We have been talking about the achievements of French racer Roman Dumas, two-time winner of Le Mans, for several years now, and last month we wrote that he won the classic Pikes Peak mountain climb in the US state of Colorado for the fifth time.
This weekend Dumas took part in another competition, but also a traditional one, which crowns the Goodwood Festival of Speed every year, and was again the winner. This is a competition in the fast climbing of Goodwood Hill, with a short route of 1866 meters long at the top with a height difference of 92.7 meters.
This time, Roman drove an electric Ford SuperVan 4.2, whose powerplant develops up to 1,400 horsepower, and lapped the track in 43.987 seconds, the best result of the weekend. He was more than two seconds ahead of Scott Speed, a former Formula 1 and NASCAR driver who entered a 670-horsepower Subaru WRX – Project Midnight, specially built for Goodwood.
This is Roman’s third win in these competitions – in 2018 and 2019, he won them in a record-breaking Volkswagen ID R electric car. It was Dumas who held the unofficial Goodwood track record until 2022, but two years ago it was broken by Max Chilton in an amazing electric car driven by McMurtry Spéirling. We talked about this car then and the record, which now stands at 39.081 seconds.
Roman’s performance today does not reach the record, but it is also valuable in its own way. When the commentators called it ‘unbelievable’, the driver reacted as follows: ‘I don’t know if it’s unbelievable or not, but in the last two corners I literally flew to the barriers. In general I have to admit that I attacked to the limit.
As always, Goodwood is great fun and the festival is an absolutely amazing event. When you race at that speed around a short track that crosses a field, it is impressive. I enjoyed it very much and am very happy to have won.
I didn’t know how fast Scott Speed was going, but it was clear that everyone was in fighting spirit, everyone was attacking to the limit and that’s why we saw so many accidents today. Everyone wants to win and it’s a great competition at a high level.”
There were real accidents, and in one of them, the collectible Ferrari 512BB LM driven by Annette Mason, wife of the legendary Pink Floyd drummer, was slightly damaged. The car’s steering and right front fender were damaged, forcing it to be towed off the road by a tow truck.
But overall, the damage is not too bad, and there is no doubt that Ferrari’s dedicated division that repairs and maintains historic sports cars will have no trouble restoring the car, which was produced more than 40 years ago.
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
