More Goodwood

A big thank you from me to Petter for showing me how a car should be driven. I was the very lucky recipient of the Richard Burns charity ride with Petter up the Goodwood hill climb (mid point donuts and all) which was over with in no time at all.

I have to thank my friend Bill for winning the charity auction on Friday and handing the prize over to my son for him to ride with Petter, unfortunately my son is 15 and 10 months, only 2 months short of the legal age limit for the ride so could not participate. He was devastated. Bill then insisted that I take the seat, I did not take too much persuading and was kitted up in the race suit in no time at all.

The ride was delayed by the sad early accident and in that time Petter was signing autographs and talking with many fans. We met and had first experience of the happy and enthusiastic personality that is Petter

At @ 10:30 the we started off down the hill where Petter was warming the tyres and breaks  and as we passed the Park Grandstand Petter quickly removed his restraints and was hanging out of the car waving to the crowd who enthusiastically responded with rapturous applause. He is the consummate showman but definitely not a show off enjoying everything he was doing and very happy giving enjoyment to others.

There was a long queue to the startline and Petter showed his immense driving skill (and most impressive manoeuvre) by driving a speed past a line of fantastic old and very expensive Le Mans cars, doing a donut at the end of the park area in a space hardly big enough for it and perfectly parallel parking alongside a rare Mclaren and behind the WRC Ford Focus, most impressive. Next he was out of the car talking to people before helping to push start the Mclaren before starting my much anticipated ride up the hill. Petter was always smiling and you could tell he really loves motor sport of all kinds.

The hill climb started and we where quickly sideways round the first bend and raced past the Park Grandstand with my wife, son and friends (wish I could post a picture but Petter was too quick and all my wife got was an empty track). Halfway up Petter suddenly started to weave the car and then executed a perfect double donut (another crowd pleaser) before continuing up the hill and finishing in just over a minute. Simply not long enough for me and wish I could have continued in the car all day. What a fantastic experience.

Onto the rally stage. I had a break while two other luck guys experienced the rally stage with Petter before returning to my co-driver seat for my turn. I wondered if Petter would be less competitive with not being a proper race, not a bit of it, Miko Hirvonen was a few seconds faster than Petter to this point and Petter wanted to beat him. Away we went and again saw most of the stage through the side window of the car, I thought that this might have been a terrifying experience but not a bit. Petter was always in total control and had the car in the perfect position to get the most power down in all parts of the stage. I always felt safe and that he would always round the corner in time not to take out the many trees. The long straight had a nice jump half way down if you where carrying enough speed, and yes, we did take quite a bit of air.

We ended the stage on Petters quickest time to that point and I hope that he eventually did take Mikos fastest time.

I could not have had a better day, a brilliant experience and made even better than to meet a thoroughly nice guy who clearly looked like he was enjoying his Goodwood experience too.

My thanks to Petter and my friend Bill for allowing me a day I will never forget.

Dave