Malcolm Wilson’s time is very much spent driving the desk which drives M-Sport’s varied global motorsporting interests these days. Not this weekend.
When Saturday comes, you’ll find MW very much back where he belongs: behind the wheel, in stage mode, and pulling gears. He’s doing Goodwood properly for the first time in ages; he’s going up the hill.
It’s not unheard of for the 1994 British Rally champion to slide into the driver’s seat – he likes to test a wide variety of the cars coming out of his world championship-winning facility. He’s driven a Ford Puma Rally1 Hybrid before. Just not like this. Not with people watching and stopwatches running.
Talking about his return to the only hill that matters this weekend, Wilson offers a wry smile.
“It is the 50th anniversary of the World Rally Championship, Ford has very kindly invited me along [to Goodwood]. Not only that, I’m getting the opportunity to drive the Puma up the hill.”
And not just any Puma…
“I believe it’s the one that won Monte Carlo with Sébastien Loeb!
“I’m really looking forward to the event, I actually did the very first Goodwood Festival of Speed 30 years ago in my Michelin Pilot Escort. That was before there was the rally stage or anything like that, the demo stage I drove was actually in the grounds where all the manufacturer stands live today.
“The Festival has certainly changed in the last 30 years.”
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Marking the occasion of his Goodwood return properly, a new set of overalls have been flown in from Sparco.
Wilson added: “They’re a replica of my first world championship event, the 1977 Lombard RAC Rally. I was driving a Group 1 Ford Escort RS2000 – we won our class and finished 12th overall. Great memories.”
More great memories will follow on Saturday.
