JENSON BUTTON AT THE GOODWOOD FESTIVAL OF SPEED 2009Formula 1 championship leader Jenson Button joined Mercedes-Benz in Goodwood, England at the Festival of Speed to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Mercedes legendary Silver Arrows. Sir Stirling Moss explained the basics of the silver racer to the 29 year-old Formula 1 point leader. For the very first time, Jenson was behind the wheel of the 1934 race car that Manfred von Brauchitsch drove that year at the International Eifel race at the Nürburgring track in Germany. As the story goes, technicians from Mercedes-Benz stripped the white paint off its grand prix cars at the 1934 International Eifel race at the Nürburgring track in Germany to bring the cars below the maximum weight permitted by the new racing formula of the time, 750 kilograms, or 1,650pounds. Manfred von Brauchitsch delivered a win in the debut of the W 25 race car at the Nürburgring. For Jenson Button, too, next weekend's race at the German race track might very well be decisive for his lead in Formula One. The Festival of Speed in Goodwood, England is the automotive event in the UK and attracted more than 150,000 people from Friday 3 July through Sunday 5 July. Among the many highlights at the 2009 Goodwood Festival of Speed, the worlds largest and most diverse celebration of the history of motor sport and car culture, was a tribute to 75 Years of Silver Arrows. Mercedes-Benz presented its Silver Arrows racing cars from 1934-39 and 1954-55. These standard setting race cars scored top results in numerous international races in their respective eras. The series of triumphs began with the W 25 (1934-36) and the W 125 (1937) for the 750-kilogram formula, followed by the W 154 complying with the three-litre formula in 1938/39, and the W 165 for the one-and-a-half-litre race in Tripoli in May 1939. The modern (post-war) period is represented by the W 196 R Grand Prix car from July 1954. At the Goodwood Festival of Speed, Nathan King was on hand reporting for Bader TV News...
