By Simon Hildrew

Platts Heath’s Jake Hill, along with Tenterden duo Nick Swift and Tim Reeves, Sevenoaks’ Chris Goodwin and Kings Hill’s Rob Fenn, joined in the fast and furious action when the historic Goodwood estate held their 81st annual Members’ Meeting.

British Touring Car Championship title contender Hill was behind the wheel of Ric Wood’s 1980 Mk3 Ford Capri 3.0S in the Gordon Spice Trophy Race for Group 1 saloon cars that raced between 1970 and 1982.

The duo finished seventh after some brilliant driving from Hill, who was in 17th place with 25 minutes remaining when he took the wheel and they were the first non-American V8.

Swift, another regular competitor in the Gordon Spice race, in his 1978 Mini 1275 GT, was paired with Alex Buncombe. With Swift starting from 14th he rose to third during the pit stops and came in on lap 12 to hand over to Buncombe, who rejoined in 15th, just ahead of the safety car period. Buncombe then made it up to 13th at the restart and held the position for the remaining 11 laps.

Swift made a sensational start in the next day’s 15-minute sprint race, going from fifth to the lead by the second corner. The race was shortlived, though, as halfway round the lap Nick Sleep’s Rover tagged the back of Larry Warr’s Swiftune Mini, sending him sliding across the damp grass, back onto the track and slamming into the side of Sleep.

Swift had pulled out a decent lead, but the safety car was deployed while the marshals tried to clear the stricken cars before the race was red-flagged.

Jack Tetley’s Camaro got the better of the Minis at the restart, with Swift heading the rest of the chasing pack. Seconds later Swift pulled off onto the grass and into retirement with a broken driveshaft.

A spectacular line-up of 30 1960s Ford Mustangs started the Ken Miles Cup race, in celebration of the car’s 60th anniversary with a stellar cast of VIP drivers. Hill shared with owner Fenn for the 45-minute two-driver event.

Fenn started from sixth but fell down the order to 11th by lap seven. Hill took over the wheel from lap 10 and started to work his magic with some breathtaking driving. From 22nd during the pit-stop period, Hill began making up places and on the final lap passed a slowing Darren Turner to finish a remarkable third.

This year Goodwood are celebrating the life of F1 legend Niki Lauda and marking 50 years since his first Grand Prix victory, 40 years since he won his third world title and what would have been his 75th birthday.

Goodwin featured in two of the weekend’s special demonstrations, driving some demo laps in the three-time world champion’s 1985 McLaren - the same car Lauda raced to victory in his final race win at the Dutch Grand Prix. Goodwin also took part in the special Can-Am demonstrations, driving his 1968 Can-Am McLaren M6B that raced in that year’s Can-Am series.

Among the glorious gathering of cars were seven Shadows, brought over from America for the event and most never seen in the UK before. Hill even got an unexpected drive in the 1970 Mk1 Shadow during the Sunday run.

A new addition to the meeting this year was the Sidecar Shootout. Eight teams going head-to-head against the clock, with qualifying, a knockout stage and four eventually going through to the final session.

Between the riders and passengers were a total of 17 world sidecar champions, including eight-time champion Reeves, riding with his regular passenger Mark Wilkes, who was world champion in 2019.

With two laps per session for teams to set their fastest laps, Reeves and Wilkes set the pace during the first practice session on their Yamaha. They dropped to fifth in qualifying and fifth again in the knockout session, but more than a second faster than they had gone previously.

Unfortunately, they were just 0.366sec off a place in the top-four final, which was won by reigning world champions Todd Ellis and Emmanuelle Clement.

The next event at Goodwood is the Festival of Speed from July 11-14. For tickets go to goodwood.com.