Fierce Touring Car battle | 2025 Gordon Spice Trophy Part 1 Full Race | 82MM

For the Gordon Spice Trophy Part 1. And away we go! And it's a good start from the middle of the front row! And it is a good start from Romain Dumas, as we thought, although he's on the grass now. So Jake Hill is the leader in the Capri as they go up into Turn 1. But Romain Dumas, number 17, has moved up quite as far as I thought he was going to, because he was on the grass, but he's in third place. Jake Hill making a lightning start. He's dropped back, actually, as Romain Dumas, he was challenging Andy Priaulx. But Priaulx shut the door, but Priaulx is all over the back of Jake Hill. They go through the kink at Ford Water, lead up to St. Mary's. It all looks fairly clean at the moment. But moves still on, trying to be made as they head through. And look at this shot! Oh, getting sideways, out of shape. Jake shutting the door on Andy Priaulx as we look back on Priaulx now. The Chevy chasing Jake down in the Ford Capri. There's the Mustang kicking up a little bit of dust. Is there going to be contact, touring car style? Of course there is. Well, let's hope not too much with these lovely classics. Oh, down the inside. What a great move. Oh, don't get on the grass. They don't. That was beautifully done. And for the moment, Andy Priaulx just sneaking in front. And he's got the good line when they get down to the next corner at Woodcutt, because he's on the inside. But look at the speed of the Capri in a straight line. That's brilliant. If Jake can brake later, yeah, I think he can. He brakes a little later, gets it turned in, and holds on to the lead. Slightly lighter Capri, more able to brake later down into Woodcutt. But he's forming a train behind him. These two battling. The Chevy's going to have the legs on the Capri down the straight. The V6 power compared to the V8 grunt of the Chevy as they roar past the commentary box window. But Jake is going to be wise to this. He would have had a look at the competitors. He's only really raced Andy, though, in races like this. So he will have to dig deep into his memory to have a look at how Andy races. But we all know Andy Priot, he's going to go for a gap if there is one. And at the moment, Jake's holding it well. He is holding it very well. And Andy, look at the opportunities for Jake. He's placing the car middle, which is just making that line a little bit... Ooh, a little clip over the kerb, but actually no damage done. Just clip the kerb a bit tighter than he might have wanted to, Jake Hill. Now, this is the area into Lavant where we saw on exit the move from Andy Priot to get past Jake. Now, he's on the outside this time, and he's not trying to go around the outside. He knows that's risky, but of course, they're now being caught up from behind as well, aren't they? And so this is all getting a very, very close battle now. It's not just the two of them. It could get even tighter. Yeah, second separating the top four at the moment. And it's going to be a drag race down the back straight here. Jake's being squeezed onto the grass. Ooh, that O'Shane just manages to hang a bit. He's going to keep it on the inside. Andy Priot, is he going to copy the move that Jake did earlier on? Yes, he does, round the outside of Woodcut Corner. Fantastic move. Really great stuff. So Andy Priot takes the lead. Jake Hill into second place. And Rob Hough now making great progress as well. And so we shall see how this goes. And over the line they come. Rob Hough has moved up into third place. Now ahead of Dumas, so we shall see how this goes. We've got more battles further back. Let's just take another look at this move that was made. So he tried it on the inside the previous lap. But then Andy thought, you know what, I'm going to go on the outside, gave Jake a little squeeze. Fairly respectful. Jake was actually lucky not to lose the rear as he was squeezed on the grass. But perfect textbook move round the outside. You could see Rob Hough was probably praying, please make contact. Please, can I sail on through? But he's not been able to drop Jake Hill, who's really getting the rear out of the Ford Capri. Ducking in the toe of the more powerful, more faster in a straight line Chevy. But unable to close that gap as it looks like at the times that Priot just has the legs on him at the moment. He does, yeah. But let's see, because Priot is definitely, as you say, just easing away very slightly. Making the most of the extra 3.8 horsepower that he's got with the Chevrolet