Jaguar E-types get wild | 2026 Protheroe Trophy Full race | 83MM

All of them getting into position, and we are all set for the Profero Cup to be getting underway here. Underway! We are racing once again, and it's a good start from Paul Pudishon. But is it going to be good enough? Because it was also a pretty good start around the outside. And everybody else trying to fight. Oh no, we've got cars running a bit wide. But thankfully, it's not too slippery out there, and hopefully they can keep going on the grass. And it's John Ninshaw, the fantastic start around the outside into Turn 1. He's got a nice little cushion as he heads the pack into Fordwater. Yeah, well spotted, yes, absolutely. Because actually, Kivalova, I thought, has actually lost quite a lot of spaces there. So the battle's going on, and getting away in front is impressive. There's a battle going on slightly further back. Tony Partridge, number 6, who is going to be sharing it with Steve Sofa a little bit later on. He is right in that mix as well in this battle for the top 3-4 cars at this stage. And I thought we were going to see a bit of an accident, but it's actually, everyone's managed to deal with it, I think. And they're all looking fairly well behaved as they come down through the tighter corner at Laven. Now, blasting up along the Laven straight, John Ninshaw, under a bit of pressure here from the number 6 car of Tony Partridge as they come into the braking zone at Woodkirk. That looked a little bit too easy, so I hope the Ninshaw car is okay. Maybe he's just being a bit cautious at this stage, we shall wait and see. But as we say, the lead has been taken by Tony Partridge with that 1961 E-Type. And he's just pulling away a touch, and we've got more pressure coming on for that second place. It's going to be getting pretty tight, but everybody making it through at the end of the first lap. Plenty of time to go in this race, of course. But it is all coming together at this stage. And now Gregor Fiskin having a look up the inside of Ninshaw. That's Gregor Fiskin in the white 61 car. I've raced that car, absolutely fabulous example of these pre-63 E-Types. Glorious to drive, Dario Franchitti lined up to partner Gregor later on in this race after the driver change. But at the moment, it's still Toby Partridge up in the lead. Yeah, Richard Mines, who had that pole position, has dropped down to fourth. But remember, he will be handing over to Robb Hough later. And we've seen how Robb has been going extremely quick today in various different cars. So that will be very interesting. Of course, effectively the fastest lap in qualifying in the end, we will see. But how far away will Mines be? He's under, as you say, a bit of pressure. And we've got a nice little battle going up front as well. But for that second place rather, because the leader has a two-second lead. But slightly further back, this is getting a little tighter. But holding on at the moment. And as you say, I think that little battle that we're going to see with Gregor Fliskin and Dario Franchitti in the number 61 Jaguar, the white one, that's going to be fun to watch. Yeah, and it's all about the best driver pairing on average. Of course, when you've got professional drivers as one half of the lineup, what actually matters is how quick is the owner, the entrance driver. Because the professionals are all within a tenth or so of one another. So the real differentiator and the thing that's going to dictate the podium finishes of this race is how good are the gentlemen behind the wheel, gentlemen and ladies behind the wheel right now. Absolutely, that's what it's going to be about, isn't it? But we shall see how this goes. There's a good little battle slightly further down in the top ten. All battling hard there. We've got Nick Mason, number 11, as part of that little group there. And you can see the cars bouncing around quite a lot. But now under pressure, Richard Mainz is under a little bit more pressure, no doubt about it, with the number 66. And that's being shared by Jeremy Cottingham and Scott Redding today. And that came from 14th on the grid, so that's made up good ground. I didn't see who was the starting driver behind the wheel of the 66 car. Is that Scott Redding's crash helmet? I just got a glimpse of it in the sunlight. But certainly on the attack right now, putting Richard Mainz under a huge amount of pressure. Richard Mainz himself, very quick, very experienced, owner-driver of a very wide variety of cars, young and old. As old as you're seeing with these E-types, as young as Peugeot LMP1 cars in the Endurance Racing Legends Series and various GT3 cars that he's spending a lot of his time in these days. So very accomplished amateur racer, knows exactly what he's doing. And positioning the car beautifully in the braking zone, just shutting the door early enough to give the signal to the attacking cars from behind. You're not coming through here, you're going to have to wait. Yeah, Nick Mason's right in there as well, sharing with Jack Tetley, the number 11, another white one. So you can see they're all extremely close. And obviously they get the same kind of tow from each other as they go down that main straight. But yeah, are you going to go for the inside or not? He has to choose your line going into the first part of the lap. And everybody is doing a nice job, not doing anything silly. You've got a longer race here, there's no point taking huge risks. You've got to just put it all together. And Richard Mines is always very good. He knows he's going to be handing over to a very quick driver shortly, but he has lost that place. Yeah, came under pressure. I mean, that's always the difficulty. You know, when you're looking in your rear-view mirrors, inevitably your inputs at the pedals, your inputs at the steering wheel, lack just a little bit of precision because of that distraction filling your rear-view mirrors. And eventually you lose just enough momentum for the attacking cars from behind to find a way through. But it's still a tight pack, with the exception, of course, of our leader, Toby Partridge, who's left the pack for absolute dust. He's got a four-second lead. Yeah, that is a big advantage. We're just looking at the number five there. That's William Paul. And he will be passing it on to Jenson Button a little bit later on. So there's going to be some work to do for Jenson Button. That's down in 10th place at the moment. So we'll see how much he's going to be able to make the progress from there. But all the star drivers, of course, will be watching this closely, working out which car they're in and where they're going to be when it comes into the pits. It's just a little while before they're allowed to come into the pits for the driver change and they've got to be in the pits for a minute. So you've got to just take it easy for the changeover. There's no mad rush, because you can't gain from doing that here at Strickland. Also on