Goodwood, Sussex - Gamer-turned racer Jann Mardenborough smashed the supercar record for the Goodwood Hillclimb with a sensational run at the Festival of Speed on Saturday afternoon.
Driving a Nissan GT-R Nismo 'Time Attack', Welsh wizard Mardenborough, whose only race experience until winning the GT Academy in 2011 had been online, blitzed the 1.87km Hillclimb in 49.27 seconds, his run edging out a Noble M600 driven by touring-car legend Anthony Reid, as well as former Formula One racers Bruno Senna and Rupert Keegan, and sports-car legend Derek Bell.
STREET LEGAL
Taking part were supercars - all street-legal - from Alfa-Romeo, Audi, Bentley, BMW, Ferrari, Jaguar ,Lexus, Lotus, Maserati, McLaren, Mercedes-Benz, Pagani, Porsche, and Rolls-Royce, among others.
The Supercar Run was not the only highlight on Saturday. Fresh from his pole position at last weekend's Austrian Grand Prix, Felipe Massa howled up the hill in Damon Hill's 1996 Formula One World Championship-winning Williams FW18 and 2009 champion Jenson Button did likewise in a McLaren MP4-26-Mercedes-Benz.
The Forest Rally Stage meanwhile featured former World Rally Champions Sebastien Loeb - driving one of his title-winning Citroen DS3 WRCs - Hannu Mikkola in an Audi Quattro S4 and Bjorn Waldegard in a Toyota Celica.
SUNDAY SHOOTOUT
Then, on Sunday afternoon, Mardenborough lined up against some of the world's most potent hillclimb machinery for the festival shootout. Fastest up the hill was Loeb, who now races for Citroen in the World Touring Car Championship, in the fearsome Peugeot 208 T16 Pikes Peak car.
The nine-times World Rally Champion had qualified second, but shaved almost a second from his Saturday time to take the top spot with a time of 44.60 seconds - the sixth-fastest time yet on the Hill.
Loeb's nearest challenger was former GT1 World Champion and ex-Grand Prix driver Michael Bartels, whose Maserati MC12 'Goodwood Cent 100' was just 1.22sec off the pace, followed by a McLaren F1 GTR 'Long-tail' driven by Indy 500 winner and former IndyCar champion Kenny Brack, with Mardenborough fourth in the GT-R Nismo, ahead of the top Formula One contender, Didier Sirgue in his ex-Andrea de Cesaris Ford-powered Jordan 191.