Manage existing booking
Event Coverage ,Festival of Speed
DEC 29th 2023

Simon Ostler

The best Goodwood moments of 2023

It’s been quite the year of motorsport at Goodwood. Even when it seems like we’ve peaked, somehow we find a way to go bigger and better time and time again. The season began, as it always does, with the 80th Members’ Meeting presented by Audrain Motorsport, and we were treated to the traditional weekend of hard racing and earth-shattering demonstrations. The Festival of Speed presented by Mastercard was packed full of challenges but, the weather notwithstanding, we were still treated to three days of non-stop action on the famous Hill. And finally, the Revival reminded us all once again how much we love to rewind the clock to the 1940s, ’50s and ‘60s, even in sweltering temperatures.

Here are seven of our favourite Goodwood moments from 2023…

7. Jenson Button does the biggest burnout the Festival of Speed has ever seen

The Goodwood Festival of Speed is a hive of motoring enthusiasm that inevitably comes with a fair amount of tyre abuse. Jenson Button, driving his Le Mans Garage 56 Hendricks Motorsport Chevrolet Camaro, took the rubber ravaging to the extreme.

6. The stunning Ferrari GTs of the Lavant Cup

As the sun beat down on the Goodwood Motor Circuit in mid-September, our only thoughts in the early afternoon were to keep as cool as possible. That being said, the Lavant Cup presented by Sky Cinema was temptation enough to brave the heat. A grid of luscious V12-engined Ferrari GTs howling away from the line was sublime.

5. Tom Kristensen nails a Goodwood hot lap in the Bentley Speed 8

What happens when you give a racing driver the keys to one of their old cars? In the case of Tom Kristensen with his Le Mans-winning Bentley Speed 8, he climbed in and drove it like it was 2003 all over again. We’re used to high-speed demos at the Members’ Meeting, but this was next-level stuff from the man who will become a House Captain at 81MM.

4. McLaren Solus GT's insane shootout‑winning run

The Timed Shootout at the Festival of Speed is always an exciting moment, and after the heroics of the McMurtry Spéirling in 2022, we wondered what would come along to claim the crown in 2023. The answer was this, the McLaren Solus GT, a car conceived in a video game, and brought to life to absolutely tear up the Hill.

3. Jackie Stewart reunited with his championship-winning Tyrrell

Emotions were running high when Sir Jackie Stewart climbed into his 1973 F1 world championship-winning Tyrrell 006. It’s always special when Jackie takes to the Motor Circuit, but here we took a proper moment to celebrate the success of this brilliant champion. As he drove through an adoring crowd and out on the track, there was barely a dry eye in the place. He didn’t hold back either.

2. Sebastian Vettel donuts his Williams FW14B F1 car

From F1 legend to another, we welcomed four-time F1 world champion Sebastian Vettel to the Festival of Speed in 2023, and it is safe to say he brought some serious energy to proceedings whenever he was out on the Hill. Driving his Williams FW14B running on sustainable fuels, he absolutely nailed these donuts in a priceless 30-year-old machine. Love it.

1. Stunning GT1 cars storm into the sunset

Saturday evening at the 80th Members’ Meeting was a special one that will live long in the memory as we relived a glorious period of GT1 racing from the early 2000s. With a mix of cars that included V12 Aston Martin DBR9s, V12 Ferrari 550 GTSs, V10 Dodge Vipers and so much more, this was a treat for the eyes and an absolute assault for the ears. Utterly spellbinding as the sun set over Goodwood.

Related Articles

Tags

Other Articles