the move up there, the number 75, Matt Walton, sharing with Nigel Greensill, trying to get into the top ten, just outside the top ten at the moment. Yeah, William Paul there in the red car, the number five. He, of course, sharing with Jenson Button, who will be eagerly watching William's progress down from the pit lane. And it's a funny feeling waiting to be handed a car halfway through a race. You're praying that the brakes haven't been cooked, you're praying that the clutch wasn't left on the start line and they've still got a good car to work with for the second stint. The E-types are such glorious machines, whether they're road cars or race cars. And, of course, as we mentioned earlier, in terms of race cars, they weren't the stars of great races like Le Mans, whereas Jaguar with D-types and other forms before that had dominated at certain times. But the E-type became, in many ways, the most popular Jaguar ever. And it did succeed in all forms of racing as well at the time, just not those top, top levels of sports car racing at the time. Now, I'm trying to see who is at the wheel of number 11. Do you know what? I think that is actually Nick Mattson, isn't it? Because Jack Tetley's helmet is bright fluorescent yellow, very distinctive. But both of them are very quick drivers. I mean, nothing in it between their pace and most of the bros here in the paddock today. So, as an average driver pairing, look out for the number 11 E-type there with the red soft top. That is going to be very quick over the duration of this long race. Yes, because they're a good combination, as you say, and that does make all the difference when you've got a combination of team, two rapid drivers. Richard Bynes is having to really defend. Oh, leaves it a little late, moving to the inside. Yeah, a little wave there, wasn't there, from Nick, who just put his hand up as if to say, I've already got this line, thank you very much. Yeah, exactly. That's where you can get into some arguments. They're already lapping another car, by the looks of it. That's good, going a little bit slower around the back. But keeping well out of the way is this top 10 group. Oh, comes through, I said that. But actually, number 32 lost a bit of time as a result. That's Bob Neville. It's Bob Neville's car, but it's actually being shared by Alex Buncombe and Simon Watts. I think it's Simon in the car at the moment. Nice move there from William Poole, just to break free of that little gaggle of cars as they came out of Madgwick. He's now just found a nice bit of space. When you find that space, as a driver, in the opening stages of any race, inevitably, the opening laps are absolute chaos. And when it settles down as it is right now, the minute you've got a bit of free space around, you've got to get your head down. You've got to think about it like qualifying and just got to become absolutely metronomic in your execution. Just get the lap times in, try to find your rightful position in the pack. Absolutely. Top speeds around here, up into the 130, 140 mph mark for these cars. And, yeah, it's down into the braking area and then you've got to keep it balanced as well as possible. That was somebody taking a real curve, but doing it nicely. And then getting the balance right through the chicane. This is proving to be a very close battle here. And we could see a change going down into the first corner once again because I think Mainz is going to miss out this time. Ah, finally, finally. We see the number 11 of Nick Matten get past Richard Mainz who has given us a defensive driving masterclass for the last three laps or so. Did an incredible job but couldn't quite keep the 11 behind. And now he's got some free space. We just see somebody a bit further back. I didn't quite see which car that was. Was that, that was James Thorpe, I think? Yes, I think it was. He was just running wide, it was the number 62. Yep, yep. So I think that was definitely the one that just ran a touch wide. But our race leader there, number 6, as you say, doing a great job. Nearly six seconds. Well, he's over six seconds now ahead. Yeah, and he was using all the track and more there. So, you know, that lead has been very well earned. Oh, it doesn't sound that clean though on the run. Is that my imagination? I don't wish to give the commentators a curse It sounded just a little bit fluffy on full song there. OK, well, bear that in mind. Oh, we've got a car easing off. That's Kan Bitsurin sharing it with David Gardner, number 114. But it looks as though he's got it going again. So I thought it might be pulling over, but actually still going. Running a bit further down the order. Down in about, well, now in 14th position. But meanwhile, the battle up front is certainly going to be very, very close as they come into the last section of the lap. And still, Richard Myers, he's very used to this. He's very used to when he's working with Robb Hough that Robb Hough will often qualify up front and then he has the job of trying to fend, but he does it well. And it was a spin, right, OK, for the number 114. Getting very lucky there. That's on the exit of the first part of St Mary's where, thankfully, he spun to the right-hand side where it's just open fields and grass and nothing to hear. Had he gone to the other side, you've got a couple of cars whipped before you're into the tyre wall. Absolutely. And we've still got Richard Myers having to hold off, if at all possible, to try and defend this position a little bit longer. The Ben Mitchell and James Thorpe shared machine, the number 62. Keeping it pretty close. And this is for just inside the top ten, of course. So let's see what can be done. So Richard Myers in the 14 car. He's currently running in seventh position. He's under a lot of pressure here, not only from James Thorpe behind, then William Paul in the red car that Jenson Button will take over later on. And then also the 75. That's the Matt Walton and Nigel Greensill car that we mentioned earlier. So Nigel Greensill always very rapid here at Goodwood as well. He'll be another one that we'll be trying to make up some time. The sun just gently beginning to lower a touch. So that can sometimes make the vision a little bit more challenging when you're out there. Every single lap, the sun gets lower, the vision gets more and more blocked, obviously, by that searing sunlight, particularly out of the first corner. So that's where it's very hard to find the edge of the road as you're applying the throttle, letting the car drift out. And you have to, with these old cars, you have to let them drift. You don't want to hold the steering a little bit tight from apex to exit. That actually reduces the available grip. And quite often, you know, that's self-preservation instinct kicking in, as we just see. Around the outside, he's going to end up brushing the dirt. That's James Thorpe. Just about hanging on to it. Fantastic stuff. Yeah, absolutely. Through magic, when you've got