Disaster Avoided After Mk1 Wheel Bounces Into Crowd

The annual Goodwood Festival of Speed is no stranger to crashes and incidents, but this year’s unfortunately may have gotten the crowd a little too close to the action.

During the hill-climb event, video coverage of a 1959 Jaguar Mk1 sedan shows the vehicle suddenly losing a wheel, which goes bouncing into the attending crowd.

Driven by Grant Williams, the run had begun with a burnout and some drifting through the opening couple of corners, as has been seen so many times before along the famous hill climb. But approaching Goodwood House, the rear left wheel somehow detached itself from the car, barrelling past it at some speed before bouncing onto the hay barriers and into a group of spectators.

At least two people were struck by the stray wheel, but thankfully there were no serious injuries although at least one person in the crowd was loaded into an ambulance.

Cases of wheels exiting the track have been a common source of bystander casualties throughout the history of motorsport. Loose wheels continue to be a problem in 2023, with this year’s Indianapolis 500 narrowly avoiding its own disaster when a racer’s wheel bounced out of the track, and destroyed a spectator’s car. The danger of loose wheels has led to tethers being mandatory in many top-level racing series, such as Formula 1.

This isn’t the first ill-fated run at the Goodwood Hillclimb this year either, as Hyundai suffered the embarrassment of its high-tech RN22e prototype crashing violently. That too resulted in no injuries, but this year’s event was another one to remember, but for the wrong reasons. .

Editor: Information for this story sourced from BBC Top Gear.