Jake Hill ends first official BTCC test of 2024 with the top time

Laser Tools Racing’s Jake Hill topped the times in the first official test ahead of the 2024 British Touring Car Championship season, lapping the Brands Hatch Indy circuit half a tenth quicker than Toyota’s Rob Huff in the afternoon session.

The morning session was dominated by rainy conditions early on, resulting in drivers unable to lap any quicker than in the mid to low 50 seconds.

Initially it was only the BMWs of Hill and Team BMW’s Colin Turkington who took to the track, but conditions began to get better and after 40 minutes of running NAPA Racing UK’s Ashley Sutton took over at the top of the times with a lap of 53.350 seconds.

Just past the hour mark, things heated up, with Toyota’s Andrew Watson setting the benchmark for over an hour and half. Things then improved in the run up to lunchtime as the track dried up, with his former team-mate at Power Maxed Racing Árón Taylor-Smith ascending to the top.

A raft of improvements came in the final half hour, although for the most part it was Power Maxed’s Mikey Doble and the NAPA cars of Sutton, Dan Cammish and Daniel Rowbottom sharing the top times – with no less than 17 improvements in the space of less than 18 minutes.

However, it was BMW’s Adam Morgan who snuck in before the break with an effort of 49.129 seconds to hold the best lap in the first of the day’s two sessions.

After lunch, it took just seven minutes before lap times were quicker than in the morning, and Morgan was once again in the mix with a flurry of top times in the first half hour.

As the session matured, Speedworks Motorsport’s Josh Cook took over at the top, initially with a time of 48.851 seconds after 15 minutes, before repeatedly improving, such that by two-and-a-half hours into the session he had posted a 48.031 and held the top time no less than seven times.

Late in the afternoon, Toyota’s Huff held the best lap for 20 minutes, before Hill snuck in 12 laps from the end with his time of 47.868 seconds.

Huff was ultimately just 0.065 seconds behind, with Morgan ending up third overall, ahead of Cook in fourth.

All drivers posted their fastest laps in the better conditions of the afternoon session.

Taylor-Smith was fifth in the PMR Vauxhall, ahead of reigning champion Sutton in sixth.

The top ten was completed by Cammish, Speedworks’ Aiden Moffat, EXCELR8’s Tom Ingram and PMR’s Mikey Doble, the latter just over half a second off the pace.

Whilst Bobby Thompson did take part in the test for WSR, his BMW did not have a transponder fitted and thus no lap times were recorded on the public timing screens.

20 cars took part in the session, with notably no running for Team HARD.

The next official test takes place at Croft on 10 April.

Combined session results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	24		Jake HILL	Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	87	47.868	–
2	12		Rob HUFF	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	124	47.933	0.065
3	33		Adam MORGAN	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	132	47.936	0.068
4	66		Josh COOK	LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	101	48.031	0.163
5	40		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	88	48.151	0.283
6	1		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	144	48.168	0.300
7	27		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	109	48.201	0.333
8	16		Aiden MOFFAT	LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	99	48.210	0.342
9	80		Tom INGRAM	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	68	48.367	0.499
10	88		Mikey DOBLE	Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	110	48.395	0.527
11	14		Ronan PEARSON	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	79	48.402	0.534
12	20		Colin TURKINGTON	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	111	48.409	0.541
13	3		Tom CHILTON	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	68	48.420	0.552
14	77		Sam OSBORNE	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	152	48.437	0.569
15	11		Andrew WATSON	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	89	48.534	0.666
16	32		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	130	48.594	0.726
17	222		Chris SMILEY	Restart Racing	CUPRA Leon	87	48.841	0.973
18	22		Nick HALSTEAD	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	62	49.286	1.418
19	29		Scott SUMPTON	Restart Racing	CUPRA Leon	59	49.601	1.733