October 15, 2020. Tuesday
The next location for The Festival of Goodwood was set up on a small circuit in the suburbs of New York, the rules mandated that only cars from the 1930s or older would be able to participate in the race. There were many cars including Austin's, Bentleys, Scuderia Ferrari racecars and many others, but only John's team was using the famed W25 Silver Arrow.
Since they got first place in the previous race, they had to start from the last position and they had 30 laps to do and 15 opponents to beat. The circuit was a masterpiece, designed by some bearded blokes from good ol' La Brittania. A really long stretch of road being followed by 3 kilometers of a ribbon of tarmac spread across like spagetti.
"Welcome to The Festival of Goodwood in America, I'm Jeremy Clarkson, these are my colleages Richard Hammond and James May. Today we bring you the broadcasting of this festival from New York." Jeremy started.
"Yes, and today we have racecars from the 1930, which to this day are lighter than most supercars of today. Not only that, some of them were able to reach speeds as high as 190 miles an hour." James May continiued.
"Then we have the our circuit, located in the suburbs of New York, you could really tell that this is very old-timey, because in the 1930 there were no purpose built racetracks in the world and people raced on ordinary roads. It was very dangerous at that time but not today because a lot of safety features used on nowaday's racetracks are implemented here." Hammond noted.
"Then we have our teams. Most of them have changed but there are some left from the previous races. As you've seen from our last race, John Prescott from team "Detroit Racing", an American driver, absolutely dominated The Waterford Hill Circuit, taking first place and it seems so he is not done yet." Jeremy explained
"Yes, today he is driving the famous Mercedes Silver Arrow. If that car was built to race on the Nurburgring Nordschleife, That car is just gonna be Blitzkrieging every one on the track." James said.
"No James. It is impossible, there are a lot of turns here which means that heavy Merc won't survive." Hammond said.
"Well see Hamster, well see." Jeremy said.
John was in his team pits and was talking to Jacqui. Others were fettling the cars, and making some arrangements.
"We installed better brakes for that long stretch so you don't have to worry about preserving them, but be careful. Don't push too hard. there are a lot of chicanes on the stretch." Jacqui warned.
"Okay, what about cornering? There are a lot of light cars here." John asked.
"We are a heavier than the fancy Alfas, but we have better suspension. Cornering will be tricky, but much more faster." Jaqcui explained.
The smitting lap was over and the race started under the roaring sound of the engines.
"Here we go ladies and Gentlemen." Jeremy said.
The Silver Arrow passed the first batch of Bentleys and Austin's on the first 5 laps of the 6 kilomiter circuit. There was this cocky little Bentley that wasn't willing to give his place to the Merc. He tried running John off the road, but that proved to be fatal. The Merc hit the brakes hard. The Bentley spun off and crashed into a tree at 60 miles per hour.
"We have a crash, Bentley 6-liter, Nigel Camino. That Merc is making some progress. John Prescott already in the 10th place." Hammond noted.
But he felt something uneasy and then he remembered what Jeremy used to do.
"DON'T DO THAT FACE." Richard warned Jeremy, but it was too late. He pulled his famous smug face.
John caught up to three cars, an Austin 7, an Alfa Romeo 8C, and a Maserati 26M. The Austin's engine suddenly exploded, knocking it out of the race. After a tight hairpin, John put his foot down and overtook the cars in front of him. Only three cars left.
"Number 38, an Austin blew it's engine." Hammond said.
"We don't know what caused the breakdown yet, but one thing is for sure." Jeremy noted.
"John is pushing hard." James continued.
He caught up to the rest of the cars after some exhausting 20 laps of trying to keep the car steady. 7 cars left and he overtook 3 of them. Then he slowly made his way through the rest of the cars within the 3 laps. Two laps left, he still had to overtake the leading Alfa Romeo 8C. They were head to head in the turns. John was pushing him so hard that the Alfa had to go full throttle to not let him pass. As a result the engine of the the Romeo disintegrated into flying rod caps and petrol leaks. And so John Prescott took yet another victory.
"John Prescott took 1st place in a Silver Arrow." Jeremy announced.
"He was pushing that Alfa very hard." Hammond noted.
"Yes he was and as a result the history book on the shelf repeated itself, remember the 1966 Le Mans?" Jeremy said.
"Oh yes, poor little Bandini, he got his engine blown. Ford really humiliated Ferrari." Hammond mocked.
"But it would be even more humiliating if Ken Miles won. Because he probably knew his car more than Enzo knew himself."
"Next up Goodwood will be moving to the legendary Willow Springs International raceway, stay tuned, goodbye." James said.
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