Camaro. Second place, the Capri of Jake Hill. Rob Hough very close in behind him. Tom Ingram is one of the ones, oh, big slide there from Jake. Tom Ingram is one of the ones who's lost out a little bit here, isn't he? Because he's gone down into 7th place, having started from the front row. So, yeah, he's definitely lost a bit of space further down. And we're actually on board with Tom Ingram now. So I'm not quite sure, he's actually, yeah, because he's behind the Volvo that is being driven by Gordon Shedden. He has got past a couple, so yeah, he is gaining some ground. I don't quite know where it all went wrong for him initially, but he may well gain some more ground here. Yeah, and I love the difference in driving style between him and Jake. Jake's always getting the tail out, of course they're two different cars. But different driving style, different approach. Jake was actually under pressure from Rob Hough earlier across the start-finish line. But he looks to have had a good run through the first corner and actually closed that gap down to Priot. It was 8 tenths of a second as they went across the line. That's less than 8 tenths of a second now. And actually starting to drop Rob Hough ever so slightly. But a perfect view from Tom Ingram's car as he whacks the lock on. You can hear the tyres screaming of corrections being made. But he's right up the back of Gordon Shedden. Yeah, this is good stuff as they come onto the straight. So trying to get a little bit of slipstream. Can he move one way or the other to try and make the move? This is Tom Ingram. Now, can he go to the inside? Is there space? Not really. Because Gordon Shedden has come over to the inside to make sure that it's not that clear. And that's perfectly fair. So good, clean racing. But tough racing as well. You're up against some really top professionals here. As you now come into the chicane, trying not to make contact. And out onto complete another lap. They go. Andy Priot ahead of Jake Hill. With Rob Hough still in third place. You can tell these are touring cars as well. Because they're using just as much of the grass on the inside of each apex. And they are the tarmac. So making good use of using all the road and a little bit more. But has joined this battle of cars now. He's stuck up in the road. And you can just see him in the background there. Putting the train in front of him. Ingram, Shedden, Dumas under pressure. And Jake Hill is clawing his way back. The gap has spread slightly. But it's a great car control on display. Yeah, Gordon Shedden. I thought he might have lost it there. But he held it together beautifully well. That's what's remarkable sometimes these guys can do. The Volvo, the Bastos Volvo. That is a very rare machine. One of the early turbo Volvos that raced. Oh, look at this. Is that actually a bit of touch or not? I mean, he might as well be in the boot. Yeah. That Volvo. So he's ducking. You can see him looking down at the rev counter. Getting those gear shifts absolutely perfect. But the Volvo taking a bit of grass. Gordon Shedden's going to try and have a look down the inside. So they head into Booker Corner. Roman Dubas shuts that door. Firmly shut. Drifting around Woodcut. Bouncing over the kerbs. Maybe a little bit too much inside kerb for the Gordon Shedden there. Feather it through the chicane. You can see they whack the lock on on that final part of the chicane. Just in desperation to get the front end to bite. But a very good run from Tom Ingram. Is the Chevy going to have the grunt over the Volvo? Let's have a look. No, not quite enough. So yeah, absolutely. Very, very impressive. Jake Hill just set the fastest lap. But it's only by a tiny margin. So the battle is still on up front. But I have to say Andy Priot is doing a great job. He's just opened that up a fraction more. A few car lengths between them. But let's see how this goes. We've still got 12 minutes. Just over 12 minutes to go in this session. Rob Huff's still in a bit of a lonely third. And then this fourth place. You're watching Jake Hill right now. Can he just get that little bit more performance out of the Capri? Actually there, that was interesting. A little touch on the grass from our race leader Andy Priot. Slightly wider Camaro. And I think he just went a little bit too wide. But he didn't lose too much time. He wasn't sliding too far. And we shall see how it goes. But this is not over yet. Jake Hill still chasing down Andy Priot. And in the background, Rob Huff looking to take advantage of