Goodwood Festival of Speed, 9th to 12th July - Nissan 300SX IMSA GTO
Returning to "one of my favourite weekends of the year" Jake Hill headed to the beautiful grounds of Goodwood House for the Festival of Speed, this year being asked to drive a truly spectacular machine, the 1990 Nissan 300SX Turbo raced in the GTO class in the IMSA Sportscar series in the USA.
Era Motorsport would run the car for it's owner Jim Bartel, and only received the car from the USA on the Monday prior to the event, so were working hard to get the car prepared in time for Goodwood.
"The crew have done a brilliant job getting the car ready, but we will be venturing into the unknown in terms of how to run the car - even the tyres are unused but are two years old - so it will be interesting!
Hill took part in two demo runs on Thursday, and further runs plus practice for the 'Shoot Out' on Friday, and discovered the car was misfiring slightly, as he learned the handling and braking characteristics of the car.
Saturday saw qualifying and Hill put in a strong run to qualify 12th overall and 2nd in the 'Specials' class with a time of 52.78.
"The car was good but still not quite where we hoped, but we have a plan for the final on Sunday - can't wait to get stuck in!"
Late on a blisteringly hot afternoon on Sunday, Hill unleashed the striking Red, White and Blue machine up the 1.17 mile hill, cutting the corner and kicking up dust at the second corner and clearly totally committed, slithering across the line to set a stunning 48.28 second time - taking him to the top of the times.
As Hill's competitors took to the hill, it looked like Florent Moulin in the 2001 Dodge Viper was on to pip Hill, only to just miss out by less than 0.2 seconds, meaning Hill secured Class-Victory, his 5th Win in the Goodwood Shootout.
"I cannot tell you how pleased I am! the car was just superb and a massive thanks goes to Alex Summers who is also running with Era Motorsport. Alex is a British Hillclimb Champion and an expert on 'mapping' engines, and he went back to the hotel last night and came up with a solution. Not only was the misfire gone but we gained a whole heap of power too! Thanks so much to the car's owner Jim Bartel for trusting me with this car, and the folks at Era Motorsport for preparing the car so well, plus His Grace for inviting me to take part again - the fans were great, we had some of our personal partners and their guests from ABGO, H-Squared and Sunbelt here too - so a great weekend!"
Michelin 24H Series - Nurburgring 3-5th July
Era Motorsport Ferrari 296GT3 Evolution
Keen to build on a superb Podium finish at Paul Ricard in June, Era Motorsport arrived at Nurburgring for the Michelin 24H Series debut on the GP Circuit, round four of the European Series.
All three drivers who set a time in qualifying showed strong pace - with Hill setting second fastest time in his qualifying session, and his co-drivers Dwight Merriman and Ryan Dalziel also delivering strong lap times, that would ultimately result in the No.81 Ferrari starting P7 for the 12 Hour race.
Hill started on Saturday and worked hard to pass the Ajith Redant Racing Mercedes, the GetSpeed Mercedes and Hofer Racing, and handed over to Merriman now in fourth place.
Both Merriman and latterly Oliver Bryant lapped consistently and swiftly, with excellent strategy and a fast final stint by Ryan Dalziel resulting in the team in a very positive place at the end of Saturday's first-half of the race.
Unfortunately a nasty looking accident befell the Muhlner Motorsport Porsche 992 Cup Car of Josh Bednarski which caused the race to be stopped early, thankfully with Josh shaken but not injured.
Sunday's race saw Dalziel on board and lapping quickly, and running P5 overall and P2 in the ProAm class when heavy rain hit the track after an hour's running, resulting in Dalziel taking huge amount of time out of the ProAm leading Proton Porsche, taking the lead when it stopped to change to their Pro Driver.
Still running P2 in class when Oliver Bryant took over, the Era Motorsport strategy looked to be working perfectly when out of nowhere a slower car lost control and spun off, collecting Bryant and putting him in the gravel with broken suspension.
The car was dragged out of the gravel, and Bryant carefully returned to the pits where the Era crew did a remarkable job to repair the car in 23 minutes and get it back on track, albeit now having lost 11 laps.
"So incredibly frustrating! said Hill "The team had got the strategy spot-on - we were looking really strong for at least a ProAm podium and possibly even a Win, and then we get taken out! Nothing Olly could do, and just an amazing job by the team to get us back out so quickly - that's racing as they say...."
Late on Hill took the final two hours of the race to bring the car home safely in 4th in ProAm, but very much a case of 'what might have been'
"We still are learning this car and had some technical support from Davide from the Ferrari factory this weekend which was really interesting. We now head to Barcelona in September for the 24 Hours and if we can get the strategy right again, we will be in good shape, I love 24 Hour races, and we learned a lot last year, so let's see what we can do"
Returning to "one of my favourite weekends of the year" Jake Hill headed to the beautiful grounds of Goodwood House for the Festival of Speed, this year being asked to drive a truly spectacular machine, the 1990 Nissan 300SX Turbo raced in the GTO class in the IMSA Sportscar series in the USA.
