Scoring points in all three races at round four of the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship at Oulton Park, Jake Hill left the picturesque Cheshire venue having moved up to fourth overall in the points.

“Once again the MB Motorsport and Motorbase Performance crew have given me a fantastic car all weekend. From the outset we’ve had a really balanced car, and in qualifying to end up 7th, only a couple of tenths off Pole with 39kgs of success ballast on board – and ahead of those I’m chasing in the championship – showed what we learned in testing here recently”

Starting the opening 15 lap race the advantage of rear-wheel drive saw Jelley and Moffat edge ahead, but Hill then soon catching and passing Goff’s Cupra at the hairpin and now up to P8. Shortly after the race was stopped after Plato and Oliphant tangled, and both Smiley and Parfitt slammed into the stationary BMW, fortunately with no harm to any drivers.

At the 6 lap restart Hill battled hard with Pole man Proctor, ultimately coming home a well-earned P8.

“We ran on the Soft (Option) tyres, and the car was strong until the Red Flag, after which the tyre performance dropped away, so to bring it home P8, still with 39kgs of ballast on board, was a great job by the team all-round.

Race two – and now with 18kgs less ballast on board – Hill made a superb start, edging past Jelley around the outside of turn one, and later in the lap passing Shedden into Cascades, before passing Moffat and Plato and battling up to P4 by the end of the opening lap.

As the race unfolded, Hill closed in on Morgan who was in turn pressurising race-one Winner Rowbottom, the train of three cars later joined by Moffat’s Infiniti, Hill driving a smooth and precise race to take P4, and 13 points towards his championship challenge.

“Great opening lap, and then the car was really strong mid-race. Had some pressure from Aiden (Moffat) late-on but again was able to bring it home. Huge thanks once again to my engineer Craig and all the guys on my car – Ben, Rob, Adam, Brad and Ian.

For the final reverse grid race Hill would start P6 after P9 driver in race two, Proctor, was drawn on Pole Position, but on the opening lap Hill’s Motorbase team-mate Sam Osborne was pushed onto the grass by Smiley, causing him to spin and be collected by several cars, the ensuing melee causing the race to be stopped.

“There’s been some pretty sketchy driving today – I really feel for Sam who has been quick all weekend – to be forced off track is bad enough, but then to get that much damage is brutal. Thankfully he’s OK and so is everyone else involved.

At the restart Proctor and Championship leader Sutton ran side by side through turn one, but contact on the exit forced the Infiniti to spin wildly in front of the whole field, with Hill forced to brake and jink past, narrowly missing the 27 year-old but losing several places in the process.

“I’d made another great start, and was challenging for P4 when Ash was spinning in front  – that could have been a BIG shunt – so I was pretty relieved to get away with that!

As the race unfolded Hill now began chasing down Rowbottom’s Honda Civic Type-R, regularly catching but not quite having momentum to challenge, and late-on faced a challenge himself from four-time champion Colin Turkington’s BMW, but ultimately brought the Uniserv and Blue Square backed Ford Focus ST home a solid P7.

“Really pleased with 30 points this weekend. Lots of people had tough weekends so we now have moved up to fourth in the championship and closed down to 23 points from the lead.

“We head to one of my favourite weekends of the year next – at Knockhill in Scotland. I started on the front-row there last year and took a Podium, and of course Won my first BTCC race there in 2019, so I am really, really looking forward to this one.

However after a busy weekend’s racing at Oulton Park, the entire motorsport community’s thoughts were of the tragic incident at Brands Hatch on Saturday, which claimed the life of one of the ‘Orange Army’ of volunteer Marshals, Robert Foote.

“We all love this amazing sport, and I feel very fortunate to compete in the UK where we have the best Marshals in the World. They are an incredible group of passionate and hard-working enthusiasts who do an amazing job of keeping everyone safe every time we go racing. All of our love and thoughts are with Robert’s family and many friends, including of course the entire ‘Orange Army’ at this very difficult time. 

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