Photo by: JEP
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Jake Hill re-established a points cushion over closest British Touring Car Championship rival Tom Ingram with victory in the second race of the day at Silverstone.
While Ingram made a fantastic start from pole position to take the lead, his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N Fastback appeared not to enjoy the wet-track pace it enjoyed in the opener, and the 2022 champion slid down the order to fourth – and 11 points adrift of Hill.
Hill soon had his Laser Tools-liveried West Surrey Racing BMW 330e M Sport on the bootlid of Ingram, and on the sixth lap he sent it down the inside of the Brooklands left-hander to take the lead.
Ash Sutton had run an early third in his Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus ST, but on the second lap came notification that the four-time champion would have to serve a drive-through penalty.
Personnel had been on the grid after the three-minute board and Sutton, who now faces a mountain to climb in the title battle, was therefore consigned to an attempt to battle back from the rear of the field – although he did set fastest lap before he served the penalty.
Next to attack Ingram was Hill’s team-mate Colin Turkington, who got through with a lovely cutback move at the exit of Luffield on the 12th lap of 22.
From then on a WSR BMW 1-2 was never in doubt, and Hill led Turkington past the chequered flag to the tune of 0.822 seconds.
“I needed it after Tom’s strong qualifying and race one,” said Hill. “We had a great race one, and that put us in the perfect position to attack him – it’s great for me.”
The last to pass Ingram was Josh Cook, who lunged his Speedworks Motorsport-run LKQ Toyota Corolla GR Sport past the Hyundai at Brooklands on the 15th lap to take third.
With Sutton out of contention, Dan Cammish upheld the honour of the Alliance squad by taking his Valvoline-coloured Focus to fifth, a long way ahead of a frenetic battle for sixth.
Chris Smiley had wriggled his way through the early-lap jostling to hold the position in Restart Racing’s Cupra Leon, but once Adam Morgan emerged from the warfare his WSR BMW began to home in.
With two laps remaining, Smiley had been caught by Morgan, but the hard-driving Northern Irishman somehow held on – and got drawn on reversed-grid pole by Hill.
Dan Zelos continued his excellent day to take eighth on his second outing with the Excelr8 Hyundai team, while Aron Taylor-Smith was ninth in his Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra, and clinched the 2024 BTCC Independents’ title.
The top 10 was completed by Sam Osborne in his Alliance Ford, while team-mate Sutton made it up to 12th.
Sutton was 15th with a lap remaining, but Andrew Watson had a five-second penalty for an out-of-position start, Sutton passed Mikey Doble, and then team-mate Dan Rowbottom slowed to allow the reigning champion into the reversed-grid mix – but to no avail.
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Source: Autosport