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From The Times

June 30, 2006

Mansell stars in racy Goodwood line-up

By Vaughan Freeman

AS A Formula One racer, Nigel Mansell was adored for his hard-charging aggression on track and his grands-prix heroics. Now Mansell is to appear at the Goodwood Festival of Speed for the first time as next weekend’s event celebrates 100 years of grand-prix racing.

Mansell, the only man to win grand-prix and IndyCar championship titles back to back, will be among those hurtling up the Goodwood Hill in a selection of historic racing machinery — many of them cars he championed during his racing career.

“I am really looking forward to driving some of my old cars again, and being able to put on a show for the British fans who have always supported me so brilliantly,” he said.

Mansell will be at the event for all three days and will be reunited with cars such as the John Player Special Lotus 91 from his early career, which was also the last Colin Chapman GP-winning car, as well as with his championship-winning 1993 Newman-Haas IndyCar.

The Earl of March, who has built the Festival of Speed into one of the must-visit automotive events and is a great Mansell fan, said: “Nigel is an all-time British hero and a great ambassador for motor sport, so it is entirely appropriate that he is here this year to help to celebrate a century of Grands Prix.”

It will be a father-sons weekend as Mansell’s boys, Greg and Leo, will be taking their Formula BMW cars up the Goodwood Hill. The two are now competing in the Formula BMW UK Championship series, taking their first single-seat steps towards the Formula One world that their father once dominated.

The festival will also commemorate the Targa Florio road race, first run 100 years ago, and also the TransAm and CanAm series, first founded 40 years ago. Machinery in action will include a stunning collection of grand-prix cars, including the first winning Renault in 1906 and last season’s Renault championship-winning car driven by Fernando Alonso.

A wide selection of Targa Florio-winning cars will also be on show, as well as TransAm and CanAm cars including the orange McLaren-Chevrolets and one of the last frontengined IndyCar roadsters, a 1964 Watson-Offenhauser.