Dumas Wins Goodwood Shootout; Leaves with Record

Romain Dumas defended his Goodwood Festival of Speed hill climb title in the all-electric Volkswagen ID. R prototype, a day after setting another new course record.

Morning rainfall looked set to create challenging conditions for the Sunday afternoon shootout, but the weather eased up in time for the ID. R’s final run at the end of the day.

Two red flag periods gave further time for the track to dry, leading to Dumas setting a winning time of 42.32s that ultimately fell 2.42 seconds short of the car’s quickest attempt of the weekend.

That was a record-breaking 39.90s ascent of the 1.66-mile course during Saturday’s qualifying session to determine the run order for the main competition.

Dumas had already broken Nick Heidfeld’s long-held 41.6s record in a McLaren MP4/13 Formula 1 car that had stood as the outright benchmark for 20 years on Thursday.

The Volkswagen’s initial practice run of 41.18s was enough to topple the F1 effort, although Dumas reckoned the car had the capacity to break the 40-second barrier.

He went on to lower the bar with his Saturday qualifying run but lost a chance to prepare for an improvement in the shootout when rain forced the car to undertake its first-ever wet weather run on Sunday morning.

Volkswagen fitted the 500kW Pikes Peak record-holding ID. R with a new sprint package for its second Goodwood outing after it set a best time of 43.05 last year.

For years, many thought that Heidfeld’s time – which remains the fastest-ever Goodwood shootout attempt – would never be beaten in an official capacity after modern F1 cars were banned from competing on safety grounds.

Heidfeld himself finished eighth in the shootout with a time of 51.99 aboard a Mahindra M6Electro Gen 2 Formula E car, while the German also managed a 46.45 earlier in the event.

2003 World Rally champion Petter Solberg (47.83) and his son Oliver (49.39) completed the top three in Volkswagen and Citroen World Rallycross machinery.

James Cottingham set the fourth-best time in an LMP900-class Dallara SP1, while Jeremy Smith’s Penske-Chevrolet PC22 IndyCar rounded out the top five.

RESULTS: Goodwood FoS Shootout (final page)