Sebastien Loeb tops Goodwood but misses record

Mon, 30 Jun 2014

Heading into the Goodwood Festival of Speed this past weekend, insiders speculated that we'd have a new top time on our hands. The record for the English hill climb course has stood at 41.6 seconds since 1999 when Nick Heidfeld drove the McLaren MP4/13, but expectations were high that nine-time World Rally Championship superstar Sébastien Loeb would pilot his Peugeot 208 T16 – the same in which he set the record time at Pikes Peak last year – to knock Heidfeld and McLaren off the top of the leader board.

Well, Loeb did dominate the proceedings on Sunday, besting some serious machinery including a specially prepared Maserati MC12 (piloted by GT1 champ Michael Bartels), a McLaren F1 GTR Long-Tail (driven by former Indy champ Kenny Brack) and a Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 (by Jann Mardenborough, who had just won the Supercar run on Saturday). But while the Peugeot hill-climber may have a power-to-weight ratio to rival that of a modern F1 car and even more aggressive aero, Loeb's top time of 44.6 seconds wasn't enough to pip Heidfeld's record.

In fact it wasn't enough to land him in second place, either. Justin Law drove the Jaguar XJR8/9 up the hill in 44.19 seconds in 2008 and returned with a 44.4-second run the following year. You can bet that Loeb will be back at Goodwood again next summer, though, to try and find the extra three seconds needed to take the record, or at least an extra few tenths to land in second behind one of the fastest and most successful F1 cars ever made - a machine that won of nine out of sixteen races and both titles in the 2008 Formula One World Championship.

SEBASTIEN LOEB WINS GOODWOOD FESTIVAL OF SPEED SUNDAY SHOOT-OUT IN PEUGEOT 208 T16 PIKES PEAK CAR

Sebastien Loeb added victory at the Goodwood Festival of Speed shoot-out to his enormous trophy cabinet with a stirring run during Sunday afternoon's against-the-clock timed run.

The nine-time World Rally Champion, who now races for Citroen in the World Touring Car Championship, had qualified second fastest in the fearsome Peugeot 208 T16 Pikes Peak car, and shaved almost a second from his Saturday time to take the top spot when it counted most in a time of 44.60 seconds.

It is the second year in a row in which the Pikes Peak special has set the fastest time at Goodwood; Gregory Guilvert tying for the top spot in 2013 with Nick Heidfeld's Lola B12/60-Toyota in 45.86s. Loeb's time was the sixth-fastest time ever set on Goodwood's iconic 1.16-mile Hillclimb.

Loeb's nearest challenger was former GT1 World Champion and ex-grand prix driver Michael Bartels, whose Maserati MC12 'Goodwood Cent 100' missed out on the spoils by 1.22s.

Two more GT monsters, a McLaren F1 GTR 'Long-tail' driven by Indy 500 winner and former IndyCar champion Kenny Brack, and a Nissan GTR-NISMO GT3 piloted by Jann Mardenborough – Saturday's Michelin Supercar Run winner – were next up while the best Formula 1 car was Didier Sirgue's ex-Andrea de Cesaris Jordan 191-Ford.

Such was the intensity of the competition on Sunday that several big names were left trailing, including ex-grand prix and Indy racer Max Papis in a Chevrolet Impala NASCAR, World Touring Car racewinner Jordi Gene in a SEAT Leon Eurocup racer and two-time Daytona 500 winner Michael Waltrip in one of his own team's Toyota Camry NASCARs.

By Noah Joseph