Chesterfield racer Seb Perez secures top 20 spot at Goodwood Festival of Speed

Steve Perez with his Ford Focus at Goodwood last weekend. Photo: Goodwood FOS.

The pair travelled to West Sussex and to the beautiful parkland surrounding Goodwood House, mixing and competing with motorsport’s elite, with Perez Junior taking a top 20 spot in the very respected shootout event.

Seb Perez was to compete on the hill whilst dad Steve was doing demonstration runs up the hill during the four-day extravaganza.

The pair went armed with Steve Perez’s 2007 World Rally Championship spec Ford Focus, a car driven by Marcus Grönholm, François Duval and Matthew Wilson in rallies around the world.

They’d compete on the famous hill amongst the likes of Nigel Mansell and Jenson Button, all in different classes with the ultimate goal to get to Sunday’s shootout.

Thursday’s timed practice saw Seb go 14th fastest in the Focus, topping speeds of around 112.2mph and crossing the line in 56.28 seconds.

Friday saw Perez finish second in the Ultimate Rally Class and 35th overall, before again being 14th fastest in the timed practice session.

Saturday’s session saw Perez finish second in class again and secure a place in the Qualifying Shootout.

Perez blasted up the hill on the shootout, the acceleration outstanding to take P16 with a top speed of 114.5mph and complete the hill in 52.82 seconds from start to finish.

Sunday came and Perez was looking forward to getting the Focus as fast as he could up the hill, but before that he took top spot and fourth fastest in the Ultimate Rally Class.

The big one was next, the ultimate Shootout Final. It took the Focus five seconds of rapid acceleration to complete the first 100 metres and Perez took the chequered flag in 52.14 seconds and a speed of 108mph to take an 18th place finish.

Dad Steve also seen demonstrating his long-term rallying skills on the hill, taking some very close times similar to his son’s

Afterwards Seb commented: “The weekend went very well, it was great to get into the top 20 in the shootout considering the number of cars in it, We were the fastest homologated competition car, pre 2010 on the hill also.

“I’m now looking forward to getting back out in the 1965 Tuthill Porsche 911 in France at the end of August.”