This year’s Festival of Speed event for me has to have been the best one yet, I’m just one of the many members of staff at Goodwood who help to build and host the Festival of Speed event, which brings in members of the public from all over the world. The event which runs over three days and pulls in approximately 180,000 people, all turning up to watch fast cars and fast motorbikes take on Goodwood famous hill climb.
So as a member of staff why was this year’s event so special to me? well as a major fan of MotoGP and a big supporter of the Yamaha Team how happy was I to find out the 9 times MotoGP World Champion Valentino Rossi would be attending this year’s event on Sunday..
The weekend’s event went well for everyone, but for me on the Saturday things just got better when I was stopped by a member of Rossi’s pit crew asking me for assistance to help find and provide a rope barrier which could help protect the 60th Anniversary M1 which was still yet to be uncovered on Sunday and then ridden by Rossi up Goodwood’s Hill climb.. So after being asked I set about looking around and soon was able to provide the required barriers as requested, and the team were even more surprised when they found out the barriers ribbon was Yamaha Blue (result)
The time arrived on Sunday when Rossi took to Goodwood’s famous hill climb and then to everyone surprise road his Yamaha YZR-M1 up towards Goodwood House and then straight into the main front hall to be greeted by Lord March.
With Rossi’s hill climb ride over I headed over towards the Yamaha stand to take a closer look at Rossi’s YZR-M1 in the 60th Anniversary colour scheme, on arriving at the stand the crowd of Rossi fans was already 6 rows thick so I turned around went to walk away, it was at this point I spotted a member of Rossi’s pit crew waving at me! I was invited onto the Yamaha stand and shown around Rossi’s YZR-M1 whilst being told all about it and shaking hands with Rossi’s main pit crew team.. why I asked did you invite me onto the stand? the reply because of the help you gave us on Saturday…
Will never forget this moment…
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