WEC, 24H Le Mans Stars Line Up for Goodwood FoS

A host of FIA World Endurance Championship and Le Mans stars will appear at the Goodwood Festival of Speed this weekend.

Four current GTE-Pro cars entered by BMW, Aston Martin, Ferrari and Porsche will take to the famous 1.16-mile mile hill climb in West Sussex, UK, for demonstration runs.

Britain’s Alexander Sims is confirmed to drive the BMW M8 GTE, Nicki Thiim is set to drive the new-generation Aston Martin Vantage GTE, and Kevin Estre is listed next to the 24 Hours of Le Mans-winning Porsche 911 RSR.

Meanwhile, reigning WEC GT world champion James Calado is expected to drive a Ferrari FXXK up the hill in the supercar batch.

Porsche will also bring its three-time Le Mans winning 919 Hybrid LMP1 car, pedaled by Neel Jani, as well as the Porsche 919 Hybrid Evo that recently smashed the outright lap record at the Nürburgring Nordschleife.

However, Sportscar365 understands that the manufacturer has no plans for its unrestricted, 1,100 bhp monster to lodge an attempt at Nick Heidfeld’s Goodwood record of 41.6 seconds set in a McLaren Formula 1 car 19 years ago.

Volkswagen, on the other hand, has announced that it will tune its I.D.R Pikes Peak electric prototype for a competitive run with Romain Dumas as the helm.

There are 22 Le Mans winners on the provisional entry list, including five-time victor Derek Bell who will drive a spread of cars including a Porsche 917K as part of the manufacturer’s 70th-anniversary celebrations.

In the same demonstration, 2017 winner Brendon Hartley is listed next to the Porsche 911 GT1-98 that Laurent Aiello, Stephane Ortelli and Allan McNish drove to victory in 1998’s edition.

Nine-time winner Tom Kristensen will share time between an Audi R8 LMP1 and a Ford Escort Twin Cam, while Hans-Joachim Stuck, JJ Lehto, Stefan Johansson and Richard Attwood are among others who are set to feature.

From IMSA, five-time Rolex 24 at Daytona winner Scott Pruett will be present, driving a Lexus RCF GT3.

Most of the hill climb runs will be uncompetitive demonstrations, with the focus of this year’s timed ‘Shootout’ on Sunday being the British Touring Car Championship, although Justin Law’s Group C Jaguar XJR-12D that won last year’s event is set to return.

The four-day event will be streamed live on the Goodwood Road & Racing YouTube channel.