The National Motorcycle Museum & Triumph had a huge joint presence at this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed with our taking part in various high profile activities both on and off the track.
As part of the Museum & Triumph’s "Past & Present" feature, Carl Fogarty MBE returned to the Festival of Speed for the first time in eight years to ride Triumph machines both old and new whilst taking part in the famous Goodwood hill climb. Foggy rode two of the British marque’s current bikes, the Speed Triple and the Thruxton R as well as two of their famous forebears supplied by the National Motorcycle Museum. These included the Thruxton Bonneville that Malcolm Uphill took to victory in the 1969 Production TT and the 750cc Production TT winning Triumph Trident, known as 'Slippery Sam'. While not in use on the hill, the bikes made for an impressive sight in the paddock as part of a fantastic Triumph/Museum pit garage display. The "garage" was often inundated with "Foggy fans" as the 4 time World Superbike Champion signed autographs and conducted a series of TV interviews.
Carl Fogarty commented: "Slippery Sam is such an iconic bike, it was a privilege to ride it. I used to watch the Isle of Man TT on the telly as a seven-year-old kid and dream of one day being one of the guys who won it five years on the trot, so to finally get on it took me right back to being a child. It was tricky to ride at first but I got used to it and it still handles really well with decent power too."
Well known personalities are never in short supply at Goodwood but it was still a big surprise when Hollywood superstar Keanu Reeves tried out the museum's Grindlay-Peerless sprint machine for size!
The Museum also continued in its stated aim of "taking the bikes to the people" with a separate "pop up museum" showcasing various other Triumph machines including the one ridden by David Beckham in the short film "outlaws".
There is also a video available to view on the museum's website which shows Foggy testing "Slippery Sam" prior to the Festival of Speed.
