The seven best filmed laps of Goodwood

The fastest lap of Goodwood

Where else would we start than the fastest onboard we’ve ever published from Goodwood? This is the lap that broke our outright recorded lap record back at the 73^rd Members’ Meeting in 2015. Nick Padmore is at the wheel of a Lola T70 Can-Am car in the Bruce McLaren Trophy. Padmore had qualified first, but lost out off the line to the rapid Chinook of Jay Esterer. But that lead lasted very little time, as Padmore reasserted his dominance, and then blasted away from the competition in complete dominance. On the way he set the fastest race lap we’ve ever seen at Goodwood, with this mind boggling lap. Actually he has lapped Goodwood faster in a T70, taking the same car round the Motor Circuit in under 1 minute 18 seconds at the Revival later that year, but that was only in qualifying practice and so does not become a proper record.

Lotterer on a mission

Andre Lotterer. We’ve long campaigned that the German triple Le Mans-winner is one of the most underrated racing drivers around (I even went as far as to include him in a list of drivers we wished we’d seen take the F1 crown), and this lap is a great example of why that remains our opinion. Lotterer has raced a Cobra at Goodwood a few times now, learning the ropes incredibly fast, to the point that he was, quite literally, unstoppable in 2019 – as he crossed the line well clear of the rest, despite having taken over the car down the field. In the build up to that particular RAC TT Celebration, he put in this incredible qualifying lap, which we managed to capture (at least most of) on camera. Sliding the blue and silver Cobra around the fast sweepers that make Goodwood such a good track for historic racers, you can’t help but be impressed, and immediately realise how he has become the decorated racer that he is. It seems like the easiest thing in the world for Lotterer to hurl hundreds of kilos of metal around Goodwood at amazing speed, in reality it’s anything but.

Sideways Sprite

Here is an impressive lap that isn’t really really fast. Take a Sprite, add some water to the track, and let an experienced driver of Sprites out onto the Goodwood Motor Circuit and you know you have something special. Richard Woolmer is a driver very experienced in driving Sprites, and very experienced in driving around Goodwood, so this is an excellent mix. Woolmer’s job here, rather than absolutely hurling his way around Goodwood, is to balance the complete lack of grip that the circuit’s wet surface is giving him, the equally grip-limited status of his cross-ply tyres and the nimble nature of the Sprite he’s piloting. And, thankfully for us, he manages this act of automotive plate spinning incredibly well, gently gliding the tiny Sprite around West Sussex on the very edge of disaster (although disaster did follow in the race). It’s a wonderful display of just how true it is that you don’t need super-fast cars for great racing.

Nick Swift’s fighting spirit

What would a list like this be without an appearance by the king of Minis himself? Nick Swift has been putting on a show at Goodwood for longer than most of the GRR editorial team has been working here, and without his engine know how there wouldn’t be anywhere near as many Minis racing as there are. Here we find him in his later 1275GT racing in the first ever Gerry Marshall Sprint at the 75^th Members’ Meeting. This was the first time that we had reversed the grid for the second, owners-only part of the Gerry Marshall touring car fight, and boy was it brilliant. The race was complete chaos, in the best of ways, with the very fastest car/driver combos (like Swift himself) having to carve their way through the field of less speedy steeds. We got to ride onboard with Nick to see and hear just how fun this experience was, and relive his unadulterated joy at the end of an incredible tussle. A tussle which he didn’t win, but which he did not need to in order to be satisfied that he’d been part of something really special.

Padmore eking out performance

Ah, it’s that man Padmore again, and a Mini again. This time we find Nick in a pre-’66 Mini, qualifying for the Betty Richmond Trophy at the 77^th Members’ Meeting in 2019. This race was a mind-bogglingly fun three-part battle for just Minis, and boy did they put on a show. During qualifying we caught Padmore dancing his Mini around Goodwood in what was definitely a slower time than his T70 heroics, but in no way was it more sedate. Extracting speed from a Mini is a true art, involving hurling the little machine into corners at speeds it has no right attaining, never mind cornering at, and very little use of the brakes. Thankfully for us, Nick has had very little trouble mastering it, and you have to wonder whether this lap was actually more fun than the mind-bender in the T70?

Bryant’s Lotus hot-lap

Oliver Bryant and this particular Lotus are very familiar to all who watch Goodwood’s events. They can regularly be found challenging the much bigger machines in the Sussex Trophy at Revival and they race across Europe in various championships, with much success. Here we find Bryant qualifying at the 72^nd Members’ Meeting for the Salvadori Cup – a race in which he would finish third, and qualify second. He’s not alone on track though, having to create space for his Lotus while setting the best possible lap time, a task demonstrated beautifully right at the start of the clip, when he has to snake between a pair of vivid yellow machines on his way through St Mary’s in order to make progress. To be able to sweep between the pair of slower cars is impressive to begin with, to be able to do it while still on for you fastest time of the session is downright incredible.

Daytona Coupe – power, power, power

Oh, what better way to end this wonderful list than a Shelby Daytona Coupe and its wonderful V8? Well, that’s exactly what we’ll give you. It’s in the hands of Andrew Smith, the man who owned the outright historic circuit record before that man Padmore snatched it away from him in 2015. This is qualifying for the Gurney Cup, a wonderful race for the kinds of cars that Dan raced in period, and Andrew wasn’t there to make up the numbers, oh no. In fact he had his sights set on only one place: pole position. That’s exactly where he ended up by the end of this lap. It’s almost the antithesis of the Sprite lap from earlier in this list, with the balancing act being between a lack of grip and too much power, rather than a lack of grip being balanced out by a lack of weight. The big Daytona just wants to wrestle its way out of Smith’s hands at basically every opportunity. Thankfully Smith is a man up for the challenge, and keeps the Coupe near, but never over, the edge, to record the fastest lap of the session. It just makes you really want to have a go.

If you liked these laps, you are going to love our new, once-in-a-lifetime event in October: Goodwood SpeedWeek presented by Mastercard. It’s set to be filled with epic lappery of the Goodwood Motor Circuit from a mind boggling array of racing cars. If you haven’t heard about SpeedWeek, or just want to hear a bit more, you can click here and read our handy guide.