The 2017 Goodwood Festival of Speed finished in style on Sunday with a full day of action on the track as well as two tributes to Formula one legends.
Bernie Ecclestone was honoured in front of the house when many of the F1 cars he was associated with along with many Formula 1 drivers gathered around the giant sculpture in his honour. The drivers assembled on the Goodwood House Balcony along with Lord March and Bernie Ecclestone himself. An orchestra played and fireworks were let off as two giant Flags were lowered across the front of the house. Mark Webber then interviewed Bernie about his career.
Earlier there was another celebration in the paddock to celebrate forty years of the Williams Formula one team. Current and former drivers and bosses as well as designers and other staff gathered with many of the teams classic cars for a photo with Lord March.
Nico Rosberg was also visiting the festival, the first time he has been seen publicly since his retirement after winning the title. He was asked about the Vettel and Hamilton incident at the previous Grand Prix;
“My opinion? I’m German. I’ve got to be careful now” Rosberg said.
“It’s pretty simple. To be honest, I’m the guy who knows Lewis best in the whole of the racing industry, so I think I’m in the best position to judge it. For sure he didn’t do that on purpose, definitely.”
Goodwood 2017 certainly seemed to be the year for annivesary’s with this year also being 50 years of the Lotus 49 and the Cosworth DFV engine.
The car was used by Lotus for four seasons and it spanned the final years of non aero cars through to the early years of aerodynamics. In it’s 1970 configuration it had wings at the front and rear and it scored it’s last win in that season before being replaced by the Lotus 72, another long lasting Colin Chapman design.
The DFV engine had an even longer career, powering the majority of the field throughout the rest of the 60’s and the whole of the 1970’s and was still used into the 80’s. The engine took it’s last win in 1983 with Michele Alboreto’s Tyrell and Martin Brundle was the last driver to race it in F1, again in a Tyrell in 1985. The Turbo regulations eventually killed it off but the Turbo engine that replaced it was strongly based on the DFV. It also continued in Sportscars and F3000 into the 1990’s.
To celebrate the double anniversary, Several DFV powered Lotus 49’s took to the Hill as well as several other DFV powered cars. Some of the Williams used in that celebration also ran on the DFV engine.
But the main focus of the day was the Shoot out to determine the fastest runner of the weekend. The best 48 timed cars went for the competition although eight were lost before the televised final, Live on Sky Sports.
Ed Berrier was the only of the drivers in the final to crash out, his Nascar Chevrolet SS broke a steering arm and crashed into the bales on the first corner.
One of the earlier leaders was Julian Majzub in the Bugatti Type 35, he set a time faster than several younger cars and ended up mid-table in the final times. But he was eventually surpassed by more modern more advanced machinery. Lady racer Annette Mason was one of the drivers to beat him in her Ferrari 512BB/LM becoming the fastest lady of the weekend, beating Lorina Mclaughlin in a Toleman TG185 and Sally Mason-Styron in her beautifual Ferrari 166M Barchetta,
Rally star Mark Higgins looked like he might take the win with an incredible run in his Subaru WRX STI, built to try and take the TT Course record later this year. His time was beaten by Justin Law in a Jaguar XJR12D. Law is a regular winner of the Festival but an off last year spoilt his chances but this year a perfect run saw him leading with only Jeremy Smith’s Penske Chevrolet PC22 in with a chance of beating him. Smith failed by a fraction of a second, (Law’s had 46.13 to Smith’s 46.22) and so Law was once again a Festival of Speed winner.
Full results are available from TSL timing
It’s been another incredible event on the Goodwood estate with thousands of people once again flocking to the Sussex countryside to look at, watch perform and sometimes even touch! (With the owners permission.
The Goodwood organising team’s attention will now turn to next year (As well as the Revival meeting later in 2018). It’s somewhere every motorsport fan should visit at least once, but be warned By Marc Waller