Era Motorsport would run the car for it's owner Jim Bartel, and only received the car from the USA on the Monday prior to the event, so were working hard to get the car prepared in time for Goodwood.
"The crew have done a brilliant job getting the car ready, but we will be venturing into the unknown in terms of how to run the car - even the tyres are unused but are two years old - so it will be interesting!
Hill took part in two demo runs on Thursday, and further runs plus practice for the 'Shoot Out' on Friday, and discovered the car was misfiring slightly, as he learned the handling and braking characteristics of the car.
Saturday saw qualifying and Hill put in a strong run to qualify 12th overall and 2nd in the 'Specials' class with a time of 52.78.
"The car was good but still not quite where we hoped, but we have a plan for the final on Sunday - can't wait to get stuck in!"
Late on a blisteringly hot afternoon on Sunday, Hill unleashed the striking Red, White and Blue machine up the 1.17 mile hill, cutting the corner and kicking up dust at the second corner and clearly totally committed, slithering across the line to set a stunning 48.28 second time - taking him to the top of the times.
As Hill's competitors took to the hill, it looked like Florent Moulin in the 2001 Dodge Viper was on to pip Hill, only to just miss out by less than 0.2 seconds, meaning Hill secured Class-Victory, his 5th Win in the Goodwood Shootout.
"I cannot tell you how pleased I am! the car was just superb and a massive thanks goes to Alex Summers who is also running with Era Motorsport. Alex is a British Hillclimb Champion and an expert on 'mapping' engines, and he went back to the hotel last night and came up with a solution. Not only was the misfire gone but we gained a whole heap of power too! Thanks so much to the car's owner Jim Bartel for trusting me with this car, and the folks at Era Motorsport for preparing the car so well, plus His Grace for inviting me to take part again - the fans were great, we had some of our personal partners and their guests from ABGO, H-Squared and Sunbelt here too - so a great weekend!"
Michelin 24H Series - Nurburgring 3-5th July
Era Motorsport Ferrari 296GT3 Evolution
Keen to build on a superb Podium finish at Paul Ricard in June, Era Motorsport arrived at Nurburgring for the Michelin 24H Series debut on the GP Circuit, round four of the European Series.
All three drivers who set a time in qualifying showed strong pace - with Hill setting second fastest time in his qualifying session, and his co-drivers Dwight Merriman and Ryan Dalziel also delivering strong lap times, that would ultimately result in the No.81 Ferrari starting P7 for the 12 Hour race.
Hill started on Saturday and worked hard to pass the Ajith Redant Racing Mercedes, the GetSpeed Mercedes and Hofer Racing, and handed over to Merriman now in fourth place.
Both Merriman and latterly Oliver Bryant lapped consistently and swiftly, with excellent strategy and a fast final stint by Ryan Dalziel resulting in the team in a very positive place at the end of Saturday's first-half of the race.
Unfortunately a nasty looking accident befell the Muhlner Motorsport Porsche 992 Cup Car of Josh Bednarski which caused the race to be stopped early, thankfully with Josh shaken but not injured.
Sunday's race saw Dalziel on board and lapping quickly, and running P5 overall and P2 in the ProAm class when heavy rain hit the track after an hour's running, resulting in Dalziel taking huge amount of time out of the ProAm leading Proton Porsche, taking the lead when it stopped to change to their Pro Driver.
Still running P2 in class when Oliver Bryant took over, the Era Motorsport strategy looked to be working perfectly when out of nowhere a slower car lost control and spun off, collecting Bryant and putting him in the gravel with broken suspension.
The car was dragged out of the gravel, and Bryant carefully returned to the pits where the Era crew did a remarkable job to repair the car in 23 minutes and get it back on track, albeit now having lost 11 laps.
"So incredibly frustrating! said Hill "The team had got the strategy spot-on - we were looking really strong for at least a ProAm podium and possibly even a Win, and then we get taken out! Nothing Olly could do, and just an amazing job by the team to get us back out so quickly - that's racing as they say...."
Late on Hill took the final two hours of the race to bring the car home safely in 4th in ProAm, but very much a case of 'what might have been'
"We still are learning this car and had some technical support from Davide from the Ferrari factory this weekend which was really interesting. We now head to Barcelona in September for the 24 Hours and if we can get the strategy right again, we will be in good shape, I love 24 Hour races, and we learned a lot last year, so let's see what we can do"
