While the Goodwood Festival of Speed is known for its Hillclimb time trials, Extreme E teams Andretti United XE and Veloce Racing decided to take it a step further by pitting their drivers against each other in a head-to-head time attack. Both teams’ drivers piloted their Spark ODYSSEY 21s up the Hillclimb course, with Veloce ultimately taking the win with the best combined time during the weekend.
Veloce did not have its usual drivers Lance Woolridge and Christine GZ, the former of whom was at the TGRSA 1000 Desert Race while the latter has been retooling since recovering from her injury in the season-opening Desert X Prix. In their steads, the team brought back part-time 2021 female driver Jamie Chadwick and esports partner Quadrant loaned its sim racer Max Fewtrell to the lineup.
On Saturday, Fewtrell defeated Andretti’s Catie Munnings with a time of one minute and 1.79 seconds to the latter’s one minute, 4.87 seconds. The following day, Timmy Hansen avenged his team-mate by breaking the one-minute mark at 59.95 seconds to stave off Chadwick’s 1:0.79. However, Veloce’s combined time of two minutes and 2.58 seconds trumped the Andretti duo’s two minutes and 4.82 seconds.
Munnings commented on a video posted by Andretti United’s social media, “It was so much fun going up the Hillclimb. Had a few runs each every day so it’s been an amazing experience.”
“Great experience all weekend, but now we’re packing everything up and going to Sardinia,” added Hansen. “See you there in two weeks.”
Veloce and Andretti were not the only Extreme E teams on site as XITE Energy Racing was also present, though to promote Nitro Rallycross‘ new FC1-X cars. Besides owner/driver Oliver Bennett, XITE driver Jenson Button, who runs XE team JBXE, piloted the FC1-X up the Hilllcimb and set a time of 47.94 seconds.
The next round, an Island X Prix doubleheader in Sardinia, will take place on 6/7 Jule and 9/10 July.
