the festival will include current Formula One stars Hamilton, Jenson Button and Sebastian Bourdais, as well as World Rally Championship (WRC) works drivers Petter Solberg, Chris Atkinson, Matthew Wilson and Mikko Hirvonen.
Current two-wheeled heroes in action will include World Superbikes Championship contenders Troy Corser, Yukio Kagayama and Carlos Checa, plus BSB title challengers Leon Haslam, Michael Rutter, Cal Crutchlow, Stuart Easton and Tom Sykes. Famous names from motor racing's past who will be there in the flesh will include Sir Stirling Moss, Sir Jackie Stewart, Carl Fogarty, Juha Kankkunen, Mike Doohan, Bobby Unser and John Watson.
A plethora of British Touring Car Championship drivers will be on hand to help celebrate the 50th anniversary of this hugely popular race series, including Tom Chilton, Andy Rouse, Anthony Reid, John Cleland, Win Percy, John Rhodes and Frank Gardner.
2:54pm Wednesday 9th July 2008
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