that double apex, very rapid right-hander, it's only a little dab on the brake, isn't it, before you go in there. It's very easy to get it a little bit wrong. Very difficult to hang these cars two by two around the outside of the quick corners because they drift so much. It's as hard as it is for the guy on the inside not to drift out and rub door handles with the guy on the outside, as it is for that other one just to stay on the road, as we're seeing. Yeah, well, this is a good close battle, but we are only just over a minute away from the pit lane opening up. So that is all part and parcel of this. And, of course, it does depend when it is open if you're in the group that can come in. Do you come in straight away? Do you stay out there a little bit longer? I know it depends a little bit on who your other driver is, but it also depends on the group you're in as well. Normally, if you've got an owner-entrant driver starting the race who's very, very quick or nearly as quick as your pro driver that's going to take over, in the old days, it used to make sense to stay out as long as possible just in case there was a safety car and you could benefit from a cheap pit stop. There's now a rule that blocks you pitting for a driver change during a safety car period, so you're not allowed to do that anymore. Therefore, I anticipate most of these cars will pit at the very early opening of that pit stop window. Yeah, I agree with you. Also, moving up well there, there's the number 5. That's going well, because that Jenson Buck will take that on from William Paul. So that is up there, well up in the top 10, and we shall see how that develops. There's our race leader, then. So, kept it to 5.6 seconds. It was just slightly over 6 seconds, 5.9 now, so the gaps remained about the same and we are now seeing the sign that pit lane is open. So now that we've gone to half an hour out of this 45-minute race to go, it is a chance for cars to come in and they are already, they've just seen once, already heading down into the pit lane, but it's going to be this lead group that's going to be absolutely crucial here. I thought that was a little bit premature, but I've just checked on our timing screens, which is, of course, the official signal and yes, indeed, the pit window is now open, so that was a very early stop. I didn't see which car came in. No, but interestingly, the leader is staying out there, but doing a great job, and that is working well for them at this stage. We shall see if that stays out for a little bit longer. Who else might be coming in? We shall be about to find out. And this will, of course, make a difference to some of them. I think quite a few of them are staying out there at the moment, though. This is quite interesting, because I look down to a very empty pit lane. What a missed opportunity for a lot of people, because, of course, with a mandatory 60-second stop now for all of the cars, you're no longer looking to gain an advantage with a swift and well-executed driver change. What you're instead looking is not to get held up in the pit lane, which is very small for a large grid of cars as we've got here, and the congestion is what can absolutely compromise your end race result. If you get blocked, because, of course, if there's a car on the right-hand lane undergoing a driver change and the door is open into the fast lane, you simply have to stop and wait. Right, but the number 14 has come in now, so this is going to be a crucial time, because Rob Huff is now getting on inside, and he is getting on with it, although there's no mad rush, because you have to be in those pits for a minute, otherwise you'll get a penalty. But he is ready to go. We've seen how rapid he has been in various different cars the course of today, and I think he will enjoy being out in the E-Type, so let's see how he gets on with this. His teammate just dropping down into the lower part of the top ten, but I think he's got a very good chance of moving back up, certainly towards the podium. Very much so. It's very tough for the drivers. They've all been fairly relaxed, sitting on the pit wall, watching their buddies go round and round in circles. The adrenaline actually slows down, and then suddenly you're thrown into the car, strapped in, the door slams, fire the engine and off you go. The adrenaline lights back up, but there's a maximum speed limit in the pit lane of just 20 miles an hour, which is so incredibly easy to accelerate through, and all of a sudden have a massive panic that you've broken the speed limit and risked a time penalty. Dario Franchitti getting on board that number 61 car, and this one is obviously going to be another very competitive machine, and Dario's raced it before. Gregor Fiskin is the man who has this, of course, and he's done a good job in that opening part of the race with it, so let's see how this all develops. This is going to be part and parcel of seeing how the Prodero Cup goes, but we have seen an impressive performance so far from our race leader, but it will be Steve Soper who will be part of that very shortly. So that's Phil Keane at the wheel there, taking over from John Minshaw in the 24 car. Minshaw off to that lightning start that we saw at the beginning of the race, going around the outside and into the lead, and he's really held the car right up there at the sharp end of the field for Phil to take over. So here is our race leader. Is it staying out for a little bit longer? Looks like it might be, yes. It didn't actually slow down that little bit extra. So at this stage, they are still in good form, but of course this will depend on how it all comes together. Oh, do we think that's Soper already in that cup? Do you think the helmet could be? I did wonder whether Steve might actually do this early stage. We'll get a better look when they come into the pit, but if it's Steve, and it may well be Steve who's driving it right now, they will of course stay out for that bit longer, and it would make sense. He's got the lead and he will stay out there. He's got about another 10 minutes possible, but he can stay out there before switching over if that's how they want to do it. So, number 7, that's currently running in second place overall, and we shall see if that's going to be enough for Howard Studer and Jack Young, if they're going to see if they can get the podium finish out of this, and they're off to a good place at this stage. How's the balance looking? Well, it looks good enough, but I was just saying, with these headphones on, the sound is just glorious. Fantastic hearing these cars on full throttle as they drift through, particularly those faster corners out in the back. Ford was the first part of St. Mary's. Wonderful corners. Absolutely. Well, Jenson Button is now getting on board, a number five car. So, Jenson, let's see how he gets on. He's been doing so much driving today. He will be a little tired, I think, tonight, but not now, because everything