James Deane brings the smoke to the Goodwood Festival of Speed
28 June, 2015
Goodwood Hillclimb, Westhampnett, West Sussex, UK
This past weekend, European drift champion and Falken Motorsports professional drifter James Deane became one of the lucky few to be invited to drift the legendary and prestigious Goodwood Festival of Speed hillclimb in front of over 300,000 fans in attendance, and hundreds of thousands more online.
Over the past 22 years, this coveted event has been considered by the many to be the pinnacle of the world’s motorsport calendar, attracting the top manufacturers, motoring press and biggest, most enthusiastic automotive fans. The event combines a wide range of disciplines, from historic and modern F1 racers to high-speed motorcycles, futuristic hypercars and vintage rally machines. The 2015 Goodwood Festival of Speed saw Falken Motorsports driver James Deane tackle the course in style, and thrust the fresh and exciting world of drifting into the spotlight.
As current champion, James was selected to be part of a team of four drift drivers to tackle the course sideways over the weekend, representing the Extreme Drift Allstars European series and the wider sport as a whole. Rather than achieve a record time up the 1.16 mile course, James’ mission was the remain sideways as much as possible, and put on a show for the bustling crowd in his 700bhp Falken Motorsport Nissan S14 – no easy feat considering the track isn’t much wider than the length of the car!
Completing high-speed, adrenaline-packed and smoke-filled runs throughout the weekend, James and the other drifters impressed the fans and event organisers, and left their mark on the Goodwood Festival of Speed, figuratively and literally! “I am honoured to be representing Falken Motorsports at this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed,” James adds. “It’s an unbelievable experience to drift up this amazing hillclimb alongside some of the biggest names and cars in motorsport history. It’s also fantastic to bring drifting to a whole new audience, and they seem to be loving it!”.