Stars flock to Richard Burns Foundation stand at Goodwood
The Richard Burns Foundation stand was overrun with stars from motorsport and music during the Goodwood Festival of Speed last weekend.
RBF officials invited several leading names from circuit racing and rallying to take part in a question and answer session hosted by Neil Cole, who is best known for presenting coverage of the World Rally Championship on TV channel Dave.
They were also treated to a surprise visit by Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason, an ardent motorsport enthusiast and a regular to the Goodwood spectacular, who was accompanying Le Mans racer and son-in-law Marino Franchitti, an old friend of Richard's.
Robert Reid, who co-drove Burns to 10 WRC wins and the world title in 2001, was the first man on stage. As well as recalling some of his memories of competing alongside Burns, Reid appealed for more people to help support the work of the Richard Burns Foundation.
"The aim of the Richard Burns Foundation is to support and inspire people with serious illness and injury," said Reid. "From Richard's perspective it was generally about the inspiration as much as anything, telling people they need to keep going, dig deep and trying to provide the resource to support them to do so."
Initial estimates suggest that funds raised by RBF's 220 volunteers during the Goodwood Festival of Speed have exceeded the amount achieved in 2009. All funds will be donated to the charity Headway Tunbridge Wells and District, which was established to give help and support to people affected by brain injury, both at a local and national level.
John Surtees, the only man to win a world title on two wheels and four, is a supporter of Headway following the loss of his son Henry, who died as a result of head injuries sustained in an accident during a Formula 2 race at Brands Hatch last July.
"It's a question of bringing people who have suffered serious injury back into the community so they start to feel supported," said Surtees. "We're supporting a Headway project at local level but there are branches of Headway throughout the country."
Rally stars Ken Block, Tom Cave, Freddy Loix, Markko Martin and Kris Meeke also made appearances on the stage. Martin was a close friend of Richard's and won the inaugural Richard Burns Memorial Rally in September 2008.
He said: "What happened to Richard never should have done so it's really nice his memory can be carried on and people remember him and give something to support the charity, which does a lot of very good work."
Meeke, who won last year's Intercontinental Rally Challenge, added: "I'll never forget Richard standing on the bonnet of his car on Rally GB having won the world title. That's what you aspire to do yourself. It must have an awesome feeling for Richard and I'm just thankful he got the chance to experience that."
Belgian driver Loix broke into the WRC arena around the same time as Burns. He said: "We drove together in the WRC for a long time and for me he was one of the most professional young drivers that I ever met in my life."
US star Block, who appears in his own Gymkhana stunt driving videos as well as competing in the WRC, said: "Richard was a very good driver and seeing him come up the rallying scene in England was great to watch. His passing was very sad so it's great the Foundation has been set up to do some very positive things."
Zoe Scott, Richard's long-term girlfriend and Clare Craig, Richard's friend and PA, now run the Foundation and they were delighted with the level of support and donations.
"This weekend has been incredible and initial estimates suggest we've beaten last year's total, which is absolutely fantastic," said Zoe. "Of course having so many high-profile drivers like John Surtees coming to the stand has really helped but we couldn't have done any of this without all the hard work by our team of volunteers. They do so much to support the work of the RBF and we want them to know how much we appreciate their efforts."