will pick him up, the adrenaline will get him going, and he'll be ready to take this car back out. He really does enjoy all of this, all of these Goodwin events, and he is part of Jaguar E-Type himself. We often talk about how versatile these guys are, and Jenson, of course, having to jump from all sorts of different machinery, including, of course, his broad Formula 1 car today, now back into a pre-63 E-Type. Talk about having to recalibrate. It was lovely hearing Jenson Button earlier talking about how it was to be back in that car that he won the Formula 1 World Championship with in 2009, and how much he just thoroughly enjoyed driving it around this track, even though it wasn't on full slick tyres, but how different it was, and how comfortable he felt being back in it again. It was lovely to hear about that. Yeah, and these shots of him on the outlap, I mean, that's the mark of a seriously great racing driver, isn't it? You know, straight out of the pit lane, you've been in other machinery that's wildly different, just an hour or so ago, and first corner, drifting out, using every inch of the circuit, opposite lock on the steering wheel, absolutely on it, and it's, you know, these outlaps, and particularly inlaps as well, are quite often where racing drivers are truly judged by their peers and by teams, so Jenson, of course, fully dialled in, hanging it out, spectacular to watch. It is wonderful to watch. It's a straight-eight engine, of course, isn't it, with these E-types? The original was 3.8 litre straight-eight, and you can see, I mean, they've got good power. It's not mega, mega power, but it is good power, and the balance through the corners is very impressive, of course. They don't overly understeer or overly oversteer, although we did see a bit of that in qualifying, a little bit more than we have in the race. Yeah, I think we just saw a sign there from our race leader saying, coming in next lap. Okay. Half an eye on the pit window. How much of it is left remaining? There are a few more minutes still left, so yes. Yeah. So they've still got another six or seven minutes before they have to come in, but it's not worth leaving it until the last moment, because sometimes you can get a problem and then just miss when you're allowed to be in, so it is important to get it done, but still leading this race at the moment by 23 seconds, and then currently running in second place, having moved up the order, is the number 11, and so they are doing a decent job there right now, Nick Mayton and Jack Tetley, as we knew. They are a good combination. They have quite a big gap over the next car behind them, so that is what you quite often see, actually, after we've been to the pit stops. You get quite a difference at a gap level, don't you? This is quite an interesting opportunity for us all to see the difference between professional drivers and what is largely a field of amateurs, good amateurs, experienced amateurs, nonetheless, but not the pros. The angle, the sliding, and the amount of sliding that the pros are already doing, the amount of opposite lock we're seeing, is noticeably more in this second stint from this gang of professional drivers than we saw with the owner entrance at the start of the race. Race leader coming in, so we'll see now, hopefully we can see now, whether it is it Steve Soper who's actually done this first part of the whole thing, and is it Toby Partridge who's going to be taking over next, these two sharing the car, and heading down to the bottom end of the pits there, so a little bit hard to spot, but we shall hopefully see how it all goes for them. Yeah, you're right, so it was Steve who's done that first stint, which does make sense even though it's the star drivers mostly who are coming out in this second stint, but I know Steve's been a pretty busy driver too, and he did some of that super touring runs earlier, and so it's a good opportunity. Sometimes getting out of the car can be quite demanding, can't it? Yeah, the e-types are quite tricky to get into, I have to sort of fold myself in two, you know, like a piece of paper to get in and out of them, it's definitely not elegant. Once you're in it, the driving position good? Yeah, once you're in, absolutely fine, no problem at all, but, you know, I'm 6'2", definitely not quite the right shape for these cars. I can totally understand that, but even some of the touring cars are difficult for the taller drivers. I was watching a friend of John Clelland's getting out of his car yesterday and had to roll out to get out of it, just sitting in the paddock because it is always a bit demanding for the safety as well, but yeah, great to see these heading back out onto the circuit. So, at the moment, we've still got one car leading this race, but it has not yet been into the pits, the number 110, but effectively, of those, we will have to wait, just wait and see because we will see where Partridge comes back out after Steve Soap has done that run, but it looks like the Frank Kitty Fiskin car is going to be pretty much the front runner. We shall see, it may be that slightly different Partridge may well be ahead of that when they come back out, but it's going to be a close battle up at the top end, whereas we've got some other battles going on right now as well. Yeah, that's Dario pushing the Gregor Fiskin owned number 61 car very, very hard, very keen to get ahead at the moment, and of course, one thing we haven't talked about is, it is also a question of deft judgement, when do you pull away, when do you drop the clutch from that driver change pit stop, because the 60 second mandatory pit stop time, of course, starts at the timing loop on pit entry, which is further up the road at pit exit, so you have to judge, you have to estimate at 20 miles an hour, plus however long it takes to dump the clutch and pull away from your stationary position, how many seconds it's going to take to drive up to that pit exit line, and ideally, you want to cross it just as the clock strikes 60 seconds, and that's, of course, incredibly hard to get accurate, so a lot of the drivers will potentially have lost two or three or four seconds just through getting that bit a little bit wrong. Well, there we are, Dario Franchitti is indeed leading this race right now, and the car that was leading with Steve Soper driving it, Tony Partridge, is now in second place, some four seconds behind, but also, we need to keep an eye on Rob Huff, as I mentioned, he's just set fastest lap at 130.2, that's impressive, well, Franchitti's just done a 130.7, and at the moment, Rob Huff is quite a long way back, he's some 20 seconds back from Dario Franchitti, with 18 minutes of this race to go, so Dario's in a very good spot here, isn't he? I absolutely love watching Dario drive these old historic cars, he's spectacular, but he's always controlled, one big smooth sweeping steering input on the way to the apex, let the rear rotate a little, and then just