It was a character building weekend for Jake Hill at the latest round of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship at the weekend. 
The weekend showed so much potential and was highlighted by the performance in qualifying, however the races didn’t go the way of Hill.
A stunning last-minute lap on a drying circuit in qualifying on Saturday saw the 22 year-old qualify tenth, and in the opening race another swift getaway saw Hill’s Team Hard Toyota Avensis blast ahead of championship leader Matt Neal’s Honda, and battling with Aron Smith and Jack Goff into Redgate Corner.
Running in eight place Aron Smith ahead of him got sideways, Hill couldn’t avoid him and in turn Matt Neal clattered into the side of the No.24 machine, passing Hill in the process.
A safety car immediately neutralised the race, and as the race restarted Hill immediately caught and challenged Neal when suddenly the right-rear tyre burst – the result of bodywork cutting the tyre after the first-corner contact with Neal.
Hill was forced to crawl back to the pits where his team quickly changed the tyre and Hill charged back into the race now two laps down, finishing a hugely frustrated 26th.
Speaking after the race, Hill said: “After such mega qualifying and a great start I was beaten up and I knew the tyre was rubbing cos I could see the smoke from the tyre, I just hoped it would hold on. Now we start 26th. Pretty tough”
Another charging start and aggressive first lap saw Hill up to 19th and moving through the pack, passing Plato and Turkington before an aggressive Alex Martin edged Hill onto the grass and down the order. Cue more charging, battling up to 16th place when again Martin pushed Hill off the circuit, damaging the steering arm and causing the BRDC Rising star to retire.
Reflecting further on the weekend, he added: “The car has been really, really good all weekend. I have yet to come across anyone we couldn’t compete with and we were almost in the points. I really think we might have even got close to the top-ten, and as for Alex Martin’s driving….. He forced Plato off and then in turn caused Turkington to spin around the front of my car. Very frustrating as there’s a lot of unnecessary damage”
So once again forced to start towards the back, the biggest concern was whether the team would be able to get the Avensis ready. With just seconds to go Jake’s Chief Engineer Ian Benson signaled to push the car out into the pit lane and ready to race, a truly impressive effort.
Yet again Hill made a brisk getaway and was already making progress when the car’s rounded turn one and in the jostling Mark Howard was spun across the front of Hill, leaving him nowhere to go and thumping the VW, causing damage to the front of the car and another retirement.
Jake said: “I think since I started racing I have never had a more frustrating day” sighed Hill. “The car has felt brilliant and Donington is a track we knew we’d go well at. The team have worked their socks off and we’;ve had brilliant support from all our partners. Days like these are really tough but I will go home, concentrate on getting ready for Thruxton and go for it there”
The high-speed sweeps of Thruxton in Hampshire will host rounds 7 to 9 of the series, a circuit Hill has won on before in Ginetta Juniors but hasn’t raced on since 2011.
“Very fast, bumpy and scary. But it’s the same for everyone so I’m going to go for it as ever and see what we can do. Hopefully this weekend we’ve got all our bad luck out the way!”
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