anything. As you say, the fight happened between them. He's going to be right there to take advantage of it. Behind Rob, still the battle going on. Three cars all fighting away behind. Dumas and Schendel. And Ingram as well. Look at this. So you've got Bruno Dumas, the first of those two. Then Gordon Schendel, the middle car. And then Tom Ingram, having had an issue on the opening lap. Losing a lot of time from the front row. But really trying to get back in. I know, they were kicking up stuff as well. They were respectful racing going on. Which of course is what we like to see across the board. From ducking and diving in the rear mirror. Or desperately trying to put him off. Gordon using even more grass on the inside. Kicking the dust up in the face of Tom Ingram. But Tom's got a good run as he goes through the kink. We're riding on board with him now. You can see he's still fighting the car. Whacking the lock on as he goes through the kink. And I think he's done it. He's waving. That's your traditional sign. OK, let's not battle. Let's go. Let's work together. Let's not lose time in battling. Look at Tom Richardson. I'm pretty sure I just saw a flash of the lights there from Tom Ingram. But I think Romain Dumas is wise to that. Yeah, Romain Dumas is holding this position quite well at this stage. Fourth place. This is the fight for fourth place at this point. There's your battle for the lead. Still Andy Prio from Jake Hill. Rolled up in third place. Then this fight for fourth place. Romain Dumas, Gordon Sheddon. Tom Ingram now ahead of Gordon Sheddon, as I say. In fact, Sheddon has dropped back a bit, I'm just seeing. So whether there is a problem with the Volvo, I don't know. But yeah, he's still there. He's still in the fight. So yeah, it's just a pop-up on our TSL. So he is still very much a part of this. But the race leader, Andy Prio, is just easing away out in front. And giving Jake Hill a bit of a tougher time to try and close up that gap, isn't he? I just love that shot there. Gordon Sheddon is real keen to use all the kerb on the inside. I think he had a transponder error in practice. And he still seems to have that now. But Tom Ingram all over the back. He's got a gear change. He went slightly wide. You see a mis-shift gear that forced him onto the dusty part. It's quite dusty online, as we've seen. But actually worked in his favour. Maybe an error from the Mustang in front. As Tom goes, thank you very much. And a thumbs up. Oh, we've got a problem. Andy Prio. Andy Prio is being passed. And that means that Jake Hill has taken the lead of the race. Andy Prio has a problem with the car. Oh, what a shame for Andy. Because he's been doing a great job. It means that Jake Hill is now leading. Rob Huff is up into second place. And now this is... Oh, my goodness. The Volvo nearly taking out the barrier. I think just managed to avoid it. Gordon Sheddon just held it there. Slightly distracted by the slowing Chevy of Andy Prio. But he was doing so well. He was stretching the gap out front. Pulls into the pits. A dejected team walk over and have a little look and find out what's wrong. But that was good car control from Gordon Sheddon there. Who just managed to avoid hitting the tyre barriers at the chicane. But this is fresh air for Jake Hill now. 1.7 is the gap between him and Rob Huff. Interesting, isn't it? That we've got Ford Caprice running 1st and 2nd now. Because the Camaros have often been the cars to beat in this kind of thing. But we've now got Caprice 1st and 2nd. And Tom Ingram has now got himself back up into that 3rd place where he started originally in the Chevy Camaro. But will he be actually able to close that gap now, do you think? I think he was a bit stuck behind the Chevy of Prio that had to peel into the pits. So his 1st sector wasn't fantastic. So we'll wait and see when he comes back next time round. But the battle still continues. Romain Dumas is really getting his elbows out and slowing those down that are behind him. Tom Christensen is the next one in line to try and challenge Dumas to take that 4th spot. As you can see Jake feathering it through. Rob Huff, has that gap come down ever so slightly? It looks like to my eye that it has. It's 1.68, so it's not much different. Let's just take a look at the problem that could have been here for Andy Prio. You can see a little bit of smoke sliding around. A little bit difficult to exactly see what went wrong, but there was some issue with the car. And sadly, Andy, who set the fastest lap earlier