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Goodwood Festival of Speed 2017

Goodwood 2017 will contain a drift competition

Drift stars to compete for the first time in Goodwood FoS history. Very good news

Published: 23 Jun 2017

This year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed is fast (sorry) approaching, and we can share some good news: for the first time in its history, there’ll be a proper drift competition.

Drifters have of course, done their sideways thing at Goodwood’s FoS in the past, but this year they’ll be judged by a combination of the speed trap on the first corner of the Hillclimb, and by the public. That’s you lot out there, in the real world.

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In the most British way possible, there are some rules to such hooliganism: competitors will be “expected to be travelling sideways by the time they reach the first initiation point, reaching maximum drifting speed through the speed trap and maintaining the drift until the finish line… no doubt with great plumes of tyre smoke.” Yeah, exactly.

There is no word on whether the volume of smoke will be a metric by which the competitors will be judged, nor whether the density and spread of said smoke will be taken into account. What you can expect however, is much noise and banzai angles.

Lining up will be Vaughn Gittin Junior – who can do things like this – along with ‘Mad’ Mike Whiddett – who can do things like that – Dean Kearney and James Deane. Each will be gunning for the first ever Goodwood Festival of Speed ‘Drift Champion’.

To get you in the mood, you can watch some videos in the box above of Vaughn and Mad Mike doing their thing: twin-drifting a modified 550bhp Ford Mustang against a modified 650bhp Lamborghini Murcielago, and snaking a modified RX-8 up a South African mountain pass. You might want to turn them up rather loud...

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