We asked Chris Goodwin to tell us about the upcoming race at the Nürburgring Nordschleife. This is what the Imola Pro-Am winner had to say:
“This is the first time Garage 59 will compete on the Nordschleife with its new Aston Martin Vantage. More familiar with the GT3 variant, the team, Alex (West) and I arrive at the ‘Ring off the back of success at Imola in the Pro Am class of GTWC last weekend.
“Alex and I have both raced a GT4 Vantage here before with Aston Martin but this is very much a step in the Garage 59 team’s learning of a very specialist niche of endurance racing. Winning the Blancpain Endurance Championship is one of the toughest challenges for a team but winning on the Nordschleife is almost like a different sport entirely.
“We are preparing the team to be fully competitive for the N24 and will race again and with our full driver line up between now and then.
“It’s always a fantastic experience just to drive this circuit. My experience of the ‘Ring is mostly based on developing road cars like the McLaren P1 while Alex actually won his class during his permit training races last year in Aston Martin’s test centre car.
“Our team members were behind the legendary record pole lap that Kevin Estre managed in the McLaren 650s GT3 back in 2014 for the N24 so our combined and varied experience should help us this weekend.”
Hi Chris, It seems a lifetime ago supporting you at Brands racing against a certain David Coulthard in Formula Ford. Whatever happened to him I wonder :-) I was talking To Simon Strang on Tuesday who told me about Garage 59 so thought I would take the opportunity to find out a bit more about your team. I am still in touch with Brian & passed on information about your team. Best wishes to you & the family for a Happy Christmas, but most of all a safe & healthy one. Regards Louise & Richard.