Trade Price Cars Racing’s Jake Hill was delighted to replicate his best result of second in the opening race of the 2019 British Touring Car Championship in remarkably similar conditions to his success last year.
The Tunbridge Wells racer made a similar call to gamble on slicks as he did in race two at Brands Hatch last year, progressing through the field to score a career-best result of second on both occasions.
He qualified 15th for the opening race, and followed race-winner Josh Cook through the field, advancing to second on lap 12, by which point Cook already had an eight-second advantage.
Hill told TouringCars.Net that he relishes conditions where he feels he has “nothing to lose” and can take advantage of adverse conditions by gambling on slick tyres.
“When it comes to situations like this – I love it – I just think ‘Well, we’ve got nothing to lose,’ said Hill.
“Yes, it’s the first race and we want to do well and maybe play the safe game but that doesn’t really get anyone anywhere, so we decided to commit and go for it.
“We went for slicks obviously and it paid off – result!”
Hill did admit he was surprised that more drivers didn’t make a similar call to run slicks, but noted that conditions were worsening while the field was lined up on the grid.
“I am surprised by that, but then on the grid it did look wet. On the windscreen it was very wet and even I had the thought of going ‘Bloody hell, this is going to be close,’ he said.
“But I really beat the tyres up on the warm-up lap and manged to get some heat into them – enough just to get along – a few cars got me at the start but I knew that was going to happen.
“I sort of accepted it, let them go and got them back later. So I’m really happy with that.”
After briefly dropping back earlier in the race, Hill believes being patient was the key to making progress without contact with the slower wet-shod runners.
“I knew we were quick, five or six laps in we were just flying and making our way through the field as was Josh [Cook] and Tom [Chilton] behind me and whoever else went for it,” Hill said.
“Exactly the same result, but just 12 months later!”