Platt’s Heath’s British Touring Car Championship racer Jake Hill sets new hillclimb record at Goodwood Festival of Speed

Jake Hill was in record-breaking form at the Goodwood Festival of Speed last weekend.

The Platt’s Heath racer, currently third in this year’s British Touring Car Championship standings for Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport BMW, set a new class record of 48.85sec for the 1.16-mile hillclimb driving a Ric Wood Motorsport-prepared Calsonic Nissan Skyline R32 GTR.

Not content with that, Hill - who missed the event in 2022 - then improved to 48.18 to claim his third successive Tin Top Heroes title after wins in 2020 and 2021.

Hill began the three-day event with a strong Friday time, ending second overall and first in class, on a wet, tricky surface. High winds forced the cancellation of Saturday’s running, but normal service was resumed on Sunday where Hill set his first mark of 48.85.

For his final run Hill attacked spectacularly from the outset, skimming the grass and sliding wide as a result of dirt dragged on the circuit by the previous two rally machines. Committed as ever, though, he stayed on the power to smash his own record by almost 7/10ths of a second.

"That was wild,” Hill said. “I think I lost a tiny bit off the line, but a fair bit more sliding on the dirt left by the rally cars - so to make up as much time from thereon to improve my time the way we did was brilliant.

“A huge thank-you to the whole Ric Wood crew for another amazing Goodwood experience, and of course to His Grace (Charles Gordon-Lennox, Goodwood owner) and everyone involved in organising the event, not forgetting the amazing fans, marshals and staff of course.

"I've also had a great time on my partners Diamondbrite's stand, along with my BTCC rival Tom Ingram, and also represented BMW on their stand, as well as doing some demo drives in their