Olly Clark, son of British rally legend Roger Clark has won the 2016 Goodwood festival of Speed shoot out on the Hill climb in his incredible modified Subaru Impreza named Gobstopper II.
Olly spoke after his run at the top of the hill;
“It’s testament to Matt’s [his brother] hard work. He keeps working out how to make this car faster.”
He spoke about how he had been thinking about doing the hill constantly;
“For the past 12 months I’ve thought about my run last year and for the past month I’ve thought about doing this run about three hundred times a day!”
“To take this win is just incredible!”
The quickest forty two cars from the various classes were eligible for the final shoot out with the running order going from the slowest to the fastest. One exception to this was the group of seven BTCC cars running on the Hill this weekend. They were having their own “Shoot out within a shootout” and they ran in the middle of the shoot out to determine the quickest of the BTCC drivers.
First up the hill in the shoot out were the pre-war cars with some incredible machines including the incredidible S76 Fiat with a 28.3 litre four cylinder engine! The two 200bhp Blitzen Benz came close to winning this class but in the end the Isota Frashini Fiat driven by Mike Vardy was the quickest of the early cars. Next up was the first of the shoot out’s female drivers with Sally Mason-Styron, wife of Pink Floyd Drummer Nick Mason. She flew up the hill in her Ferrari 166M Barchetta to set the best time so far. Unfortunately for her, there were a lot of quicker cars to come.
Another female driver, Lorina McLaughlin was this time at the wheel of an Arrows Megatron A10B. Usually when she is at the wheel of her usual Benetton she is a contender for a quick time but it showed that she was in an unfamiliar car and she ended up twenty eighth although she was quick enough to be the fastest female up the hill.
As the shootout reached the midway point, the BTCC shoot out was unleashed on the Hill. Matt Neal was first out and set a very quick time in his Halfords Yuasa Racing Honda Civic. Neal had avoided drinking at the Goodwood Ball the night before.
Jason Plato was next in the Subaru Levorg. He hadn’t been that quick so far in the Silverline sponsored machine but he often goes slower in an event only to spring a surprise when it matters most so could he be a dark horse for the shoot out? It turned out the answer was no this time as his time ended up last of the cars which set a time.
Kelvin Fletcher was next although a mistake in the commentator notes saw him misidentified as Hunter Abbott. He was actually quite quick off the line but disaster struck at the infamous Molecomb corner when he put a wheel on the grass. The wet, slippery surface pulled the car towards the outside of the corner and he slammed through the hay bales placed to stop wayward cars. The front of the Chevrolet was badly damaged but Fletcher was unhurt. There was now a delay while the corner bales at Molecomb were reconstructed.
Next off the line after the restart was Jack Goff in the JCT600 with GardX BMW one series and he got an amazing start, much better than Neals. Things were looking very good as he charged up the hill but he lost time on the final section to leave himself fourth by the end of the shoot out. Adam Morgan’s Wix Mercedes was next to try and beat Neal’s time but his run wasn’t a success only beating Plato’s time leaving him fifth by the end.
Now it was Josh Cook’s turn to have a go in the works MG and it looked quick. He was initially up on Neal’s time but again lost out higher up the hill. He was second at that stage eventually taking third.
Andrew Jordan now came up to the start gantry. He had been quickest in some of the practice sessions and so was a favourite to do it again. Straight away he was quick although he only matched Neal’s first section, he got quicker and quicker to beat Neal’s time at the end by 0.20 seconds. Andrew Jordan could have been said to have a bit of an advantage as he had been driving various other cars up the hill all weekend including an Audi S1 rallycross car.
Despite winning the BTCC shootout, Andrew Jordan’s Focus was only eleventh overall.
Peter Pentell’s incredible Lancia Delta based car was tenth, he was perhaps slowed slighty after having a slight brush with the hay on Saturday near the Flint wall. Even a slight extra lift in this competition can drop you out of contention.
Ninth was Pat Doran in his Ford RS200 built to compete at Pikes peak. Son Liam Doran looked to on a winning run in his DS3 Rally cross car before the gear box failed going past the house.
Ed Berrier’s Chevrolet NASCAR was eighth, a great result for a car not designed for this type of competition given that they mostly compete on ovals.
David Franklin inn a Ferrari 312 P Spyder was seventh after holding fastest time for a big chunk of the session.
Sixth was Jordan Grogor in an ex James Hunt Hesketh, it was the best placed F1 car. Charlie Eastwood should be happy with fifth in his Porsche Supercup car.
Andrew Newall in the Mclaren Chevrolet Can Am car looked to be heading to victory for a while before he as eclipsed amazingly by the NASCAR Toyota Tundra Pick up driven by Mike Skinner who set an amazing time to lead the shoot out. He ended up third but it was one of the drives of the day to wrestle the large pick up through the tight hill climb course.
Kenny Brack was the penultimate car. He was driving the Mclaren P1 LM and his time of 47.07 absolutely smashed everything that had gone before. He was also quicker than Olly Clark’s morning time in Gobstopper II.
So the pressure was on Olly to set his best time yet and he responded, doing an inch perfect run to beat Brack by nearly 8 tenths.
So the Goodwood FOS 2016 has come to close for another year and despite some very mixed weather the event has once again been a huge success. Now the clear up begins and the planning for 2017 when it will all happen again.
We will have some further articles on some attractions of this years festival but also don’t forget to visit our new Facebook page where we will be building a monster gallery showing the cars and the sights of the Goodwood Festival of Speed 2016. By Marc Waller
