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Goodwood Speedweek

One of 2020’s pandemic Motorsport highlights will be Goodwood SpeedWeek over the three day weekend of 16-18 September. Closed to public but streamed live over social media and on itv4 and the internet brilliantly choreographed for an entire weekend of live seamless coverage and supported by a raft of sponsors covering three days of racing, new car debuts, sprints, drifting and speed shoot-outs.

Goodwood’s automotive partners showcased their latest and greatest models, such as the much-anticipated Lotus Evija and all-electric Ford Mustang Mach-e 1400, as well as using the event as a backdrop for important celebrations and milestones, such as 50 years of Range Rover and 40 years of the Audi Quattro. Off the track, presenters Dermot O’Leary, Mark Webber, Rory Reid and Siân Welby went head-to-head in a number of challenges and hair-raising experiences, as well as talking to guests on and off the event, including Keanu Reeves, Jay Leno and architect, Lord Norman Foster.

For the competition
A special element of SpeedWeek was the Shootout  – a one-lap sprint, which, uniquely at Goodwood Motor Circuit, featured modern cars in competition. It was an electrifying spectacle, the cars looking sensational on the fast, flowing Goodwood circuit. The winner was Nick Padmore, driving an Arrows A11 Formula 1 car. Designed by Ross Brawn and powered by a 3.5-litre Cosworth V8, the Arrows faced opposition from a variety of other historic F1 cars, along with sports prototypes and modern GTs. In a thrilling turn of events, Padmore smashed the outright circuit record on Saturday, taking more than seven seconds off the previous mark, to record a 1m09.914s lap of the Goodwood Motor Circuit.

The one-time only Rally Super Special and Goodwood Driftkhana saw cars flying sliding sideways through parts of the Goodwood Motor Circuit site never used before, creating dramatic viewing each day and, in the case of the rally, into dark. Glory in the Super Special was taken by Rhys Yates in the Ford Fiesta R5 with a total time of 10:04.4, while three-time Formula Drift champion James Deane took top honours in two of the three Driftkhana rounds.

The Race card

Our highlights of the weekend was the SpeedWeek race card. Edwardian aero-engined monsters entertained in the SF Edge Trophy, Results the coolest dad-mobiles of the ‘70s did battle in the Gerry Marshall Trophy and Sprint, a race of two halves with celebrity drivers and owners swapping mid way. While their ‘60s counterparts scrapped in the two-part St Mary’s Trophy.There were no shortage of famous faces Stig Blomqvist showed his metal winning the St Mary’s Trophy part 1, Mark Blundell, Jackie Stewart, Damon Hill, Martin Brundell, Jochen Mass, Richard Attwood, too many to mention but they were all out racing wonderful to see.  Results 

The Kinrara Trophy, often dubbed the ‘most beautiful race in the world’, was renamed the Stirling Moss Memorial Trophy, in honour of ‘Mr Goodwood’ with E-types and Astons battling into a beautiful Saturday evening sunset. The race preceded by a moving tribute to the late Sir Stirling Moss by the Duke of Richmond, which included a special performance by his close friend, legendary guitarist Mark Knopfler. The race which went into the sunset was a fierce battle of two E-types and was eventually won by Harvey Stanley and James Cottingham after an close early battle with Gary Pearson ended with Gary crashing out after colliding with a back marker.  Stirling Moss Trophy results 

The weekend was wrapped up by the RAC TT Celebration, equally as eye-catching and thrilling and was won by the 1963 Lister Jaguar Coupe of Fred Wakeman and Andre Lotterer. Results

The Duke of Richmond

“We’re thrilled that we’ve been able to deliver SpeedWeek to fans across the world,” The Duke of Richmond said, reflecting on the event. “In what has been a challenging year for all, we’re pleased that we were able to bring a little bit of joy to our international Goodwood community and new fans, when so many other events couldn’t take place. We’d like to say big thank you to our partners, suppliers, drivers, teams and local community for helping us bring motorsport back to Goodwood. The amount of positive feedback from the event has been overwhelming and we’re extremely humbled.”

Supporting the event and catching up 

For those looking for a memento from the event, a limited collection of SpeedWeek clothing and merchandise is available at https://shop.goodwood.com/collections/speedweek

The SpeedWeek hub, accessed via goodwood.com, will be available for free until Saturday 31st October for customers to enjoy all the videos and features from the event, as well as a number of highlight programmes on ITV1 and ITV4 this week:

  • First Glance – Wednesday 21st Oct – 21:30
  • Highlights 1 – Thursday 22nd Oct – 20:00
  • Highlights 2 – Thursday 22nd Oct – 21:00
  • Highlights 3 – Sunday 25th Oct – 23:40

Customers can register for event updates at goodwood.com and be the first to know when tickets go on sale for 2021.

Images from Nick Dungan, Jayson Fong and Matt Sills

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