Photo: PSP Images

Jake Hill delighted by maiden success

Jake Hill admitted he was delighted to finally secure his maiden win in the BTCC after taking victory in race three at Knockhill.

Hill looked to have taken his first win at Oulton Park earlier in the year only to lose the victory after being hit with a post-race penalty for a clash with the Honda of Matt Neal whilst dicing for the lead.

In Scotland, the Trade Price Cars Racing driver battled his way forwards from 17th on the grid to take a pair of tenth place finishes in the first two races, which resulted in him being drawn on pole for race three by former champion Alain Menu.

With the team making a series of radical changes to his Audi S3, based largely on the performance on the Honda Civic Type R on the other side of the garage, Hill was then able to lead race three from start-to-finish to take victory – even with two safety car periods backing up the pack behind him when he had established a lead.

“First off all, a big thanks to Alain Menu for drawing me on pole for race three as that really helped!” he said. “We’d made a lot of changes to the car for race three having looked at the set-up they’d been running on the Honda and they really worked a treat. The car was absolutely fantastic and it’s a mad feeling to have been able to lead from start-to-finish and take my first win.

“To be honest, the moves early in the first race were key from 17th on the grid as it got me onto the back of the guys ahead, and two top ten finishes in the first two races were deserved as we showed we had decent pace.

“I’m delighted to have got this win, particularly after what happened at Oulton Park and then the fact that Snetterton and Thruxton have been quite tough for us.

“On a weekend where we’ve all been thinking about Sam Tordoff, Georgie and Arlo, that is for them.”