Goodwood 2017 Day three sees more tributes and celebrations

A relatively recent Red Bull (Photo by Marc Waller)

A relatively recent Red Bull (Photo by Marc Waller)Day three of the 2017 Goodwood Festival of Speed has seen the biggest crowds of this years event so far with the day being a total sell out in advance.

The capacity crowds have witnessed a full display on the hill once more as well as all of the stands and exhibitions around the site.

Today saw a repeat of the Ferrari moment from yesterday celebrating 70 years of the Italian Marque but immediately before this, there was a tribute to John Surtees. Having been a festival favourite since the beginning, Surtees sadly passed away last year and so there was a minutes noise held in his honour. Just before this there was a parade of some of his famous Grand Prix cars and Bikes.

Surtees of course is famous as being the only man ever to be world champion on two and four wheels. It’s a record which is likely never to be beaten.

Ferrari aren’t the only company celebrating an anniversary at Goodwood, Renault are celebrating forty years in formula one, sometimes competing as a team, sometimes just an engine supplier but usually with huge success. The company started with the ground breaking RS01 V6 turbo car, the first Turbo engined car to compete in formula one. Later into the 90’s, their V10 turbo engines were the ones to beat winning world titles with Williams and Benetton before returning as a full team when they took world titles with Fernando Alonso. Recently they had gone back to being an engine supplier but bought back their team, which had been renamed to Lotus at the end of 2015. Now in their second season back as a full team with drivers Jolyon Palmer and Nico Hulkenberg they have ambitions to return to winning ways as soon as possible. To celebrate they have many cars at the festival with the first RS01, through to cars they supplied engines to in the 90’s like the 1992 Williams Fw14b. They also have a more up to date machine from last season. Current F1 testing regulations mean they are unable to run their 2017 car at Goodwood. Although they are celebrating 40 years in F1, their record in competition goes back much further and also going up the hill is one of their very first competition cars from 1903.

There’s plenty of F1 cars from other teams and manufacturers too with Mercedes running one of the newer turbo cars up the hill for the first time. It’s not all winners either with the 2004 Toyota F1 car and Emanuele Pirro’s 1991 Dallara Ferrari among the non-race winning machines.

As is traditional at Goodwood there is a large group of competition motorcycles with machines from all eras going up the hill. Sadly a clash with Moto GP means that none of the current machines from that championship are here. But stars from elsewhere are including the rapid BSB rider Jenny Tinmouth who is here taking a Honda Fireblade up the hill. Another female duo in the Motorbike batch is Maria Costello and Kirsty Hauxwell on the JG Speedfit sidecar, looking incredibly fast as they streak up the hill with Kirsty hanging off the sidecar at some extreme angles to help them corner at the fastest possible speeds.

The Goodwood rally stage is taking place once again at the top of the hill with a huge variety of rally cars from the latest Proton Iriz B making its world debut all the way to a 2cv and fan favourite Bertie the Beetle! 2017 seems to be a year for anniversaries and the rally stage is celebrating 20 years of the birth of the WRC regulations. These replaced Group A in 2007 and saw the popularity of rallying explode in the following years. Several machines from the past 20 years are thrilling crowds on the fast stage, quicker this year than it has been for a while due to mostly dry weather in recent weeks. Cars from stars such as Richard Burns, Tommi Makkinen and Marcus Gronholm are among the runners.

The previously mentioned Proton is Proton’s first competition car for four years since the Satria Neo ceased production and the Malaysian firm have high hopes for its new machine.

Renaults first F1 car (Photo by Marc Waller) A 1993 Benetton Renault (Photo by Marc Waller) Jenny Tinmouth pushes her bike hard up the course (Photo by Marc Waller) Maria Costello and Kirsty Hauxwell thread their way up the hill (Photo by Marc Waller) The BAC Mon won the supercar shoot out (Photo by Marc Waller) Some of the cars that make up the tribute to John Surtees (Photo by Marc Waller) The all new Proton makes its world debut (Photo by Marc Waller)

 

 

 

Fitting in with the “peaks of performance” theme of this year’s festival, there is also a large collection of the iconic Group B cars charging around the stage including several of the wild Looking Metro 6R4s. One, known as the 8R4 has it’s V6 engines replaced by a 4.6 litre V8 There are several female drivers and co drivers on the stage including the Magee Sisters from Northern Ireland. One from the past is Bron Burell who drove an Austin Maxi in the London to Mexico World cup in 1970. This year is the first time that driver and car have been reunited in 47 years. The car, which was nick named, Puff the Magic Wagon, had three crew for the event, Bron Burell, Tish Ozanne, and Katrina Kerridge.

There is another female driver among the stars from the R2 Specification class designed for the stars of the future, Catie Munnings Tackles the stage in her Peugeot 208.

The Magee sisters (Photo by Marc Waller) The Bibip 2 Dakar 2cv (Photo by Marc Waller) Puff the magic wagon (Photo by Marc Waller)

 

 

 

James Martin, the celebrity chef is here with his classic Mini Cooper from 1963 and we should probably tell you more about the 2cv. Built in 1963, the Bibip 2 was named as it had two engines, not the usual breathless 2cv unit but larger ones from a Citroen Visa. The car was built to tackle the Paris Dakar rally but sadly retired with suspension failure on stage four. It did however take third in the Paris 24hr 4×4 race.

Today saw a Supercar shoot out which saw Ferrari’s and Porsches beaten by British Low volume manufacturers with the BAC Mono taking the fastest time in the hands of Ollie Webb ahead of the Caterham Seven 620R and Radical RXC Turbo in third. Audi were fourth with the latest version of their R8 with Nissan’s GTR taking fifth. Sunday sees the Competition GT cars have their own mini shoot out.

Sunday will be the final day of this year’s festival and the main feature of the day will be the timed shoot out to find the fastest car of the festival. 48 cars are doing timed runs and the fastest from qualifying will be put forward to take part in the shoot-out live on Sky Tv. We’ll bring you coverage of the event and who wins soon. By Marc Waller

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