Jake Hill is aiming to go into the off-season with ‘at least a trophy’ after the Team HARD driver qualified in eighth for the first race of the British Touring Car Championship season finale weekend at Brands Hatch.
Hill secured his second successive top ten qualifying result at Brands Hatch, putting his Volkswagen CC on the fourth row of the grid for race one.
But the 23-year-old believes he could have gone even faster if he had been able to link up all of his personal best sectors onto the same lap.
“I’m very happy; if I had done the first sector that I did on the lap before my qualifying lap then I would have been second or third,” said Hill to TouringCars.Net. “I’m a little bit gutted to miss out there, but I’m still happy. It’s my home track and the car seems to be consistently good, so fingers crossed!”
Hill is aiming to use the fact that his car is carrying no success ballast to his advantage in race one, as four of the seven drivers in front of him will have a heavier carto begin with on Sunday.
“If you look at the people around, quite a few of them have weight, and obviously that’s going to play a big part.
“That said, if it rains then we might not benefit as much; if anything it might actually benefit the guys who have weight.”
Hill’s best result so far this season has been sixth, at Snetterton, but he admits he is aiming to end the season with some silverware for his efforts, especially after suffering a highs-to-lows weekend at Silverstone.
“It would be nice to race against good quality people and score three top tens; that’s my aim,” added Hill. “I’d love nothing more than to have a trophy of some sort to take away from the weekend, but we’ll see. I’m not expecting anything, I just want to be in the top ten.
“Going into the off-season with strong results helps massively, as it helps you move forward with sponsorship negotiations and who you talk to team-wise next year.
“After the torrid time I’ve had in the last few rounds, I want to go home happy. I’ve gone home almost crying in the past, especially after Silverstone and how good it could have been.
“I just want to finish the end of the season and say ‘mega, we did Brands well’ so I’ve got my fingers crossed for good results on Sunday.”