‘My absolute favourite car at the Best of British events’ was how Jake Hill described driving the iconic Calsonic Nissan Skyline R32 GT-R at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

Where he once again tamed the twisting 1.16 mile hillclimb in the mighty Ric Wood Motorsport prepared machine in the fiercely competitive ‘Shootout’ on Sunday afternoon. Hill also blasted up the famous Goodwood hill delivering some spectacular demonstration runs in the unique 1970 Shadow Mk1 ‘Mosport’ Can Am car, wowing the enthusiastic crowd with the wild slides and the thunderous sound of the brutish American machine during several runs throughout the weekend.

Hill, who recently took a double win at Brands Hatch in the 1999 BTCC Winning Nissan Primera, and who currently leads the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship at the half-way point in the season, headed to the beautiful West Sussex venue having Won the ‘Tin Top Heroes’ class in the Shootout in 2021 and 2023, but aware that another win may be unlikely.

“We have Won the Tin Top class on three occasions here – twice up the hill and in the 2020 ‘Speedweek’ event held on the Goodwood Circuit – each year it gets tougher though and this year the organisers have decided to move us to the ‘Modified and All-Wheel Drive’ class – so up against the prototype Ford Supervan and Subaru amongst others! But Ric (Wood) and the crew have done a brilliant job as always and I just love this car and this event” 

Hill took part in demo runs in the car throughout the week, with qualifying on Saturday highlighting some issues in the 1000bhp machine, despite this he recorded a time good enough for P10 overall of the 37 entries.

“The car was  great but not quite feeling as it normally does – on top of which I lost 2nd gear early on which costs us a fair bit of time off the line  – so it was still a good run but the crew are going to check the rear differential so hopefully that should help for the final on Sunday”

With a number of incidents including for action sports legend Travis Pastrana who thumped the hay bales in his Subaru Huckster, the runs were getting progressively later, but eventually Hill had his chance to blast into action.

With the organisers placing an on-board camera on ‘fan favourite’ Hill’s car, spectators could see the sheer commitment and spectacle of the run as the car stepped sideways  – and he charged across the line in a time of 48.92 seconds, which would ultimately result in a superb 6th overall – the oldest car and the  only with a manual gearbox in the top-six.

“That was wild! The car was so much better today, but not having 2nd gear meant I had to go straight from 1st to 3rd gear off the line which cost us so much time. Last year we managed a 48.21 and this year everyone’s times are slower ‘cos the track has less grip, so to set the time we did in those circumstances was just amazing. Huge thanks as always to the crew at Ric Wood Motorsport – Ric, Ollie, Jenny and Phil – taking the ‘diff’ out was a mammoth job so thanks so much to them all for their hard work – I absolutely love them all. Thanks also to his Grace and the Goodwood team for having us again – it was just brilliant. My Dad (Simon) was watching at the top of the Hill and I got to give him a lift back down hanging on to the roll cage in the passenger side which was mega – he was giggling like a little kid he loved it so much! Really finished off a great day perfectly”

As well as taking the Nissan Skyline up the hill over the course of the week, Hill got to drive the incredible 1970 Shadow MK1 ‘Mosport’ Can Am car prepared by Era Motorsport and part of a special 9 car demo that included iconic Can Am, Formula 1 and Formula 5000 machinery from the 1970’s.

Hill’s small frame just fitted into the tiny chassis of the Shadow, with it’s incredibly low frontal area requiring the pedals to be set at 45 degrees, with the brake and throttle pedals on top of each other, and the car featuring 12″ rear and 10″ front tyres, a huge rear wing which features the radiators mounted on them and a mighty 8 litre V8 Chevrolet engine producing over  800 bhp – all weighing just 814kgs in total!

“By far the wildest car I have ever driven. It is quite literally just a huge engine on a tiny chassis – the acceleration is insane – and the handling completely different to anything else. But it sounds amazing and is such a spectacular thing to drive. I am hugely grateful to Kyle Tilley and the Era Motorsport crew for once again trusting me with the car. What an experience!”

Hill now has a much-needed weekend off before heading north to Croft where the BTCC season resumes, and Hill aims to build on a superb start to the season which has yielded 5 Wins so far, 8 Podiums and most importantly the championship lead.

“I have had so much fun at Goodwood and recently at Brands, but now it’s back down to business. We have been working away quietly to ensure we have everything covered for the second half of the season. It will be extremely tough, but I feel better prepared than ever, so I can’t wait”

Practice and Qualifying for Croft is on Saturday 27th July, with qualifying live on YouTube at 3pm and all three races shown live on ITV4 on Sunday 28th July, with race one at 12pm.

Images courtesy of Matt Wood & Goodwood Pictures