At Oulton we finally discovered our edge, says BTCC winner Jake Hill
Jake Hill believes West Surrey Racing – and the team’s BMW 330e M Sport saloon – finally came of age in this season’s British Touring Car Championship title race with a dominant performance at Oulton Park over the weekend.
At last Sunday’s meeting – the final triple header before the tin top series catches its breath with a 5-week summer break – Hill raced to dominant victories in the first two races from title rival Ash Sutton.
The highlight of a historic day for the Sunbury-on-Thames-based squad came in the concluding reversed-grid contest as four-time champion Colin Turkington led home Hill and fellow team-mate Adam Morgan for a in a 1-2-3.
Prior to Oulton Park, the BMW had only one win to its name as every other race had been dominated by front-wheel-drive machinery from either NAPA Racing UK or Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8.
While conceding the balance of power is likely to remain with Sutton’s Ford Focus ST and the Hyundai i30 Fastback N of current title holder Tom Ingram, Hill feels there are reasons to be optimistic moving forward.
“It has been a blinder of a race weekend,” he said. “For me to take two wins, three podiums and three fastest laps is brilliant and I cannot say much more than that. This car and the team are true heroes and we have really turned it around this weekend.
“The car was monstrous – I am not saying that it is going to be rapid everywhere we go this season, but it is currently a lovely place to be.
“I am not quite sure I have got the words to sum up that race weekend. It has been phenomenal. I am over the moon but I am also so happy for everyone involved. My engineer Craig Porley and all the team at WSR have given me a fantastic BMW and it was on-song all weekend,” he continued.
“Although we have been up the front most of the year, we have been searching for that little bit of an edge and I felt like we were properly on top form.
“To claim two victories, a second and three fastest laps is something I am really proud of and I am so happy to deliver that for everyone who works so hard to support our programme.”
West Surrey Racing’s Team Principal Dick Bennetts was just as pleased with the success, the manner in which it was achieved and the fact it keeps both Hill and Turkington very much in the title fight when the competition resumes at Knock Hill on the weekend of July 22/23.
“Two wins, 62 points and three fastest laps is a truly magnificent achievement,” said the New Zealander. “It has been eight years since we won all three races in a day and five years since our last one-two-three.
“It happens so rarely to anybody that it’s important that you celebrate these results properly when they come.”
