In less than two months the 2012 Festival of Speed will get underway with Goodwood welcoming more than 100 top drivers, riders and famous faces to the world’s greatest celebration of motor sport and car culture.

The Festival of Speed remains unique in its ability to attract the majority of the current season’s Formula 1 teams and drivers, with at least seven of the 2012 F1 teams confirmed for Goodwood. These GP teams will include Red Bull Racing, Scuderia Ferrari, Vodafone McLaren Racing, Lotus, Mercedes GP, Williams and Caterham. Current F1 drivers and leading characters in action at the Festival will include current double World Champion Sebastian Vettel, plus the two previous World Champions, Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton. Mark Webber, Nico Rosberg, Bruno Senna, Christian Horner and Adrian Newey will also be in action up the 1.16-mile Goodwood hillclimb.

Past Grand Prix masters present at this summer’s Festival of Speed will include Alain Prost, Sir Stirling Moss, Sir Jackie Stewart, John Surtees, Nick Heidfeld, Jochen Mass, Emerson Fittipaldi, Martin Donnelly and Alex Wurz, all joining a roll-call of other motor sport stars at Goodwood that reads like a Who’s Who of motor racing.

From the world of rallying, drivers Juho Hanninen, Thierry Neuville, Jan Kopecky and Skoda UK Motorsport’s 2011 IRC Champion, Andreas Mikkelsen will be on the Forest Rally Stage, along with many other rallying greats who will be reacquainted with the cars that made them famous, including Juha Kankkunen, Rauno Aaltonen, Jimmy McRae, Hannu Mikkola and Russell Brookes. TV stars James Martin and Jesse James will also be in action on the Forest Rally Stage.

Motorcycling heroes will include big name riders such as three-time 500cc World Champion Kenny Roberts, 1987 World Champion Wayne Gardner, present British MotoGP hero Cal Crutchlow, 13-time World Superbike race winner Aaron Slight, seven-time GP victor Henk van Kessel, plus legends Neil Hodgson, James Ellison, Steve Parrish, Guy Martin, Stuart Graham, Shane ‘Shakey’ Byrne, Stuart Easton, and Sammy Miller, among many others. Joining them from the exciting world of sidecar racing will be the winner of a staggering 10 world titles, Steve Webster, partnered by three-time World Champion Paul Woodhead.

All of the drivers and riders participating in this summer’s Festival of Speed will appear on the walkway leading into the exclusive BlackRock Drivers’ Club throughout the event, giving Festival goers and fans the rare opportunity to see their heroes up close, and possibly even have a word or two with them too!

The latest summary of the drivers and riders due to appear at the 2012 Festival of Speed, along with the vehicles they will be running up the 1.16-mile Goodwood hillclimb, is available via this news page.

For a full list of who’s driving what, please click here.

At this year’s Festival of Speed (28 June – 1 July) the only V12-powered Lotus Formula 1 car – the 102 – will be driven in anger by its 1990-season driver Martin Donnelly for 1.16 miles up the challenging Goodwood hillclimb, whilst the car’s owner – Andrew Morris – is busy rowing 2,587 miles across the even more challenging North Atlantic Ocean!

Entrepreneur, Icon Sheene motorcycle creator and owner of the Lotus 102 Andrew Morris will be rowing the Atlantic with adventurer Roz Savage, leaving dry land in 12 days time (13 May) and rowing from the East coast of Canada to London. En route they face at least two months at sea with all the North Atlantic Ocean has to throw at them – bitter cold, fog, storm force winds, the threat of icebergs, mountainous waves and unpredictable currents. By comparison the twists and turns of the 1.16-mile Goodwood Hill seem comparatively easy, but appearances can be deceptive.

To date just 30 individuals have rowed the North Atlantic, and no one has yet completed this together with a row along the inland waterways to London. The record for a rowing pair stands at 55 days and 13 hours, and this record has remained unbroken for 115 years. Andrew and Roz will also be the first male/female team to make this attempt.

However, the experienced ocean rowers will not stop there. Through the OAR (Olympic Atlantic Row) Project (www.olympicatlanticrow.com) they aim to finish their row in London, navigating through the Bristol Channel and via the inland waterways, aiming to arrive in time to enjoy the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics.

Whilst Andrew is mid-Atlantic, his cherished Lotus 102 will be fully exercised at the Festival of Speed by its former 1990-season F1 driver Martin Donnelly. The Frank Dernie designed 102 was the first and only Lotus to use a V12. The Lamborghini engine powered Team Lotus to a best finish of fifth in the 1990 Hungarian GP, driven by Derek Warwick.

Donnelly will be reunited with the 102 and he intends to enjoy it with gusto; driving the Lotus as a timed run car up the Goodwood 1.16-mile Hill. The 102 will be one of over 40 significant Lotus race and road cars tacking the Festival hillclimb as Goodwood celebrates this iconic, innovative and treasured British marque.

Both the Andrew Morris boat, plus his Lotus 102, will be wearing Festival of Speed branding to unite them.

Lord March says “I wish Andrew and Roz the best of British in safely and successfully rowing across the Atlantic and back into London. I also look forward to watching Martin tackling the Festival of Speed hillclimb in his Lotus 102.”

