By Simon Hildrew

Platt’s Heath’s Jake Hill, one of the superstar drivers in the British Touring Car Championship, once again got an opportunity to demonstrate his magnificent racing skills, in an incredible weekend of motor racing at the 80th Goodwood Members’ Meeting.

Hill was, once again, competing in the Gordon Spice Trophy Race (previously, the Gerry Marshall Trophy), named in memory of the former multiple Saloon car champion, who died in 2021.

The race, for Group 1 saloon cars, of a type that raced between 1970 and 1982, featured a stellar cast of top class drivers, contested over two heats and a final. Hill, driving Ric Wood’s 1980 Mk3 Ford Capri 3.0S, had posted the fastest time during the opening minutes of the heat one qualifying session, claiming pole position.

The session was then red flagged halfway through, after an incident, and a couple of laps in from the re-start, Hill hit an oil patch at St Mary’s corner, losing the back end of the car, spinning onto the wet grass, and hit the tyre wall hard, on the left-hand side of the car. Fortunately, Hill was unhurt, but the car had extensive bodywork and front suspension damage. Hill was distraught, as it seemed the car would now be too badly damaged to start the race later in the day.

Ric Wood and his team pulled off a miracle, though, and managed to repair the damaged suspension, steering and even partly straighten a bent chassis leg, in a matter of a few hours, to enable Hill to make the start.

Hill made a cracking start from pole position and shot into a clear lead, with the two, more powerful, Chevrolet Camaro’s of Olivier Hart and Rob Huff, hot on his heels. For the whole 20-minute race, Hill managed to fend off, firstly, Hart and then Huff, as they battled to take the lead, but Hill used his supreme driving skills to defend and take the win.

Heat two featured cars of a smaller engine capacity, with Tenterden’s Nick Swift lining up in second spot on the grid, in his 1978 Mini 1275 GT, alongside Jim Morris on pole, in his 1979 Mk1 VW Golf GTi.

Swift made the better start and led the rest into the first corner, but at the end of lap one, Morris used his power advantage to move past Swift for the lead. The pair then pulling away with Swift trailing the Golf by just a second.

With five of the 20 minutes remaining, he managed to claw back the deficit and ended up stuck, like glue, to the Golf’s bumper. In the dying seconds, as they exited the chicane, Morris went wide, narrowly avoiding hitting the tyre wall and Swift dived past to take the lead and cross the finish line, just as the clock went down to zero seconds.

The chequered flag wasn’t shown, so the duo raced on for another lap, with Morris re-taking the lead, again on sheer power, and holding the position, ahead of Swift at the end. The officials then declared that last lap void, as the time had run out as they crossed the line on the previous lap, so, Swift took the win.

The top 15 finishers, from each heat, then lined up for the final, with Swift and Hill alongside each other on the front row. Hill powered away to take the lead, but clearly had an engine issue, as smoke was pouring from the back of his car. Rob Huff kept his distance in second with Swift in third. Although Hill’s car was sponsored by a French tobacco company in period, it still wasn’t entitled to smoke the way it was, and the officials black-flagged him to pit and rectify the problem.

Hill came in on lap two and his team checked under the bonnet to see what the fault was. Ric Wood realised that the dipstick hole cap had blown out, with the oil leaking from there. He found an allen key in the pitlane, slotted it inside the hole, hoping this would temporarily cure the problem. Hill re-joined in last place, with the oil leak now under control, the allen key appearing to work!

Meanwhile, Huff had continued to lead the race, with the other Camaro’s in pursuit and Swift now down to sixth place, in his less powerful Mini. Hill made up several places but with five minutes remaining, Mark Wilson turned his Golf GTi on its side and the race was red flagged.

The decision was made to run the remaining five minutes of the race, so the cars were lined up on the grid in their finishing order, Swift in sixth and Hill in 21st . Hill made a sensational start and picked off cars ahead of him, in pursuit of the leaders and by the end of the lap he was an incredible eighth with Swift in sixth.

He made up another two places on lap two, having taken Swift for sixth and then fifth on lap three, just six seconds adrift of leader Huff. On the final lap Jack Tetley tried an audacious move for the lead, on the outside of Woodcote corner. Outbraking himself, he ended up going wide and slamming the tyre wall, turning the car onto its roof. Huff also locked up, went wide, kept it running but allowed third placed Fred Shepherd to pass into the lead, with Hill now promoted to fourth.

The race was red flagged though, and the running order counted back a lap, with Huff the winner, Hill in fifth and Swift in sixth, also claiming fastest lap, in class.

Hill also competed in the weekend’s other saloon car race, The Jim Clark Trophy, a 45-minute, two-driver race for Lotus Cortina’s. Celebrating the 60th anniversary of the car and named in honour of Clark, who won the 1964 British Saloon Car Championship, driving one of the works entered cars. Hill was sharing driving duties with fellow Kent racer, Cranbrook’s Ollie Streek.

They qualified in 14th place, one behind Sevenoaks racer Chris Goodwin, sharing with Mark Sumpter. From the start, of 29 cars, Sumpter had made it up to eighth, by lap three, with Streek back in 13th. Sumpter dropping to ninth until the pit stops, after 11 laps. Both cars ran outside of the top 10, following the driver changes, with Hill and Goodwin now driving and both making their Cortina race debuts.

Hill managed to get his car up to 10th with eight minutes remaining, until finally making it to eighth in the final laps and Goodwin finishing in 11th.

Goodwin also raced his 1963 Lotus 23B, in the Gurney Cup, another two-driver, 45-minute race, for sports Prototypes of the early 1960s. Sharing with Top Gear star, Chris Harris, they qualified in a lowly 26th place, of 29 cars, but had better luck in the race, finishing in 10th spot and the highest placed of the older type cars.

The next event at Goodwood, will be the Festival of Speed, held on July 13-16. Visit www.goodwood.com to buy tickets.