hang it out all the way through the long exits, it's just fabulous to watch, and that's why I love this grid, because it makes the driver's skill so visible to us on the sidelines. Phil Keane is also putting it together quite quickly at the moment in the number 24, there you are, seeing him come out of the chicane, beautifully done, and he's always very, very rapid around this Goodwood circuit, as we just see, so Franchitti still has that four second lead, and it's Keane now, actually it is second, yeah, so he is up into second place, the Soca Partridge car is back down into third, I did wonder, because until you've done a full lap, a bit more, you see where everybody's sorted themselves out so, there we go, Steve Soca's car now being driven by Toby Partridge, that has dropped to third position now, but there's no doubt that Keane is chasing after Dario Franchitti, on that last lap though, Dario was a bit quicker, but Keane was having to deal with a bit of traffic, so we'll have to have another look at that. Yeah, and given that traffic, there's only two tenths or so between them, so they're actually looking really racy at this stage of the race and Dario clearly not leaving too much on the table either, so if they can just close down that four and a half second gap between them at the moment as they navigate the traffic, we could be on for a spectacular finish So you're looking at the car that led earlier, that's now running in third position and it could be coming under a bit of pressure from Rob Hough in a while, but there is a bit of a gap, there's nearly a ten second gap, but Rob Hough is flying along at the moment and Partridge, now that he's in the car is not doing anything like the sort of lap times, quite that we saw from Steve Soper There is our race leader, it is Dario Franchitti, doing a lovely job so far with Gregor Fiskin who did that early stint extremely effectively and Dario, who is one of the house captains here at Goodwood of course, good chance you know, to get some big points the winner, a driver, winning a race for whichever house they are part of, normally they would get 250 points, but if you are the captain, you get double, so if he wins he will get 500 points so we'll wait and see if that's going to happen, but at the moment Dario Franchitti is in a good form The man on the move at the moment very much is Rob Hough, who just clocks the fastest lap of the race with a 1.29.9 I was keeping an eye on the front runners Franchitti and Keed who are trading blows with 1.31.0 and 1.31.6 respectively, so that is a clear pace advantage for Rob Hough at the moment currently 19 seconds off the lead so he's got an awful big gap to close but impressive lap times at this stage of the race nonetheless And this is the battle as you can see because Hough has just managed to get past Hartridge there, so he is effectively now up into third place and putting that, as you say, those very quick laps together, so there is a really good chance that he's doing well and see whether he can go even further, but he's up into effectively a podium position, and we shall see how this develops, we've still got 14.5 minutes to go in this race and for now it's Dario Franchitti who is leading the way, there you are back with his E-Type, the number 61 machine Dario's found a bit of pace there as well 30.6, that's the fastest lap he's clocked so far, so definitely a very exciting finish. Absolutely, so it's good stuff, but is he going to get the 500 points for his house here at Goodwood? He's Torbolton, so for those who are here over the weekend and they're a member of one of the four houses, then Torbolton is the one that right now is in a very good position potentially for getting 500 points. Very nice, decisive driving from Dario Franchitti there as he sides his way through some of the back markers it always feels incredibly risky to send the car up the inside into that left-hander, the entry to St Mary's, even if you've got a clear pace advantage over the car ahead because the turning point's pretty early and there's a couple of different lines there that are all perfectly valid, so you never quite know when the car in front's going to chop across your bowels, but luckily both cars escaped unscathed from that moment half a lap ago. Keeping an eye on Rob Huff of course as you say with those very rapid times that he is doing, so it's a real joy to watch him putting together these quick laps at this stage, a driver who's had so much time in his life, who started out racing his dad's MGB when he was a young lad, raced in Formula Vauxhall Junior in 2000 got into British Touring Cars alongside Jason Plato and learnt a huge amount from him, and then went on to Touring Cars all over Europe, winning a championship in Sweden for example and other so many races in Touring Cars in his career, but also historically, especially here at Goodwood remarkably successful, no doubt about it. And Rob just making his way through the traffic as well, there's still a bit of a gap between our leading cars we've got six seconds between the Frank Kitty car in the lead and Phil Keane in P2, then Rob Huff as well, just a further nine seconds further back down the road at the moment so definitely got work to do but Rob making light work of the traffic Yeah, it is good stuff at the moment for Thierry and Frank Kitty keeping control out in front at this stage a man who has done so much in his life, winning the Indy Car Champion in the United States on four different occasions winning the Indy 500 that huge, amazing event three times but Thierry and Frank Kitty is just so happy, being here at Goodwood, being a part of this and racing all of these different historic cars it's been a major part for him but let's just keep an eye on this gap, the Rob Huff we're keeping an eye on here still putting together these very impressive times, but when you've got the likes that he's got up ahead of him, Thierry and Frank Kitty, Phil Keane they're all very effective, aren't they? Yeah, very much so, and I think what we're seeing is that Huff does have a slight inherent pace advantage, but of course it's so dictated about whether or not you catch backmarker traffic on these laps so just keeping an eye on the averages at the moment, we're seeing the leading two cars Frank Kitty and Keane, trading blows absolutely identical lap times, 30.8 for the two of them last time around Rob Huff just had to navigate a bit of the backmarker, so here's a 31.3 Oh, he's just been dealing with lapping some other cars beautifully well there as well, and it's great to see the cut seven you see the cut seven written on the front of the car that Rob Huff is driving, and that is all part and parcel of Dick Prothero, and this is the Prothero cut, Dick Prothero was the man who was racing in the early 1960s with his first E-Type, and got victories in various places in the UK racing that E-Type and he sold his first cut seven off, got a second one and then