GOODWOOD REVIVAL NEWS

FORMULA 1 DRIVER GIEDO VAN DER GARDE JOINS GOODWOOD REVIVAL LINE-UP

Sauber Formula 1 Team test driver Giedo van der Garde will make his Goodwood Revival debut this year.

The 29-year-old Dutchman, who has been in testing action with the Sauber F1 Team at Barcelona this week, will share an AC Cobra with regular Revival front-runner David Hart in the RAC Tourist Trophy Celebration Race for closed-cockpit cars of 1960-64 vintage.

Van der Garde was a race-winner in Formula 3 and GP2 and clinched the Formula Renault 3.5 title in 2008. Following a number of days of testing with Caterham in 2011, he secured a Formula 1 race seat with the team last year and for 2014 has moved into a test and reserve role with Sauber.

While this year will mark van der Garde’s first time racing at the Revival, he is no stranger to Goodwood and drove Caterham F1 machinery at the Festival of Speed in both 2012 and 2013.

Hart, who owns the Cobra, returns to Goodwood looking to take care of unfinished business on two fronts. In the Tourist Trophy, one of a number of contests at the Revival in which driver changes are made mid-race, he is looking to improve on his fourth-placed finish of 2013, when he was co-driven by World Touring Car race-winner Tom Coronel.

Meanwhile in the Whitsun Trophy for sports racing prototypes of 1961-66, the experienced historic racer will pilot a Lola T70 Spyder as he seeks to improve on the sixth spot he and Hans Hugenholtz achieved in last year’s race, held exclusively for Ford GT40s.

Gideo van der Garde, Sauber F1 test driver, said: “I’ve heard so much about the Goodwood Revival from friends and fellow racing drivers, but never been able to make it myself. So to have the opportunity not only to come to such a world-renowned event, but also to race an iconic sportscar – the AC Cobra – with a good friend of mine, was too good an opportunity to miss. You can’t slide a modern Formula 1 car and still be fast, but the Cobra was made to go sideways, so I’m really looking forward to it.”

                                          

 Source: GOODWOOD MOTORSPORT 2014