Drifting in darkness at the 2023 Goodwood Festival of Speed

14th July 2023

Simon Ostler

Just when you thought the first day at the 2023 Festival of Speed presented by Mastercard was over. All was quiet, cars had been tucked away under their covers for the night, and drivers had retired to their lodgings for some well-earned rest when this bunch of hooligans made their way out onto the Hill for one last blast of drifting tomfoolery.

The trio of culprits were Travis Pastrana, ‘Mad’ Mike Whiddett and Steve ‘Baggsy’ Biagioni, three guys who need little to no encouragement when it comes to leaving more rubber on the road than on their wheels.

You can imagine the scenes, as Travis in his Subaru GL ‘Family Huckster’, star of the most recent Gymkhana video, Mad Mike in his Mazda RX-8 ‘Madbull’ and Baggsy in his Nissan GT-R drift machine made far more noise than was sociably acceptable at this time of the evening.

As it turns out, they did actually have permission to be there, as they were in fact putting on a show for the lucky members of the GRRC who had been attending the GRRC Ball at Goodwood House. If you thought the drift action earlier in the day was spectacular, watching these machines emit smoke and flame is all the more incredible at night.

To top it off, the typical Goodwood fireworks lit up the grounds in the midst of the Central Feature as the perfect climax to what has been a thoroughly enjoyable first day at the 2023 Festival of Speed.

The 2023 Goodwood Festival of Speed is underway! You can watch every moment of the action by watching our live stream.

Photography by Pete Summers.

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