A three-day marquee motoring event took place at Goodwood from 25-28 June, with the latest and greatest cars and drivers gathering to tackle the famous hillclimb. Revival favourite Anthony Reid clocked the quickest run of the weekend in the supercar class – 51.33 secs – in a British-built Noble M6000, followed by Chris Ward in a Lexus LFA and the brand-new Aston Martin GT12 driven by Matt Becker, but for many the top attractions had a more historic air.
Two present day stars of Formula One – Felipe Massa and Jenson Button – both swapped their modern racers for historic single seaters: Massa got behind the wheel of a race-winning 1990 Williams FW13B, while Button marked the reunion of McLaren-Honda with a drive in Ayrton Senna’s 1990 Championship-winning MP4/6.
Elsewhere, an entire class was dedicated to Goodwood local and five-times Le Mans winner Derek Bell. The aptly named ‘Derek Bell Celebration’ included a number of the ace’s former racecars including the Surtees TS7 in which he scored his only F1 point. The greatest draw, however, was a display of Porsche 962Cs, the same model that carried Bell to his fifth and final win at La Sarthe.
The anticipation surrounding the return of Alpine was ramped up by a display of the firm’s most significant models, the most exciting of which was the Le Mans-winning A442B. Driving duties were left to former Formula One driver Rene Arnoux.
With Mazda being honoured with this year’s stunning Gerry Judah-designed sculpture, it came as no surprise that one of the most eagerly awaited demonstrations was of the firm’s 787B Le Mans racer – a representation of which topped the massive structure. The honour of taking the genuine car up the hill was bestowed upon Moto GP ace Valentino Rossi, who also got behind the wheel of an ex-Ickx/Mass 962C. It wasn’t all roses for the Japanese manufacturer: a 767B was one of several cars to be crashed during the course of the weekend, ploughing into hay bales at Molecomb.