did some other major events, sold that one on and then got another cut seven, oh, who's that? Oh, it's our number six that's gone off so that's Partridge who took over from Steve Soper, that was the car that led earlier, that's interesting he's got a little bit of damage there on the left hand side of his car, so I wonder if there was contact with another car hmm, well hopefully we'll get another look at that, and it is a shame when bear in mind that car was leading, thanks to Steve Soper's brilliant first part of this race, let's, oh right let's take a look, it does look as though you're correct yeah, and this is the tricky right hand entry, the first part of St Mary's oh, he's had to go very wide, there wasn't any contact there, that's for sure, so I'm not quite sure where that little dent came, you'll see it now, there it is on the left hand side, but it seems to be unrelated to this incident given the proximity of that tyre wall the speed of that corner obviously he has made contact, but hopefully not too much damage, and with a bit of luck he'll be able to carry on, thankfully just nudging it at the end there, got away with that one, indeed, that's almost a dream when you hit like that, when you're in a car and you're going backwards, and it just feels like, oh my goodness, I'm going to smack into the barrier, but actually it just it was side by side and just touched that actually worked out well, so the car's okay, and I think he's going to be able to continue, obviously they've lost a lot of places, we'll see in a moment I think he's going to be down just outside the top 10 after that, and in fact taking, getting past another car across the line he's gone, actually in 10th place still, so in 10th, having early lead, and managed to get going again and definitely have a bit of sympathy for him there, because when you get wide on that corner, it just marvels out there and there's absolutely nothing you can do as a driver to bring it back particularly in a car like this and as you mentioned, it's still Frank Kitty who leads this, 7 seconds with the advantage over Phil Keane but the gap to 4th Rob Hartley is still much the same that was close too, yeah, there's Jenson really working hard at the steering wheel, full in front, to full opposite lock, and back again, two or three times through the exit of Lavin there, for somebody that's so famously known as the most smooth driver, I mean it was smooth, but just very different to see Jenson hacksawing at the steering wheel there and he's gained a place, so he's now up into 5th position and that's good news for him they are doing a decent job I think, so we shall see how this all develops over the rest of this race but he's trying to gain a few more places and so yeah, he's up into 5th place and the gap is only a second to 4th position so that's the next one he is chasing, number 11, yeah that overhead shot just gave us a fantastic view of Jenson's technique through the chicane he just saw the car flick right, flick left in an absolute heartbeat beautifully executed direction change from the former Formula 1 world champion enjoying being out in this machine now, keep an eye on him, let's see whether he's going to be able to gain one more place I think getting to the podium is really too difficult at this stage, unless somebody else has a problem, but potentially getting into 4th place is definitely a possibility, we've still got just under 7 minutes to go and it's just a question of working out that car in front, which is doing decent lap times and he's not a huge difference, but lapping the other cars is always going to be a part of that as well and that's Jack Tetley at the wheel now in 4th position a little bit further up the road from Jenson, Jack is very very rapid around here, so keep an eye on that gap but I don't see it closing easily no, at this stage as you say, Jack Tetley with the yellow helmet oh, that's a shame is that Jeremy Cottingham? I think it is thankfully no damage at all, well held well recovered, safely rejoined the circuit and back under his way yeah, that's good, so Jeremy Cottingham and Scott Redding have been sharing that car today and that was just a bit of a mishap we'll hopefully get another look, it has dropped him down to 8th place, let's see so, let's have a look, what was the error, was it just running wide? oh, just a little loose there on the exit, the problem is if you lift, then it just unsettles the car at the wrong moment, get up over those kerbs and especially if you drop the outside wheel just beyond the kerb as he did, it can grab on the other side of that rumble strip and flick the car back across the road but thankfully no contact was made, so that's good news and he's now going to have to try and work his way back past a few other cars to try and see if they can gain some more places, meanwhile race leader is still Dario Franchitti at this stage and he's maintaining that useful gap that he's got, 7.8 seconds he has over Phil Keane and on that last lap, once again as you were saying, they're doing virtually the same, a 1.30.8 from Dario a 1.30.9 from Phil Keane, and yes Rob Huff's gone a little quicker, 1.30.3 but he is still just over 10 seconds away from Phil Keane for second place, and I really don't think that he's going to be able to close that gap within the time we've got left. No, and I'm just looking one place further down let's see, we've got Jack Tetley at the wheel of the number 11 car, and here we can see it, yes, Jenson has Jenson has finally caught him, so we've got a real battle on our hands now here for fourth place yeah, this is going to be fun actually, this is going to be a proper battle for fourth place, because Jack Tetley is very talented, he's having a quick look in his mirror you can see, glancing up where is Jenson, where is he, where am I going, so through the quick right hander at Fordwater down towards St Mary, and Jenson, is he going to have a little look here, you've got to be careful going into this one he's decided not to have a go just yet, but let's see down towards Lavant and that is often an opportunity, but on the other hand you're then going on to the long straight, to get the toe, and then try and challenge down at the end of the straight yeah, now Jack's, it's the last thing you want to see isn't it, when you're three and a half minutes from a checkered flag, and you're in a great position to look into your mirrors and see a Formula One world champion filling them but Jack's got the pace he's just got to be careful not to compromise his inherent speed by going too defensive because these cars, it's very hard to go incredibly deep on the brakes, so if you just make the car wide enough to dissuade the chasing car from having a go up the inside then hopefully you don't need to go too defensive and compromise your line this is really going to be interesting you always want to try and get the chicane, the exit of the chicane perfect, because there is