The Goodwood Festival of Speed returned at the weekend and electric vehicles (EVs) demonstrated that they are record breakers and the future of speed and power. Ex-F1 driver Max Chilton took the victory in the infamous 1.16 mile (1.86km) Hill Climb event, while Extreme E returned to Goodwood with some impressive racing.
Chilton demonstrated the power and performance of his McMurtry Speirling electric race car winning the racing and setting a new record of 39:08 seconds in the process.
It wasn’t just the power that helped him take the win but the overall performance, especially the downforce and cornering of his McMurtry Speirling. This can be seen in the video below. The previous record for the Goodwood Hill Climb was 39.9 seconds and was set in 2019 by Romain Dumas.
For this record-breaking performance, Dumas was driving Volkswagen’s ID.R electric race car. In the process, he beat the previous one that had stood for 20 years and set by F1 driver Nick Heidfeld driving a V10 McLaren F1 car from the 1998 race season. Once again this proves that high-end performance is being dominated by electric cars.
Extreme E also returned to the event at weekend and made a huge statement winning the Hit Climb event. The unique electric vehicles demonstrated their power and torque on the tough course and proved that electric cars are fast and the way forward when it comes to speed.
In Saturday’s head-to-head, Veloce Racing led the way with Max Fewtrell, in his first experience behind the wheel of the ODYSSEY 21. Fewtrell pipped Genesys Andretti United Extreme E’s Catie Munnings by just under three seconds to take victory. Fewtrell set a time of 01:01.79 compared to Munnings’ 01:04.87.
On Sunday it was Genesys Andretti United Extreme E who were the fastest courtesy of Timmy Hansen ahead of Veloce Racing’s Sunday runner Jamie Chadwick. Hansen set the fastest time of the weekend in 00:59.95 with Chadwick just behind 01:00:79. Despite this, Veloce Racing still claimed top honours and the overall win at the Festival of Speed.
You can see both Veloce Racing and Genesys Andretti United Extreme E back in action next week at the upcoming Island X Prix double-header in Sardinia (6-7 July and 9-10 July).
