Rhys ready to entertain the streaming masses at Goodwood
- World Rally Championship star Rhys Yates invited to motorsport’s biggest bash
- The Chesterfield driver will rub shoulders with motorsport megastars
- The Ford Fiesta Rally2 MkII runs a unique split livery
- Global viewing figures for Rhys and SpeedWeek will be measured in millions
An invitation from the Duke of Richmond and Gordon is a big deal.
In motorsport terms, it doesn’t really get any bigger. Or better.
When Chesterfield rally star Rhys was invited to take part in this week’s Goodwood SpeedWeek event, he didn’t need to be asked twice. Rhys joins motorsport royalty, three-time Formula 1 champion Sir Jackie Stewart and four-time Indy 500 winner Dario Franchitti as well as former World Rally Champion Stig Blomqvist in West Sussex.
Coronavirus restrictions mean the usual hundreds of thousands of fans won’t be allowed to make the trip to watch. Instead, SpeedWeek will be shown on ITV4 as well as being streamed live on goodwood.com, opening the event up to millions of fans around the world.
For Rhys, this week’s not just about one competition – he’s driving his Ford Fiesta Rally2 MkII in both the rally and drifting events.
To mark the fact that he’s busy on both events, Rhys’ factory-specification Fiesta will run a unique split livery reflecting two days on the stage and two days on the handbrake.
“Everybody around the world knows about Goodwood,” said Rhys. “It’s the summer’s biggest motorsport party – like Glastonbury, but with even better music!
“This has been a weird season because of what’s going on in the world right now and SpeedWeek will be a fairly strange event. To be at the Goodwood circuit, one of the most famous race tracks in world motorsport, with no fans that’s going to be odd.
“But it’s a real privilege to be competing there and competing in two events. The rally will be a lot of fun, I’ve got my brother James in alongside me, so he’ll keep me on the right track. And the drifting event is very much along the lines of the incredibly successful Gymkhana GRiD event which is run by Ken Block’s team.
“Doing both events, we couldn’t decide what to do with the livery. In the end, we went with a drift-oriented black RYR livery on one side and the same rally livery we ran when we won our class at the recent M-Sport Back to Rally Stages. It’s cool! And it’s very different.
“I did GRiD in Warsaw last year and really enjoyed it. Basically, you have to drift and spin the car around a serious of obstacles as quickly as you can. There’s a real skill in this, as well as the speed, it’s all about the precision and balance in the car – accuracy is everything. It’s really cool, give it a watch!”
The rally element of SpeedWeek runs on Thursday-Friday with the drift event set for the weekend.
