ELECTRIC POWER DOMINATES TIMES
The scintillating shootout featured 39 cars, progressing from George Wingard’s Cottin-desgouttes – winner of the Mont Ventoux hillclimb in 1911 – in descending order of qualifying times to the Volkswagen I.D. R, in which Romain Dumas laid down a 43.05s marker on Saturday.
Times tumbled before Grant Williams in his Jaguar
Mk1 (first raced by Roy Salvadori at Goodwood in 1959) pushed the target sub-minute. His 58.94s was quicker than one of two Euro NASCARS, but Ric Wood topped the debut of the big-block Chevrolet V8-powered Vauxhall Cavalier ‘Mega Bertha’ (see page 64) with 57.93s.
Andrew Jordan thrashed the British Touring Car Championship ‘mini shootout’ with a fine 2s cushion over Matt Neal. “I wish the BTCC was that easy!” he grinned. “I said to the guys I was sure there was a 52.5 in it.”
Jordan’s mark survived Frank Biela’s Audi RS5 DTM shot, but young Ricky Collard wrung a BMW M4 DTM’S neck for a sensational 50.02s before the single-seaters and specialist hillclimb cars arrived.
Billy Monger pulled 115mph through the speed trap before Molecomb (second to Peter Dumbreck’s 118mph) in firing his British Formula 3 car to the top in 48.31s to lead. It took American returnee Mike Skinner in a highly developed Toyota Tundra pick-up to pip it (48.25s) before Michael Lyons ran his F5000 Lola T400 to a stonking 46.43s.
Jorg Weidinger screamed Klaus Wohlfarth’s magnificent 560bhp Judd KV V8-engined BMW M3 E36 – not run since creator Georg Plasa’s death in 2011 and without the traction control or ABS from its original armoury – to a sensational 46.43s.
That was too much for Kiwi veteran Rod Millen (2002’s victor in his Toyota Celica Pikes Peak), and only just beyond six-time Btd-setter Justin Law’s Jaguar XJR-12D (despite crossing the finish at 152.9mph) and Jeremy Smith in Emerson Fittipaldi’s 1993 Indy 500-winning Penske-chevrolet PC22.
That left two diverse electric cars. Dumbreck gave the sleek NIO EP9 everything, cutting a personal best 44.32s to throw down the gauntlet. Dumas’ response in the less powerful but lighter, high-downforce VW was a 43.86s, assuring the combo’s place in Goodwood history.