Hill returns to winning ways at Brands Hatch

JAKE Hill has returned to winning ways, chalking up his first Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship victory of the season at Brands Hatch.

Hill, who drives for the Southam-based Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport team, won the first of three races in his BMW 330i M Sport adding an eighth before rounding off the weekend with second position in the final event.

It was the perfect start to the weekend with Hill securing pole which he converted into victory ahead of fellow BMW ace Charles Rainford with Team Vertu pair Tom Ingram and Adam Morgan filling the next two places. Mikey Doble, from the Bidford-based Motor Parts Direct with Power Maxed Racing team finished sixth.

After finishing outside of the top six in race two, Hill made amends in the Brands Hatch finale.

NAPA Racing UK's Dan Rowbottom initially held the lead while Rainford was busy disposing of fellow BMW runner Hill on the run through Surtees. The young rookie then wasted no time in turning second into first as he fired his BMW 330i M Sport down the inside of Rowbottom's Ford Focus through Paddock Hill Bend on lap two.

Hill further relegated the fading Rowbottom and he then set about attacking his younger team-mate. The gap fluctuated back and forth – often through the use of the TOCA Turbo Boost – but the battle was finally decided due to a heart-in-mouth moment later in the contest when Max Hall’s Cupra Leon ran through the gravel on the approach to Clarke Curve at the rear of the field and returned to the track right in front of the oncoming Hill.

The reigning champion escaped but the delay left him in the clutches of the charging Ingram who had surged up from 11th on the grid into the podium positions. The pair touched at Druids on the penultimate lap, but Hill again held on to grab second with Ingram completing the rostrum.

Hill said: “What a weekend we’ve had. A win, a second, an eighth and a pole position on Saturday too. It’s been a mega, mega weekend.

“A huge thank you to everyone at Laser Tools and MB Motorsport; they’ve given me a Laser Beemer that was very, very fast. On to Snetterton.”

The Norfolk circuit will host the next round of the competition on 24th and 25th May. Reigning champion Hill goes into rounds seven, eight and nine in third place in the championship. Doble is in 13th in his Vauxhall Astra but second in the race for independent honours