on, that has come to an end for him. Christensen's made his way up past Romain Dumas. So he's up into 4th spot. He'll be chasing down now Tom Ingram. It's only one second separating those two drivers. You can see number 11 of Rob Huff charging down. He's gained a tenth on the previous lap to Jake Hill. But now, Ben, we've got traffic. We've got bad markers that have come into play. So we've seen this has affected the result in the past. And it looks like he's being hampered by the number 53 car there. That is Robert Reid trying to bleed out the way of the traffic. Does so. Huff will be hoping he can get out of the way down this back straight to have a clear run. And, yeah, he does so. Yeah, and I don't think he's lost out too much to Rob Huff in second place. There you are with the Bastos-backed Capri from the days. But let's see whether Jake Hill is going to be able to hold on for this race victory. Just over five minutes to go, and he's still very much in control after that huge battle with Andy Prio. Then the problem for Andy. And now he's still going for it. So let's have a look as they come over the line. Just catch up with the others. Huff in second place. And then it's Tom Ingram in third. Christensen now up into fourth place. Lots going on. Let's go down to Ed. Andy, what happened? It's just overheating on the last lap for sure. And we've just lost a water pump, which is a shame. The car's been brilliant. You know, it was lovely to qualify so well. I had a fantastic race with Jake. Really hard, really fair. Nice to be leading again. Not bad for an old dog. And yeah, we'll have another go tomorrow. Looking forward to the shootout next. Sad we didn't win for the guys, because they worked really hard on the car. But that's what's nice about Goodwood. You go and race hard, and it doesn't matter win or lose. You have a good time. Well driven. Thank you. Cheers, guys. So there's our race leader then. It is Jake Hill after we lost Andy Priot, sadly, from this race. After such a great battle they had. And then Andy had that lead, but it hasn't worked out for him. And also a problem for Gordon Shedden with the Volvo. Oh, that's a shame, isn't it? Yeah, he's battling it out, doing a good job. And the 31 is out. Oh, sorry. Yeah, that is the 31 of Priot. My mistake. But this gap is coming down between Hill and Huff. Maybe the traffic has played a little bit of a part. Maybe Jake has got it too sideways. And those rear tires are screaming and hanging on for dear life as we head down. Only just under four minutes of the race remaining. Looking back at the background, Tom Christensen is closing that gap down slightly as well to Tom Ingram. And Matt Neal, he's done a great job. You can see there in the 1.30 that Gordon is Chevy Camaro. And Dumas. I mean, he was always going to get an electric start, wasn't he? He was fighting up for P2 at one point, but slowly fallen slightly down the order as we could continue to see Jake flick it into the right-hander, flick it into the left-hander, drifting it all the way through St. Mary's. Yeah, he's doing a fabulous job. We've lost two of the house captains, of course, because Andy Priot and Gordon Shedden, both house captains, Andy Priot with Albany and Gordon Shedden with Methuen, unfortunately, they're not scoring any points for their houses. And they would get double points being the captains, but it's not going to happen for those two. Jake Hill is not the captain of one of the houses, but he's doing a fabulous job at the moment, still holding up ahead of Rob Huff. Tom Ingram in third place. And Tom Christensen, who is a captain, he's running in fourth place and just trying to keep a bit of pressure on Ingram as well. Meanwhile, some other action going on. It's lovely to see Steve Soper in this number 30. They're down in 13th, 14th places here, but you've got star drivers all the way through this, and it's lovely to see the BMW out there in this race as well. It might not be the fastest, but it's lovely having a mix of machinery. It is. This car once raced by Jerry Marshall, back in the day as well, run by Westbourne Motors. Currently Steve Soper behind the wheel in that iconic shell livery, chasing down the number one car, Julian Draper. And he's got a good run up the hill as they go through into Lavant Corner, having a little look. They're a little bit further ahead, so the leaders shouldn't catch this battle and shouldn't affect this battle, which would be ideal for these drivers. Oh no, Nancy Reid, he's pulled over, and we saw him