a run yeah, but actually I have to say that Jack Tetley's done that really well, because he's opened it up and that is one of the key areas, because if you come down this straight, and into Maduik, that little bit quicker, you can get alongside, Jenson couldn't do it that time, yeah, so what happens is quite often when the car ahead takes a slightly tighter defensive line into the chicane, it compromises their minimum speed, and that completely interrupts the momentum of the chasing car, as to check up their entry speed on the way in so ironically, the car that went in slower, the one ahead, comes out much quicker than the one behind, so it's a good trick actually, it's not quite a full on brake test, but it is a nice way to get a car's length as a cushion, as you can see here, Jack's putting that to very good use, so which car do you think is the best aero car is it best to have a coupe or a drop head I'd assume a coupe, we'll find out in a minute when they go down that straight yeah, I would assume the coupe would have slightly better aero speed, but you never quite know, that drop head is doing well and at the moment Jack Tetley is just holding on, you can see how close the lap times have been down the straight though, it's definitely got good speed, and it's very quick out of the chicane, it's got definitely good acceleration out of the chicane this gap has opened up a little bit, so either Jack's found a little bit of pace, or Jens has just struggled a bit on that last lap knowing him, he's a wily little fox, he knows what he's doing he's probably just biding his time waiting to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the car ahead around the lap, and line himself up for a sniper manoeuvre on the last lap, I think Jens is actually, with his car, he's actually got a little bit more speed through the fast corners but he loses out a little bit on the longer straights interestingly, look he closes up quite a lot, doesn't he coming through magic, that's where he gets close but when we get onto the straight he opens up a bit yeah, Jack Tetley really holding a much tighter line there out of Mandruic, that means he will have come out of the corner with less speed possibly struggling with the blinding sun as well, because you can't see where the grass starts and the circuit finishes, he's okay now he's quick out the back of the circuit here he's settled, definitely Jensen had an advantage through that first corner well the time is ticking away, we're under a minute and then they will probably do another lap and then get the checkered, but there's not a lot of time here for Jensen, at the moment Jack is doing a fine job of defending from him, and as you said it will mean a huge amount when you've got a world champion right behind you, can he hold him off and down this straight, that is definitely where he seems to have a bit of an advantage just keeping half an eye on our leading cars Dario Franchitti and the Gregor Fiskin car here he is, number 61, still leading still trading lap times almost to the 10th, with Phil Keane behind, who's 8 seconds back at the moment so as long as they don't make any mistakes I don't see anything to interrupt the current positions of those two and of course Rob Huff behind he's down in the 30s, so he's still displaying that little bit of pace advantage that we talked about earlier on but there is nonetheless an 8.5 second gap between Rob Huff in 3rd and Phil Keane up ahead in 2nd Oh, he's definitely looking very good for Fiskin and Franchitti they've done a fantastic job as you say, with just maintaining that balance all the way through but yeah, keeping an eye we will still keep an eye on what Jenson Button is doing in that battle for 4th place as well because that has proved to be very, very close, there we are looking at it, he still hasn't found a way through has he? He's going to have to get on with it. Very impressive from Jack Tetley here, under huge huge pressure, you know, closing stages of the race, these cars are relatively unforgiving in terms of lap time they're not going to send you off the road if you make a small mistake, but you do see it in the stopwatch when you cross the start finish line, so Jack Tetley doing a fabulous job. Checker flag out and he has taken the win Dario Franchitti takes the win, Gregor Fiskin joining him and doing a fantastic job, 2nd place has gone to Keane and Minshaw, and they did a really excellent performance as well but the lap times at the end were all very, very much the same but congratulations to Dario Franchitti and Gregor Fiskin with the number 61 that has taken the victory and 3rd place, Rob Huff has managed to do that, now we're into the final part of the lap here with Jenson Button who's been trying to snatch that 4th place, but well done to Jack Tetley, who's managed to hold him off, and that will always mean a lot to him, even though he didn't quite get the podium finish, that will still mean a lot to have held Jenson off That's fantastic, well done Jack, and Nick Matton of course who did the first stint in that car that's the result sheet I'd frame and put in the loo wall Absolutely he did very, very well as a team and there's Jenson waving at him saying well done and that's very civilised as well, congratulations to them all, and E-types all the way through the whole field of course but it is Dario Franchitti who once again has taken a victory at Goodwood we've seen him do this before but it's always special, and him and Gregor Fiskin going so well together he knows this car well having competed with it before and delivered perfectly there all the way through and yeah, very, very happy Rob Huff actually did set the fastest ultimate lap at the 1.29.9 and he did move up a lot through the order to finish in 4th place after Richard Mines had lost a few places in that early part of the race, I think they'll be very happy though to have achieved a podium and we will hopefully have a chat with them when they make it back so a lovely evening here at Goodwood and particularly for Jaguar E-type fans to see all these varied versions of racing E-types being driven by some superstar drivers and keeping it clean but also making it very entertaining all the way to the chequered flag there particularly with Jenson chasing down Jack Tetley, that was very good but for Dario Franchitti and Gregor Fiskin for taking the victory with this car, that's going to mean an awful lot to them, a nice celebration opportunity for tonight, but they've still got plenty more to do tomorrow Yeah, fantastic, gorgeous stint from Dario there, beautifully executed as you would expect, but I just want to say well done to Gregor Fiskin as well because in qualifying this morning he went straight out of the assembly area and boom, got in a really quick early bank collapse that got the car right up the pecking order and they really relied on that starting position and that really teed up the result that they're now able to