As always, the Goodwood Festival of Speed served up a fantastic menu of motorsport machinery and action over the last weekend, with plenty of history from the past, some current machinery, and a nod or two to the future including car launches for the new Audi R8 LMS GT2 and the Porsche 911 RSR GTE race car. Large and small, two or four wheels, old and new – there was something for everyone who attended.
A number of anniversaries were celebrated across the event, the 80th birthday of Sir Jackie Stewart, the 70th anniversary of Aston Martin first competing at Goodwood, the 60th anniversary of Aston Martin winning at Le Mans and winning the World Sportscar Championship, the 50th birthday of Michael Schumacher and the 25th anniversary of his winning his first formula one world title, and the centenary of Bentley cars.
Held in hot and sunny conditions for 3 of the 4 days, conditions were somewhat less than perfect for the timed shootout that occurs on the last day, and as a result, Romain Dumas in the stunning Volkswagen IDR failed in his attempt to break the existing hill record during live competition. However, the run held on Saturday for qualifying showed the potential by beating the 20 year old record by more than 1.5 seconds, and there was a promise made to return in 2020 to finally claim the record as theirs.
And there were plenty of stars too ….