earlier on moving out the way from the leaders, but unfortunate retirement for him. Yeah, that is a great shame. So yeah, there's a few cars that unfortunately are not making it to the end of the race, but we are getting quite close to that end of race because we're only just over a minute still to go, and it is Jake Hill who is in control at this stage with that gap of... It's come down a fraction maybe, but it's still over a second and a half between himself and Rob Hough. Tom Ingram in third. Tom's actually under a bit of pressure from Tom Christensen here, isn't he? Christensen's really showing what he can do with the Rover, and it's pretty gone a good battle. I thought he was going to have a look down the inside there going to chicane, but that's pretty brave, but a couple of tenths quicker that previous lap than Tom Ingram, and I can imagine this lap is going to be a couple of tenths quicker as well as they come across the line. 40 seconds remaining, so this will likely be the final lap of the race. As that goes through the first corner, getting out of shape, drifting the car sideways. Gap has stabilised pretty much at the front. Jake Hill done a stellar job, was there to pick up the pieces after the unfortunate retirement from Andy Pirione, but has held his own as he always does, and he just makes it look so effortless, so easy as he drifts through out of St Mary's, up the hill, into Latham Corner, and potentially for the final time. Yeah, this is a great effort by him. Race time to zero, and Jake Hill, who had that battle early on with Andy Pirione, but it's just since Andy's been out there, he's been holding that control, but it is looking like it's going to be a Ford Capri 1-2 in the Gordon Spice Trophy this time, which is fun to see, beating the American cars on this occasion. Sometimes the Camaros have that bit more pace, we saw this lovely battle going on for third place, but I don't think Tom Christensen's going to be able to do too much now to try and take a podium position. Jake Hill coming up towards the chicane, and everything going absolutely according to plan. A little bit of a trip onto the grass for Rob Hough as they come over the line. The checker flag is out. Jake Hill takes victory from Rob Hough by just over a second in the end. Tom Ingram gets the final podium slot with Tom Christensen in fourth place, and getting some very useful points for his house, no doubt about it. McNeil in fifth place, and Roman Dumas finishing in sixth position. But Jake Hill, always a star here at Goodwood. He's won events here before in this car. This is Rick Wood's Capri. They've worked together for many years now, and there's great respect between them. There's still some battles going on though. Oh, they're further back. Steve Soper still, he's ahead of the Capri. Is he going to stay ahead of it all the way to the flag? Yeah, he's managed to sneak his way past somewhere along the previous two laps. But Soper passed the Draper for Capri. Soper in that classic BMW. So it looks like he's got this move pretty much done and dusted. The final few cars will go across the line, but Jake Hill takes the honors. You will see these cars racing on track tomorrow. So this is part one. Part two, we'll see the owner drivers, the non-professional drivers out in their cars tomorrow. Yeah. Well, they're going to make it to the line in a moment, as you say, in a car that was raced by Tony Lanfranchi in 1973. This BMW, this Steve Soper, in his early 70s now. Great touring car driver who comes over the line. And no, he's not firing up on the podium, but he's still done a great job. Lovely to see him racing. He finishes in 13th place. But there is our race winner. It is Jake Hill, and there's something dangling down at the front there, but I don't think it's anything too serious. And they have taken that victory. Yes, and we'll see how tomorrow it goes with the man who owns it, Rick Wood, who can also be pretty quick with his car. We shall see how it all goes. You can just see something just dangling down at the front there. Hopefully that isn't a major problem. I don't think it is. The car's all looking good in terms of performance. And he has taken the race victory. Fastest lap actually did stay with Andy Priot, who was leading the race at one stage until he had that problem. But Jake has taken the top spot. Rob Hough in second place and Tom Ingram in third. So Hill and Ingram, who've been fighting, and Hough, they will be fighting in the British Touring Car Championship last year.