Jake Hill storms to rain-affected race two win despite jump-start penalty

Laser Tools Racing’s Jake Hill doubled up with a dominant drive in a rain-affected second British Touring Car Championship race at Snetterton, despite being handed a ten-second time penalty for a jump start.

A torrential downpour just before the scheduled start of the race saw a delay to proceedings, as circuit officials worked to clear blocked drains and move standing water off the Norfolk circuit.

When racing eventually got underway 50 minutes later than planned, most of the top drivers elected to start on wet tyres.

Those who went for the slick rubber were Toyota’s Rob Huff, from ninth on the grid, and Restart Racing’s Chris Smiley, starting in 18^th.

Then, at the end of the formation lap, NAPA Racing UK’s Ash Sutton made a late dive for the pitlane, swiftly followed by EXCELR8 Motorsport’s Tom Ingram, Team BMW’s Colin Turkington and NAPA team-mate Daniel Rowbottom.

Leaving several vacant grid positions, as the lights went out Hill made a subtle false start, but it was enough to trigger stable-mate Bobby Thompson to react and make the same mistake.

That resulted in both drivers swiftly being handed a ten-second time penalty, as the slick-shod runners began to leave the pitlane following the wet-shod pack – Sutton first out of the pits with a gap to Ingram caused by an issue with the pit lane exit light.

Toyota’s Andrew Watson was the biggest mover at the start, jumping up to second as a poor start from Thompson saw him drop to fourth behind NAPA Racing’s Dan Cammish.

In the initial laps, the wet-shod drivers had the advantage. However, by the time the conditions started to change and dry up enough for the slick runners to go faster, Hill was already 35 seconds ahead of the leading slick runner of Huff in 12^th.

The wet runners were handed a lifeline when rain began to fall again at the halfway stage, resulting in the slick-shod racers falling over 15 seconds per lap off the pace once again.

Hill, meanwhile, had pressed on and was extending his lead by over a second a lap, and by the end of lap seven he had enough of a margin over Watson to nullify his time penalty.

As conditions got wetter, Watson then fell off the circuit two laps later at the Esses, handing second to Cammish and dropping the Speedworks driver to seventh.

By the chequered flag, Hill held an advantage of over 16 seconds from Cammish, allowing him to keep the win despite his penalty officially reducing his margin to 6.260 seconds.

Speedworks’ Josh Cook completed the podium in third, the Toyota racer leaping from 14^th on the grid up to sixth on the opening lap, before gaining a place when BMW’s Adam Morgan pitted for slicks on lap two.

Cook ran in fifth for much of the race, becoming fourth when Watson went off and finally third after Thompson’s penalty was applied.

EXCELR8 Motorsport’s Tom Chilton was initially fourth, following a similar trajectory to Cook and benefitting from the issues for Morgan, Watson and Thompson ahead, as well as passing Power Maxed Racing’s Mikey Doble on lap six. However, he was later penalised by five seconds for gaining an unfair advantage on Doble, and reclassified in fifth.

Doble took the flag in fifth in his Vauxhall, which became fourth after Chilton’s penalty, ahead of the recovering Watson in sixth.

Thompson was classified in seventh after his penalty, having tried desperately to get ahead of Cammish in the closing laps.

Speedworks’ Aiden Moffat, NAPA Racing’s Sam Osborne and Unlimited Motorsport’s Daryl DeLeon completed the top ten after relatively quiet races.

Victory for Hill hauls him right back into the championship mix, just eight points behind leader Sutton, who failed to score. The decision for Sutton to pit for slicks backfired, before he went off the circuit twice on lap ten, including in the barriers at Williams, before completing the race on wets and finishing in last.

Ingram followed his title rival and was out of the points in 16^th, just behind BMW’s Turkington, who got by the Hyundai driver on the final lap to salvage a point.

EXCELR8’s Nick Halstead withdrew before the race due to suffering from food poisoning.

The reverse-grid draw for the final race of the day, which is scheduled to get underway at 17:10 BST, sees the top nine reversed, handing Osborne pole position ahead of Moffat, Thompson, Watson etc.

Revised race results*

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	24	M		Jake HILL	Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	12	26:43.848	2:08.749	1
2	27	M		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	12	6.260	2:10.479	4
3	66	M		Josh COOK	LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	12	9.974	2:10.158	14
4	88	I		Mikey DOBLE	Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	12	14.794	2:10.622	13
5*	3	M		Tom CHILTON*	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	12	15.696	2:10.687	15
6	11	M		Andrew WATSON	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	12	16.626	2:10.319	5
7	19	M		Bobby THOMPSON	Zeus Cloud Racing with WSR	BMW 330e M Sport	12	16.643	2:10.644	2
8	16	M		Aiden MOFFAT	LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	12	23.431	2:11.576	21
9	77	M		Sam OSBORNE	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	12	26.823	2:11.350	16
10	18	I		Daryl DELEON	Duckhams Racing with Bartercard	CUPRA Leon	12	29.165	2:12.440	17
11	29	I		Scott SUMPTON	Restart Racing	CUPRA Leon	12	33.174	2:12.828	19
12	40	I		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	12	1:08.350	2:05.876	12
13	222	I		Chris SMILEY	Restart Racing	CUPRA Leon	12	1:32.158	2:08.271	18
14	12	M		Rob HUFF	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	12	1:33.739	2:08.117	9
15	20	M		Colin TURKINGTON	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	12	1:51.605	2:08.981	8
16	80	M		Tom INGRAM	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	12	1:52.272	2:07.986	6
17	32	M		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	11	+ 1 LAP	2:12.280	10
18	33	M		Adam MORGAN	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	11	+ 1 LAP	2:11.205	7
19	14	M		Ronan PEARSON	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	11	+ 1 LAP	2:12.901	11
20	1	M		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	11	+ 1 LAP	2:08.094	3
NS	22	M		Nick HALSTEAD	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	–	DNS	N/A	20