Yesterday on June 21, it was announced that the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series has awarded Hendriks Motorsport with an invitation to take part in this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed as a reward for being the mid-season Teams Championship leader of this year’s NASCAR Whelen Euro Series season. Hendriks, who will be represented by the No. 50 Mustang team at Goodwood, will become the third team to receive the award after Knauf Racing’s No. 37 team and RDV Competition’s No. 3 team received the invitation in 2017 and 2018 respectively.
The No. 50 Hendriks Motorsports team will join series founder, President and CEO Jerome Galpin, who once again is scheduled to enter the Goodwood Festival of Speed in the official NASCAR Whelen Euro Series Chevrolet Camaro show car.
“We are extremely honoured and proud to have been invited to participate and look forward to representing Euro NASCAR at Goodwood,” said Hendriks Motorsport owner and team manager Roy Hendriks. “As a team, we appreciate the significance of this invitation and are blessed to be able to perform at a level that affords us this opportunity. We have exceptional drivers and team members who understand the importance of working together to achieve our common goal. We look forward to this unique weekend among the best of the best in motorsports.”
Driving the No. 50 Hendriks Motorsport Ford Mustang in their appearance at Goodwood is the team’s Elite 2 driver Giorgio Maggi. Maggi has enjoyed a stellar debut season so far, currently sitting on the top of the Elite 2 Drivers Championship by 4 points from Vittorio Ghirelli and having scored a victory in his debut race at Valencia after he took advantage of Myatt Snider and Andre Castro’s collision at the final corner of the last lap of the race.
“We had quite a challenging first part of the season and the whole team was fantastic in working together with me and Loris (Hezemans) to always have a competitive car on track,” said Maggi. “We showed great potential, we are leading the championship and it’s simply incredible to be able to go to Goodwood. With Loris we have been wanting to go there for many years and I’m really looking forward to be there in person, meet some of the greatest motorsport legends and drive my Euro NASCAR Mustang up the Goodwood Hill!”
The NASCAR Whelen Euro Series cars have taken part in Goodwood since 2017, when Jerome Galpin brought the Euro Series show car to Goodwood alongside the 2017 invitation winner, Thomas Ferrando and the No. 37 Knauf Racing team. Both Galpin and Ferrando enjoyed a highly successful outing at Goodwood on that year, as not only they were able to showcase the Euro Series cars to the visiting fans at Goodwood, they also finished 14th and 15th overall in the hill climb competition with both drivers setting a sub-55 second lap on their best runs.
Last year, Galpin once again entered Goodwood in the series official show car – this time with the Camaro body instead of the SS body – alongside Franck Violas, RDV Competition’s owner and team manager, whose team’s No. 3 Camry won the 2018 invitation to Goodwood.
Maggi and Galpin will not be alone in the NASCAR contingents that will take part in this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed. NASCAR Hall of Famer and 7-time Cup champion Richard Petty will be returning to Goodwood for the second year in the row as well as for his third Goodwood appearance overall. Recent Hall of Fame inductee Bobby Labonte is also going to return to Goodwood once more, and it is expected that Mike Skinner and his bonkers hillclimb-converted No. 5 Toyota Tundra NASCAR Truck is going to return for this year’s edition of Goodwood as well.
This year’s edition of Goodwood Festival of Speed will be held on 4-7 July, and it will mark the 20th anniversary of the Goodwood Hillclimb. For the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series, the exhibition at Goodwood will be the second exhibition run that they will do this year after this weekend’s Chinon Classic exhibition run.
Just like the Chinon Classic exhibition, expect the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series to provide updates on their participation at Goodwood in Euro Series’ official website and official Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube social media account.
Unless noted, all photos used in this article are courtesy of NASCAR Whelen Euro Series / Stephane Azemard.