- Chris Goodwin
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Goodwin driving the MP4-23 at the 2009 Goodwood Festival of Speed
Chris Goodwin (10th of March 1967) is a British auto racing driver. Presently he works as Chief Test Driver for Mclaren Automotive. Additionally he manages the racing career of Bruno Senna and continues to race in International GT Endurance events.
He was also TV commentator on F1 for ESPN Star Sports for nearly ten years and occasionally still appears on ESPN or other networks such as ITV (GP2 coverage).
Racing career
His early racing was in single-seaters, starting in 1987 with the Formula First Championship. He was Champion of Brands Hatch and finished runner-up in the 1989 Formula Ford Junior Championship, and runner-up again in 1990 when he competed in Formula Renault. He competed in Formula 3000 and Formula Vauxhall in 1991 and 1992 respectively.
In 1993 he drove in two rounds of the British Touring Car Championship for the Ecurie Ecosse Vauxhall Team in a Vauxhall Cavalier. This included an impressive tenth place finish at the final round at Silverstone. He entered a Cavalier in 1994 as an independent entry for Roy Kennedy Racing, finishing third in the Cup for Privateers despite missing some rounds.
In 1995 and 1996 Chris drove for the factory Lotus GT team in International GT Endurance races.
He worked for McLaren in 1997, competing in both the FIA GT Championship and Le Mans. In 1999 he raced the British GT Championship with a McLaren F1. Two more years were spent in the British GTs in 1999 and 2000. In 2001 he raced in both the European Le Mans Series winning the GTS class and the ASCAR Championship. He returned to Touring Cars in 2002 driving a Nissan Primera in the European Touring Car Championship.
In 2008, Chris was instrumental in establishing the SLR GT Trophy for the Mercedes Benz SLR Mclaren sportscar and finished second in 6 races.
Most recently, Chris has raced in the FIA GT3 Championship, the FIA GT Championship (best result 3rd in GT2 at the Spa 24 Hours) and in GT2 in the International GT Open Championship.
Goodwin, in his role as McLaren Automotive Chief Test Driver, drove the 2008 title-winning MP4-23 Formula One car at the Goodwood Festival of Speed on Friday 3rd July 2009.
External links
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