Goodwood: the A11’s greatest lap

Today, the Arrows A11 is arguably better known for Nick Padmore’s Goodwood lap than for anything Derek Warwick and Eddie Cheever pulled off in 1989.

In 2020, amid the misery of Covid, Jean-Lou Rihon’s then-newly restored A11/02 pitched up at the one-off Goodwood SpeedWeek that attempted to fill the void of the cancelled Revival. Except, of course, crowds were barred from the banking. Still, there was a silver lining: without crowd safety to worry about, Padmore found himself fully let off the leash.

“It’s a blur,” he admits of his standing start record lap. “I thought we were just going to do a demonstration run. Then a few days before the event I was told I’d be doing a shootout.

“The biggest fear was turning into Madgwick. I only had from the Shell building to the start line to get the thing warm. The rear tyres were, but the carbon brakes weren’t. Then as soon as I turned into Madgwick I thought, ‘Ah, this feels quite nice actually.’ So I was straight back on the throttle.

“Fordwater was flat, at 158mph with sparks – you can’t beat that. The run down to No Name, I was flat but left-foot braking to try and generate some heat for St Mary’s. That was the biggest thing in the back of my mind, getting brake temperature so I could stop at the end of Lavant for Woodcote. It just went so fast. I was gutted there were no spectators.”

His time? A mind-bending 1min 09.914sec. Just sensational.