Lord March, Martin Donnelly, Clive Chapman and the Lotus 102 gathered earlier this week at Goodwood House to wish Andrew Morris well in his adventure.

Three years on, this larger-than-life television personality is set to return to the Festival of Speed (29 June – 1 July) in the latest racing incarnation of his Baja-style Trophy Truck, with daily hooning around throughout the spectacular Goodwood Park landscape.

Although his driving is expected to be marginally more sedate at Goodwood, James still promises to enthral the Festival of Speed goers with his exciting and unexpected antics behind the wheel of his sophisticated space-frame chassis truck.  Following his memorable Festival antics in 2009, this year promises to be a spectacle that few will forget.

Full Press Release

2012 GOODWOOD MOTOR RACING
FESTIVAL OF SPEED, 28/6/12 – 01/07/12

This annual mid-summer event is held in the magnificent grounds of Goodwood House, West Sussex England and is, quite simply, the largest motoring garden party in the world. It is a unique and impossibly heady mix of cars, stars, speed and motor sport royalty, past and present.

Motorsport Heaven!

From current Formula 1 racers and 200mph supercars to steam-powered carriages of the 19th Century, and from 3000bhp top fuel dragsters to classic rally cars, the Festival of Speed attracts the heroic and the evocative from every era in an exuberant display of style, sound, smell and colour.

The Festival of Speed pays homage to the most significant and salient cars in the history of international motor sport, with entry by personal invitation from Lord March. All cars and motorcycles are painstakingly selected to reflect the event’s major theme of the year, and to ensure their authenticity and provenance, all competing vehicles are presented in their original condition and livery.

Events include the 1.16 mile timed Hill Climb and a special forest rally stage. Past and present greats mingle with the great and good of the business world and the general public with over 150,000 coming through the gates.

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TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

2012 GOODWOOD MOTOR RACING REVIVAL
Celebrating Motorsports Heritage14-16 September 2012

Seven races in multiple categories around a classic race track untouched by the modern world, the Goodwood Revival really is a magical step-back in time, a unique chance to revel in the glamour and allure of motor racing past at one of the world’s most authentic circuits.
 
Re-living the glory days of Goodwood, It is the biggest and the best, one of world’s most popular and historic motor race meetings and the only event of its kind to be staged entirely in the theme of the 1940s, 50s and 60s.

The Revival offers spectators and viewers the opportunity to leave the modern world behind and join motor sport legends in an unabashed celebration of flat-out wheel to wheel racing. 

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Most recently Lawrence was responsible for signing a raft of broadcast, rightsholder and branded deals at Endemol Sport. His award-winning projects included the launch of Abu Dhabi Media’s Arabic Premier League channel, the creation of The Guinness® Football Challenge format franchise and the acclaimed theatrical film of Manchester City FC’s new ownership ‘Blue Moon Rising’.

Chris Cunningham, Chief Executive Officer of the Bennelong Group, said “We are thrilled that we have been able to attract someone of Lawrence’s calibre, experience and knowledge in sports media to the Group. His track record of building a successful business within Endemol Sport speaks for itself, and we look forward to leveraging his expertise across our existing production and global distribution capabilities.”

Lawrence Duffy commented “I’m delighted to join the Group. This is a very well backed enterprise with real appetite to create a modern, global sports media business. Sports programming and content now comes in many forms, and we anticipate creating innovative and entertaining content in live, formatted and digital spaces for a wide client base.”

Lawrence starts with the Group on the 12th March 2012 and will be based in London.

Full Press Release

In 2012 Sportsbrand, host broadcast service providers to the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, have revisited the infamous Agassi and Federer tennis match atop the worlds only 7-star hotel the Burj Al Arab.

Originally shot in 2005 the images of the two of the greats of the game battling it out on the helipad of the worlds most luxurious hotel grabbed international headlines and media awards. As Dubai Duty Free celebrate its 20th year as owners and organiser of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships Sportsbrand will once again venture to the top of the Burj Al Arab to get Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic’s thoughts on what has grown to be one of the favourite tennis events on the tour.

To view some images from the shoot, please click here.

With eight out of the top ten mens players competing in the ATP event and no less than seven out of the top ten females competing in the WTA event the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships and the events partnership continue to grow to new heights. 

The Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships is held under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. Play begins on February 14th with the WTA Tour event and continues with the ATP tournament from February 21st that includes Australian Open and reigning Dubai champion Novak Djokovic, four-time Dubai winner Roger Federer and Australian Open finalist Andy Murray.

We talk to the athletes, their coaches, friends and families.  We hear their stories in their own words as they train and prepare.

Sporting venues have a life and history of their own.  Silent witnesses to history, the triumphs and the tragedies – we bring these stores to life.

Sport is nothing without the fans.  They eat, sleep and breathe it.  Be amazed and bemused at their passion and commitment.

Destination Sports brings YOU THE HOLY TRINITY OF THE ATHLETE, THE STADIUM AND FAN in one compelling series.

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Countdown To London is almost half-way through their episodes leading up to the Olympics and have just made their 20th episode this week.

With 22 weeks to go, we will continue to show you who to look out for, as the Countdown To London is on!