Top 5 crashes at Goodwood FOS 2017

By: James Robinson, Unique Cars magazine

Date: 03.07.2017

There’s always a few that get it wrong

The Goodwood FOS has drawn to a close after yet another successful year, and while the majority of the excellent event went off without a hitch, the hallowed hill climb did what it does best; claim the egos of overzealous racing drivers.

Here are our picks for the five biggest crashes, in reverse order:

5. To kick things off we’ve got an 82-year-old Frazer Nash Monoposto, driven by Patrick Blakeney-Edwards. It’s actually one of the more impressive crashes we’ve seen, in that Edwards did a pretty good job of saving the vehicle from too much damage after overcooking it into the infamous Molecomb corner.  His Frazer Nash pulled an almost balletic 180-degree pirouette as he stepped on the anchors with a bit to too much gusto and shot backwards into the hay bales.

4. Now this crash was a bit different, mostly because it’s the only one that didn’t happen at Molecomb corner, but also because it’s still unclear whether this prang was driver error or component failure. We say this because, judging from the footage, the driver, Ed Barrier, just spears straight off track and into the hay bales at the first corner of the hill climb. We’re not sure which way we lean, but most importantly Barrier was okay.

3. This was actually the first crash of the weekend, with driver Pat Doran hurtling into Molecomb corner in a Ford RS200 just a little bit too quickly. Doran also hadn’t placed the car very well on the track when he approached the corner, with the Ford actually going slightly off the track and onto the grass. This meant that, when he slammed the brakes for the corner, the back end of the Blue Oval stepped out in a massive way and Doran, try as he might, couldn’t save himself or the car from some bale bashing.

2. You can be a veritable master of car control, but if you stuff up your approach to Molecomb, you’re going to have a pretty crap time. That’s what three-time Formula Drift Champion Chris Fosberg found out when he pitched his Nissan 370Z drift car in at the wrong angle heading into the soul-destroying corner. His poor Nissan didn’t fare that well, with both the front and rear bumpers coming a cropper, and we’re pretty sure his ego may have taken a bit of a bruising as well.

1. Defintely the biggest and probably the most expensive crash of the weekend was the Ferrari 458 GT2 getting binned at Molecomb. The driver of the vehicle came in way too hot, the back stepped out and spun him around like a fidget spinner. The impact looked big, the damage looked bigger and the repair bill will probably make the owner’s eyes water, but luckily the driver was alright and, at the end of the day, when you’re pushing a car to the ragged edge, mistakes can and will happen. 

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