25 year-old BTCC star Jake Hill rounded off one of the most unusual weekends in his racing career at his local circuit, Brands Hatch, racing in his close friend Ollie Streek’s 1965 Mini Cooper in the fierce heat of Bank Holiday Monday CSCC Meeting, having raced a 1992 Nissan Skyline at Oulton Park on Sunday, and experienced a 2008 Holden Commodore V8 Supercar the day before! |
Jumping in all three cars ‘cold’ – no testing or previous experience – highlighted the BRDC Member’s versatility, being bang on the pace in both cars at Oulton.
“I loved both of the cars for very different reasons. The Holden is just a raw beast of a car, the Skyline is also pretty fierce but the difference between rear wheel drive and all-wheel drive is huge. Then ….120bhp front wheel drive Mini at Brands! How diverse is that? RWD, 4WD and FWD in three consecutive days! smiled Hill.
Straight into Monday morning’s qualifying, Hill immediately began hurling the tiny green machine around, setting a 56.2 early on and sitting a remarkable P3 overall and P1 in class.
However the officials judged both of Hill’s best laps to have been set exceeding track limits, relegating Hill and Streek to P6 overall, but still on Pole Position in class by over 0.5 seconds.
“Loved it! So much fun, just loved throwing the car about and virtually not braking anywhere! Ollie did a mega job too and I am hugely grateful to him for the chance to race with him here”
The 50 minute race was started by Streek, who immediately made his way up to P3, and then began scrapping hard to stay in position, only losing out to the much faster Lotus Elans, and dropping to P6 overall, but crucially first in class.
A battle with the Lotus Elan of Cousins/Smith saw Streek slice to the inside of Paddock Bend, but brake s little to late and skate into the gravel and out of the race.
“I was so impressed with Ollie” said Hill. His lap time in the race was only 0.3 off of mine in qualifying, and he was in a real dog-fight with the much faster Elans. I am so grateful for the chance and hopefully we will do more together in the future. But what a weekend – Aussie V8, Nissan Skyline, Mini Cooper – all super-cool cars – thanks so much for the chance to race them all.
Hill will rejoin the BTCC at Knockhill on 14/15th September for Rounds 22 to 24 in the Trade Price Cars Racing Audi S3 – Catch qualifying LIVE on-line at itv.com/btcc