Goodwood Hillclimb

The Goodwood Hillclimb is a motorsport hill climb course located at Goodwood House in West Sussex, England, near Chichester on the south coast. The hillclimb course at Goodwood House was first used in 1936, predating the famous Goodwood racing circuit. In that year, the 9th Duke of Richmond, a keen motoring enthusiast and amateur racer who won the 1930 Brooklands 500 in an Austin Seven, organized a hillclimb on the roads around the estate for a small group of pre-war Lancia enthusiasts.

The modern Goodwood Festival of Speed, which features the hillclimb as its centerpiece, was established in 1993 by the then Lord March (now the Duke of Richmond) to bring motor racing back to the Goodwood estate. The first event took place on Sunday, June 20, 1993, with a crowd of 25,000 despite a date clash with the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The first driver to tackle the hillclimb course was Sally Mason-Styrron in her Ferrari 166 MM Barchetta. The hillclimb course measures 1,890 meters (1.17 miles) with 9 turns, climbing 92.7 meters (304 feet) for an average gradient of 4.9%. The record time of 39.081 seconds was set in 2022 by Max Chilton in an electric McMurtry Spéirling, breaking the 20-year record of 41.6 seconds set by Nick Heidfeld in 1999 driving a McLaren MP4/13 Formula 1 car.