go and celebrate Really lovely, very achieved well done to Phil Keane as well who finished in second place, he's congratulating Dario, but Gregor Fiskin is very much a classic car specialist himself, he used to race himself in the late, sort of 2007-2008 in the DBR9 but he's been involved with various historic cars here at Goodwood and had some great successes in the past as well, a second in the Fred March in 2023 in the HWN Jaguar with Jake Hill, but to take the win with Dario, and as I mentioned, that is a lot of points for his house as well Let's go down and have a chat and see how that all came together Well, fantastic drive from everyone here, I'm going to jump in, Gregor let me come to you first, you were applauding there, but you should be applauded for your opening stint, what a cracking drive Well, thank you, it's such an honour to share with Dario, it's always fabulous to be at Goodwood on a beautiful, it was like a summer's evening and it's my twin's 12th birthday tomorrow, so the old boy better put up a good show for them. You certainly did, Dario such a deja vu here, another Goodwood win. You know, you never, I was thinking on the way in, you never take these things for granted beautiful sunny day, sharing a car with my pal here, skidding an E-type round and winning as well, you know, you never know what life's got in store for you, and so I'm really savouring this one. I know it wasn't, but you made it look easy I was pushing bloody hard, because I saw the gap at 5 or 6 seconds, and I thought right, and I was waiting for it to come down then I'm a little harder and a little, you know, I was trying to build a little buffer in case there was some issues in traffic but then I just it's interesting, the more I slowed down, the quicker I went and I got in a lovely rhythm and I thought I'm not backing off from this, so what a way to spend a spring day in Goodwood, it was I love this wee car, it handles just, it's beautiful, so yeah, that was good, well done pal and, you know, it helps when your team mate comes out of the traps there and up to second place very quickly and it was a great battle with you and Steve and it was good. Thank you. Well done guys. Thank you very much. It's fine it's John and Phil, here we go, as if Phil, why don't you come around, there we go John, what's up with you? Cracking start, it looked like great fun. It was the best part of the race for me, you know, I sort of looked in the mirror and I thought where are they all? I couldn't believe I made such a good start, but no, then they we just didn't have the pace of the roadster and you know, I just had to watch them slowly disappear into the distance, I mean Gregor drove extremely well and so did Steve Soper, oh wow, you know he still got it I mean, you looked like you were gaining a bit on Dario then and then he pulled out a bit more of a gap, not much out there No, no, it's, you know, the car was running well and, you know, it was a good race it's a shame we couldn't battle with him for a little bit longer but, no, John did a great job, good start and, yeah, just brought it home Well done guys, great drive. Thank you. Right Phil, oh, here we go, Rob, Richard Hello. Rob, let's start with you, one of my new great pleasures in life is watching you in an e-type. Thank you very much very good, yeah, I mean, is your life fun? Oh, just fantastic, I mean Richard I don't know what you have for breakfast but hell of a start held 4th, 5th, 6th just brilliantly, you gave me the car in fantastic condition apparently you've done a great job with the car just a joy to drive and yeah, thanks to Richard for having me along again Richard, it's great to see Cut7 on the podium with a race title. Oh yeah, it's excellent, I mean the race is named after us, that's his car and it's the original it's number, so what more can you ask for really, and to be on the podium, fantastic and a great first stint yeah, no, I really enjoyed it, I don't know, I just started I thought, wow, I'm really enjoying this I mean, and things were sort of happening, I thought, hey, good this is going really well, so no I just kept the best I could and you know I knew I'd just have to hold a certain distance to the leaders and then but in this company, obviously it's, you know, amazing drivers so, but no, I'm really happy by the sounds of it, you were quite lucky to get him out of the car. Yeah, I did wonder if we should leave him in, because he was doing so well at the start, but yeah, just fantastic great day here at Goodwood and a great way to finish off. Well done guys, thank you very much Well, lovely to see, and great performance all round, of course, so let's just go through that result, Frank Itty and Fiske in, taking the victory by seven seconds from Pilkeen and Minshaw and the gaps remain much the same but Rob Hough, as we saw there, and Richard Mines, they did a great job to come up into third place, Tetley and Matton in fourth place, and then on down the list, Greensill, Nigel Greensill bringing their car, number 75, up into 10th place, just behind Emanuele Pirro on the end of that race So that's the top 10 and of course, as I mentioned, it's going to be good news for Torbolton, because Dario Franchitti will have scored a lot of points Spooner-Young, E-Type finished in 11th place, the Steve Soper Partridge car that was leading the race early on, of course, Partridge had that bit of a spin but did get to the end and finished down in 12th position. It was just an entertaining time, but all the way through, everybody was putting in some lovely time here at Goodwood, in the end of the first day of the Members' Meeting with plenty more to come. Let's just have a quick look back, Sam, at some of the highlights of the Prodero Cup. That start was interesting, and Richard Mines was just talking about getting off the line well. Yeah, and John Minshaw just threading the needle there, through the first two rows to go around the outside and take the lead and with a bit of a cushion. Yeah, absolutely, and did it extremely well and of course, we saw Steve Soper, it was actually out there initially, so most of the star drivers were doing the second part of the race but Steve was doing a great job out front Yeah, he really was, and with most of the owner entrants starting the race you know, my apologies for us getting that wrong earlier on, but stunning first stint from Steve Soper, and then the action started further down the field Yeah, there were a few incidents, but then when Dario Franchitti was on board the No. 61, it was lovely hearing from him as well, talking about how actually when he just eased off a bit he went quicker, and I could totally understand a driver of that level. We saw some other moments, this was the moment that the car that Soper was leading with earlier on went off, but did come back, Partridge did sort it out, came back on So, lots going on but well done to Dario Franchitti and Gregor Fiskin for taking that victory