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| See BMW Motorrad's biggest stars and their machines |
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The weekend of 11-13 July sees Goodwood House near Chichester, West Sussex host the legendary Goodwood Festival of Speed. BMW Motorrad will, once again, play a part in the annual celebrations of Motorsport.
The Festival is an unrivalled social and sporting occasion in the motor racing calendar. The main attraction at the Festival of Speed is the Hillclimb held throughout the weekend on a 1.86-km course on parkland roads in the grounds of the famous House. Traditionally, star riders and drivers on historical bikes and cars race along a tree-lined avenue before climbing a steep and narrow estate road to the top of the hill overlooking the picturesque South Downs.
The motorcycle category of the Hillclimb caters for some of the world’s most famous competition bikes. This year BMW Motorrad is bringing along an exciting line-up of motorcycles.
Making a first appearance in the United Kingdom is BMW Motorrad Motorsport’s factory HP2 Sport endurance racer that has already seen action in the Le Mans 24 Hour race and at Daytona this year. Team rider Richard Cooper, who finished in a fantastic fifth place in the Formula Xtreme Daytona 200 race in March, will ride it as fast as he dares up the famous hill.
The off-road world will be represented by Simon Pavey, who is best known as the man who taught Ewan McGregor to ride off-road in preparation for his Long Way Round and Long Way Down adventures. He was also team mate to McGregor’s round-the-world travelling companion Charley Boorman in the 2007 Dakar Rally and ended up finishing the gruelling race after Boorman crashed out of contention.
Pavey – who is also Chief Instructor of the BMW Off Road Skills school in south Wales – will be climbing the hill on Boorman’s BMW F 650 GS ‘Race to Dakar’ machine. Simon is only just back from Asia where he competed on a BMW G 650 Xchallenge in the inaugural Transorientale Rally, which covered 10,700 kilometres from St Petersburg to Beijing in just 17 days.
The Goodwood Festival of Speed is far more than just a hillclimb though. It is a celebration of motor sport and is the only occasion where you’ll see the greatest historical and modern competition machines and star drivers and riders in action, including a beautifully restored BMW R 51 that raced in the 1939 Isle of Man Senior TT.
This year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed will also commemorate 20 years of the most competitive domestic motorcycle racing series in the world – the British Superbike Championship. And who knows, maybe it will be a BMW factory superbike riding up the famous hill in 2009?
Charley Boorman performs a wheelie on the ‘Race to Dakar’ BMW F 650 GS Simon Pavey will ride at this year’s Hillclimb
Entry into the world’s biggest ‘must-see’ celebration of motor racing is by advance ticket only. For more information visit www.goodwood.co.uk, call + 44 1243 755055 or email bookings goodwood.co.uk. To see some amazing video of World Trials Champion Dougie Lampkin in action in and outside Goodwood House, click www.goodwood.co.uk/Site/Content/FestivalOfSpeed/Dougie_Lampkin_Video.aspx
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