CBT Camaro wins at Goodwood Festival of Speed

The CBT Motorsport Chevrolet Camaro made its Goodwood debut over the weekend 23-26 June, and came away with an impressive win in the Fastest Racing Saloon Car Class for pre-1980 racing cars.

Practice on Friday saw the CBT Camaro immediately on the pace with a quickest timed run of 63.62s on the tight and narrow 1.16-mile hillclimb course. The Camaro was leading its class from the massive and spectacular Ford Galaxie 500 driven by Henry Mann and the nimble VW Golf driven by Hans Stuck by just over a second.

In addition to running in the class for pre-1980 saloon cars, the Camaro was also running in the James Hunt Celebration class. At the end of Friday’s practice the Camaro was third in class behind Jordan Grogor’s Hesketh-Cosworth 308 and Charles Nearburg’s McLaren Cosworth M23. The Hesketh Cosworth was the car that James Hunt won the 1975 Dutch Grand Prix.

During practice on Saturday, in damp conditions, the mighty CBT Camaro amazingly topped the timesheets in both the James Hunt Celebration Class and the pre-1980 Saloon Car Class. The time set was 66.54s, with Charles Nearburg’s McLaren almost 5s behind and the Henry Mann Galaxie 10s behind. Other notable scalps on Saturday’s run were Matt Neal’s BTCC Honda Civic, Jason Plato’s BTCC Subaru Levorg and Kelvin Fletcher’s BTCC Chevrolet Cruze.

Sunday morning’s run in dry conditions again saw the CBT Camaro, with Steve Wood at the wheel, atop the Saloon Car Class thanks to its quickest time so far, 62.45s. The Galaxy was again second and the VW Golf third. In the James Hunt Class the Camaro was 5s behind the F1 Hesketh in second place. The time set on Sunday morning saw the Camaro in 10th place overall out of 43 cars. Steve and Stuart were delighted with the speed of the Camaro and thought that there might be some more time to be gained in Sunday afternoon’s shoot-out final.

In the assembly area for the final the Camaro started to overheat and Steve was in two minds whether to complete his run or not. He decided to make the run as it was the best way of getting cool air through the engine. He suffered wheelspin at the start due to radiator fluid under the car but somehow managed to blast the Camaro up the track to record a class-winning time of 60.85s. He was totally committed throughout the entire run and he crossed the finish line at a speed of 99.2mph. “Not a bad achievement for both Steve and the CBT Camaro,” said a delighted Stuart Scott.” The Galaxie was just 0.50s behind in second place and the VW Golf third.

Both Steve and Stuart were so pleased with the result and hope to be invited back again next year by The Earl of March.