Pedal To The Metal

Yes, it really was pedal to the metal at Goodwood this year with the inaugural Settrington Cup, a race featuring vintage Austin J40 pedal cars.
This is the winner of Sunday's finale, warming up in the paddock before the race. One up for women racing drivers!

There's always so much going on at the Revival Meeting that - unlike yesterday's post - you're often in the wrong place at the wrong time, and the Settrington Cup saw us walking up the Lavant Straight to get in position for the next race. We did, however, get to see the action through binoculars, which brought us a whole lot closer than my feeble zoom lens (click to blow this up and you can just see the cars heading for the chicane).

The kids (not only the drivers, but kid mechanics and pit crews, too) did a le Mans style start, sprinting across the track to leap into their cars and put pedal to the metal. The course saw the kids hurtle, nine abreast through the chicane (most other drivers only dare take this in single file) and then dash frantically up the home straight to the finish line, accompanied by Murray Walker's breathless Grand Prix commentary.

Here's a much better set of photos from the first heat on Saturday that really give an impression of the atmosphere. Goodwood is more fun than can be decently crammed into a weekend, with lashings of extra fun heaped on top.