The Goodwood Hill Climb is an extremely short run, as hill climbs go, but Volkswagen and racer Romain Dumas now owns the official record for fastest time in history run up the driveway. Running the same Volkswagen ID. R that he used to break the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb record, Dumas put down a 39.90 second saunter up the Goodwood hill. The previous record, set by Nick Heidfeld all the way back in 1999, was a 41.6 second manic run in a Formula One car.
On Friday, Dumas ran 41.1 seconds, which was faster than Heidfeld already, but because it was a practice time and not an officially timed run, it didn’t count for the record. In order to really make his name on the hill, Dumas licked the stamp and absolutely sent it.
When asked if there was any more time in the car, Romain Dumas, ever the professional, smiled and replied, “If we stay one more week, it’s possible we could find a few more tenths.”
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As an outright record holder goes, Dumas is calm, cool, and collected. The man has won Le Mans three times, 24 hours of the Nürburgring four times, 24 hours of Spa twice, and one 12 Hours of Sebring, as well as an FIA world championship in sports cars, the FIA R-GT rally championship, and he’s won the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb overall four times. Now he’s broken a 20-year-old record at Goodwood.
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