The story behind the picture: putting on a show at Goodwood

• Dramatic image captures the Pymkhana Bentley Supersports doing a spectacular startline burnout at the 2026 Goodwood Festival of Speed
• Driver Paul Rees and photographer Mark Fagelson reveal the preparation, pressure and precision behind a split-second moment
• Two professionals at the top of their respective fields combine to create one of Bentley’s most memorable 2026 Festival of Speed photographs

(Crewe, 11 July 2026) Every Goodwood Festival of Speed sees a few images created that really define what the event is about. For 2026, it may well be this one. The Pymkhana Bentley Supersports sits on the start line at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, its rear wheels spinning and a vast cloud of white tyre smoke filling the air behind it. The car is already sideways, its front wheels pointing towards the photographer while its tail edges towards the outside of the narrow driveway.    

It is a dramatic moment, frozen in time: 666 PS, rear-wheel drive and all electronic driver aids switched off, with professional driver Paul Rees fully committed behind the wheel.

But the photograph also captures another performance. Around 250 metres away, automotive photographer Mark Fagelson has secured one of the most sought-after positions at Goodwood and is poised for an opportunity that might last just a fraction of a second.

Both men admit to feeling nervous beforehand. Both were smiling broadly as soon as the action began.

The result is an image that tells the story of two professionals at the top of their respective games, each relying on experience, instinct and preparation to make the most of one extraordinary moment with one extraordinary car.    

Finding the right place

Fagelson has photographed Bentley at the Festival of Speed for 10 years, but familiarity does not make Goodwood an easy place in which to work. 

“For the best startline shots, there’s a specific photographers’ area on the outside of the first corner,” he explains. “It can get very crowded, with about 20 people trying to squeeze into an area the size of a small elevator. You have to be friendly with your fellow photographers and use every bit of persuasion to get to the front.”    

The effort is worthwhile because the position provides one of the Festival’s most iconic views: the start line, the ducal driveway turned racetrack for four days and a car beginning its charge up the Hill.    

In this case, the subject made the opportunity even more compelling.    

“I think the Pymkhana Supersports might be my favourite Bentley ever,” says Fagelson. “It’s an amazing-looking car.”    

He arrived equipped with a 400 mm high-resolution lens “as long as my arm” and a top-of-the-range camera capable of capturing 20 frames per second. Yet even with technology that can record the action almost in real time, the foundations of the photograph were laid long before Rees hit the accelerator.

“With a photo like that, half the work is done beforehand,” Fagelson says. “You’ve got to get to the right place, at the right time, with the right equipment. Then you’re in the hands of the driver.”    

Ready to play

Rees is both a racing driver and a precision stunt driver. He is also very proud of the role he played in the development of the Pymkhana Supersports, working with the Bentley team to help prepare the car for Travis Pastrana and the spectacular Supersports: FULL SEND film.  

At Goodwood, Rees was at the wheel for the car’s UK dynamic debut, with two very different roles to perform.    

“It’s a funny job,” he says. “In the timed shootout, I’ve got to be as precise and as fast as possible, which means trying not to be sideways. A few hours later, I’ll be doing a demonstation run, hanging the tail out in full-send mode.”    

For the Travis Pastrana film, the Pymkhana Supersports had been specially modified to allow simultaneous braking and acceleration. Off the Goodwood startline, this enables Rees to control the car’s forward speed while keeping the rear wheels spinning.    

“I’ve got 666 PS going to the rear wheels and all the driver aids switched off, so the Supersports is ready to play,” he says. “The Hill has a crown in the middle, which means it slopes down to either side. The car naturally falls one way – as soon as it does, I just encourage it a little more.”    

The technique requires fine control. The Hill is really narrow, the available space limited and the audience close enough to see every movement.

“I was smiling every moment from the green light all the way to the top.”

The decisive moment

As the rear wheels began to spin and the tyre smoke started to billow, Fagelson pressed the shutter button.    

“Paul lit the tyres up on the start line – and just kept them lit,” he recalls. “I kept thinking, ‘He’s going to shut it off’, but he kept going. That’s what made the shot: the skill of the driver.”  

Smoke spread across the start area as Rees danced the Supersports sideways, creating a scene that beat anything the photographer had captured during his previous decade at the Festival.  

“The car got very sideways off the line, which is very difficult to do,” says Fagelson. “Most people aren’t brave enough to get the car to that sort of angle there.

“As soon as I saw the tyres light up and the smoke billowing out, I knew we’d got it. I was smiling while I was shooting because I knew I had something really good.”

Rees, meanwhile, was concentrating on maintaining the burnout before accelerating up the Hill, drifting through the course and finishing with some crowd-pleasing showboating at the top.    

“I heard there was an amazing reaction, with lots of cheering and clapping,” he says. “It’s a good thing we have a great partner in Pirelli …”

One chance to get it right

Although the Supersports has completed further runs at the Festival since, with more to come over the weekend, none so far has produced quite the same combination of angle, smoke and timing.    

“It felt like a one-time opportunity,” says Fagelson. “There’s a certain amount of pressure, no matter how experienced you are. I’ve been photographing cars professionally for 25 years, and I always want to produce the best work I can. Looking at the finished result, I think it’s got to be my favourite Goodwood shot yet.”    

For Rees, the same mixture of preparation and pressure applies when the spectacle gives way to the stopwatch.    

“There are bragging rights if you set a really quick time, but the opportunity to be a zero rather than a hero is always there,” he says. “If you get it wrong, you do it in front of your peers and the whole automotive world. But if you get it right, it’s wonderful.”    

At Goodwood, Rees and Fagelson both got it right. One created the moment; the other made it last.

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