“A tough weekend, but we learned a lot” said Kent’s Jake Hill, after a blisteringly hot weekend at Snetterton, which saw the 27 year-old score heard-earned points in two of the three races, and leave Norfolk 5th overall in the championship.

After a superb opening BTCC weekend at Thruxton in May, Hill lead the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship for the first time in his career, which meant his #24 Ford Focus ST would carry 75kgs of success ballast into practice, qualifying and race one of the weekend.

“We worked hard on various set-up solutions to give us our best chance at the longest circuit on the calendar, and one with lots of ‘stop-start’ corners that really hamper the cars with weight, so I was pleased with the balance and pace of the car after both practice sessions.”

Hill ended the two practice sessions 9th (after a mechanical issue) and 6th, before heading into the 25 minute qualifying session aiming to get into the top-ten ‘shootout’.

Despite driving the heaviest car on the grid, Hill pulled out all the stops and in a remarkable performance set the 6th fastest time to progress into the final ten minute session that set the order of the top-ten drivers.

As the clock ticked down with just 5 seconds to go, Hill blasted the Motorbase Performance engineered machine over the line, and brought the car home 8th overall with a spectacular lap, which became 7th overall as provisional Pole sitter Shedden’s Honda was disqualified for a technical infringement.

“So pleased with that! P7 with 75kgs on is way better than we expected. That was a wild lap, let’s see what we can do over a race distance now.”

Hill started race one still with the 75kgs ballast on board, and blasted into the 12 lap race battling with Oliphant, Lloyd and Smiley, holding the latter behind despite his Medium compound Goodyear tyres losing performance in the 25 degree heat, bringing the car home in a well-earned 9th place.

“That was tough. We had good pace early on, but only me and Ollie (Hill’s team-mate, Jackson) had ‘mediums’ on and the soft compound option was way quicker, so it was a battle to stay in the top-ten – so to still be leading the championship is a real bonus.”

Starting race two now on the option ‘soft’ tyre and with 60kgs of ballast removed, Hill made a strong start, instantly passing Lloyd and Oliphant on lap one but losing out to Sutton.

Settling into a rhythm, Hill set what would ultimately be the third fastest lap of the race on lap three, proving that the pace of the car was strong.

However as the race progressed, Hill’s ‘soft’ compound tyres began to lose performance, and on lap 7 was passed by Moffat, who pushed the Uniserve backed machine onto the grass, allowing Morgan, Oliphant and Goff past in the process.

In the latter stages of the race the tyres lost performance so badly Hill thought he had a puncture, slowing so much he was almost 15 seconds slower than his fastest lap, finishing a disappointed 24th place.

“We as a team – my engineer, Craig and me – decided on the set-up and clearly we got it very wrong. We will learn from this – we also have two days testing at Oulton Park next month for the Goodyear tyre test so will be able to try different ideas out. A tough lesson learned.”

Starting the final race of the day down in 24th place, back on the ‘medium’ compound tyre and with no ballast on board, Hill was determined to finish the weekend strongly, and in a truly spectacular opening lap moved up to 16th place, then passing Lloyd the following lap and benefitting from Oliphant spinning to end lap three in 14th place.

A lap later Hill’s team-mate Jackson – who had taken a superb podium finish in race two – was forced to retire promoting Hill to 13th, and feeling that the pace in the car was still strong.

However a technical issue meant that further progress could be made – other than one more place when Moffat dropped  back on the final lap – so Hill and the team were pleased with 12th place, and further important championship points.

“Great opening couple of laps, shame we couldn’t do more, but I was delighted to get 12th place after the dramas in race two, and most importantly being 5th in the championship means we go to Brands Hatch in a couple of weeks with 39kgs of ballast on board, so should be very strong in qualifying and race one.”

“Massive thanks to the MB Motorsport and Motorbase Performance crew for all their hard work – especially in this heat – and as always to the team and my personal partners for their support.”

“Brands is mine and the teams ‘home’ circuit, and I look forward to going there so very much. I know we can be very strong so let’s see what we can do.”

Catch qualifying live on itv.com/btcc on Saturday 26th June, with all three races live on ITVHD on Sunday 27th June.

Pictures supplied by PSP Images.