Goodwood’s SpeedWeek festival in 2020 saw sports cars, supercars and prototypes roll onto the Goodwood circuit for a no-holds-barred timed shootout, with all eyes on the timing screen to see if any could break the track’s unofficial lap record of less than a minute.
If it hadn’t been for a last-minute pandemic-related cancellation from Volkswagen, there was a very real prospect that the ID.R electric sports car would have broken that barrier.
It’s a feat that is only thought to have been done once: in 1983, when Nelson Piquet arrived to test the revolutionary Brabham BT52.
There’s no known footage of the private session, just whispers of spectacular acceleration from the dart-shaped Brabham; a qualifying simulation with the BMW engine’s turbo boost turned to max; and a grassy shortcut.
Piquet’s lap is widely accepted as being the fastest ever completed at the circuit, with one qualification: nobody seems to have recorded the exact time.
“He didn’t bother with Lavant and went across the grass, which must have been pretty scary in a ground effect car at 150mph”
The sub-one minute figure is the stuff of legend but anyone looking to beat it doesn’t actually know what they are aiming for – would 59sec be enough? 55sec?
“I’m not sure I was even aware of the lap until Nelson came to the Festival of Speed very early on,” says the Duke of Richmond, owner of the Goodwood Estate. “He told me about it and I’ve had quite a few other people mention it since then.
“In fact, someone told me the other day that they don’t think he took Lavant – the only really corner [on the circuit]. Apparently he just didn’t bother. He just went straight across the grass, which must have been pretty scary in a ground effect car at 150mph.
“Somebody probably does know what it was, but all I heard was it was a sub-one minute lap. I spoke to Bernie [Ecclestone, Brbahm’s owner in ’83] about this but he wasn’t here back then.”
Goodwood’s official lap record dates back 55 years, when Jim Clark and Jackie Stewart both lapped in a time of 1min 20.4sec during the final period F1 race before the circuit closed in 1966.
That time has improved upon since the track reopened in 1998 for the Revival. The fastest time of 1min 18.2sec was set by Nick Padmore in a Lola T70 Spyder at the 73rd Members’ Meeting in 2015. He then smashed that record during SpeedWeek, behind the wheel of a 1989 Arrows-Ford A11, where he stopped the clock at 1min 09.9sec.
