A blistering weekend at Brands Hatch saw Jake Hill get his first points of the British Touring Car Championship season. However, he also faced some cruel luck with another engine failure, reminiscent of the season opening at Donington Park.
Jake immediately set a superb pace, topping both of Saturday’s free practice sessions for the first-time in his career.
He said: “The car was superb in practice, then in qualifying we were also really strong, taking P4 – another 0.055 seconds and I would have had Pole Position. It’s mega to be racing at my ‘home’ circuit, and to have such a quick car under me has been incredible.”
Hill started race one well but the fast-starting BMW of Colin Turkington swept past, with Hill then running strongly and quickly in the early stages, setting 4th fastest lap and battling with Tom Ingram until lap 11 when the Gazoo Racing Corolla edged past.
After a Safety Car came out as Matt Neal hit the wall, Hill was immediately under threat from Tom Chilton and Ashley Sutton, the latter edging the No.24 car onto the grass resulting in Hill dropping to P10.
A late charge from Morgan was skilfully rebuffed by Hill, the BRDC ‘Superstar’ pleased to have finally got points on the board.
“We were quite strong early on, but the track has gained SO much grip since yesterday and I was struggling with balance. But it’s great to reward my team and my partners with some points, and we are in good shape for race two later today.”
However, nearing the end of race two, Jake’s Honda Civic Type-R slowed, dramatically blasting a swathe of flames from the exhaust, signalling an engine failure.
Incredibly it was Hill’s third such failure in five races so far in 2020.
“I really didn’t expect to be sitting here after two race weekends with only one finish so far! We now have a couple of weeks before Oulton Park so hopefully our engine partners Swindon can resolve this. Thanks to my amazing partners for their support and for believing in me so much. I am pretty fed up now but will be ready to go next time.”
We’re hoping that the engine troubles are now over, and Jake can focus on finishing as high up the board as possible!
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Photography credit: JEP Photography