This year’s 24th annual Goodwood Festival of Speed theme of “Full Throttle: The Endless Pursuit of Power” meant that participants and onlookers alike would be performance oriented as the event honored the 100th birthday of BMW, celebrated the 50th anniversary of the legendary Can-Am series and commemorated the 40th anniversary of James Hunt’s 1976 F1 World Championship with a special Class 12 presented by TAG Heuer.
Some 28 machines from BMW’s racing history, most handled by former works drivers such as Marc Surer, Harald Grohs, Johnny Cecotto, Yannick Dalmas and Alessandro Zanardi, tackled the Goodwood Hill. They ranged from a 328 Mille Miglia Touring Coupé through a be-winged M1 Procar and a raft of BMW-engined Brabham F1 cars to the latest M6 GT3.
A number of ground-shaking Can-Am cars also took part, including the Revs Institute’s Porsche 917PA, the unique Castrol-liveried BRM P154, the Ferrari 712 — the largest displacement car ever made by the Scuderia — and a rare March 717-Chevrolet.
Also on the schedule were the popular Michelin Supercar Run, the monstrous Group B rally cars on the Forest Rally Stage and demonstration runs by Martin Brundle in Jenson Button’s F1 championship-winning Brawn BGP 011 and Button himself aboard a McLaren MP4/6-Honda. For complete information about the event please visit www.goodwood.com
Why no mention of the fastest time of the day car/driver ?
This is a preliminary report, a full report will be forthcoming in the September issue, which will be out in August.
All the best,
Casey Annis, Editor