Jake Hill returned to the BTCC podium last weekend as a brace of second-place finishes, and a tenth-place finish, saw Jake enjoy a healthy points haul in the third meeting of the 2023 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship at Snetterton. 

Kicking off the weekend with qualifying on Saturday,  Jake Hill enjoyed a strong Snetterton qualifying performance as he notched his third consecutive second-row start. A disrupted qualifying session brought a sense of danger for the series’ frontrunners but the Kent-based Hill delivered once again to give himself and the team a good chance of a strong race day at a sun-soaked Snetterton Circuit as he qualified in P4. 

Sunshine and warm conditions set the scene for race day at Snetterton Circuit and after a successful qualifying day on Saturday, Jake Hill lined the grid for race one from the second row in fourth place and on the soft compound tyres. 

With all three tyre compounds (soft, medium and hard) to be used across the three races, Jake elected to use the softs in the opening race and used them to his advantage as he got a fantastic launch off the line. Passing Tom Ingram into turn one, Jake moved into third place as he ran three wide into the hairpin alongside Ingram and Turkington.

Capitalising on a great exit from Williams corner onto the long Bentley straight, Jake also timed the use of his hybrid power perfectly and snuck alongside Turkington, who edged across and saw Jake with two wheels on the grass at 120mph. In a committed move, Jake bravely hung on around the outside of the four time champion to pull off a superb overtake as the two cars turned into Nelson’s.

Hunting down the race leader, Ash Sutton, Jake behind the wheel of his WSR-run BMW 330e M Sport cut the two-second lead in just two laps and crossed the finishing line just two-tenths behind to secure a second-place finish and a trip to the podium. 

Starting race two from the front row in second place, Jake challenged Sutton for the race lead through the opening corners but remained in second place after the opening lap. 

Driving a clean and measured race, Jake took the chequered flag from second place once again to record back-to-back podium finishes and a strong haul of points. 

Having used the medium compounds in race two, Jake was left with the hardest compound to use in race three and was handed a 5th place starting position in the reverse grid draw. 

In a battling race where several other drivers had opted to use the ultra-fast soft compound, Jake finished amongst his BMW team mates with a hard earned 10th place, his 40 points earned being his best weekend scored so far in 2023.

Speaking after an excellent weekend a delighted Hill said: “Really pleased to have secured a double P2 at Snetterton! A fantastic weekend for myself and the Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport team in round 3 of the season, the team did a fantastic job once again and we depart with some really good points. 

“Huge thank you as always to WSR for an incredible BMW, we head to Thruxton in two weeks’ time and hopefully we can stay on the podium and continue our championship push.”

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