Trade Price Cars Racing’s Jake Hill has explained his incident with Matt Neal in race three of the British Touring Car Championship at Oulton Park, following a post-race penalty that cost him a maiden series victory.
Hill started the final race at Oulton Park from reverse-grid pole and led the opening laps before being pressurised by Neal and eventually passed by him into Old Hall Corner on lap three.
As Neal went through, Hill switched back and got a better exit, but tagged the back of the Honda and pitched it into a high-speed spin, warranting a 20-second post-race penalty which dropped him to 15th.
He told TouringCars.Net he was “truly sorry” for what he felt was a “genuine miscommunication” between the two drivers, but tried to see the positives in a dire situation.
“You’ve got to put the shoe on the other foot I guess, I would have been upset if Matt had done that to me and he didn’t get anything for it,” said Hill.
“I am truly sorry for it, it was a genuine miscommunication from my side on both our parts. I just got the run at him again, and it went to move across slightly and we just tagged ever so slightly.
“On the plus side, the car was alright. It wasn’t as fast as Rory [Butcher] who came at me like a missile which was great.
“Gutted for him as well, but at the same time happy that Stephen took it from me, it’s great for him.
“But yeah it hurts. It really hurts. It was a genuine mistake and I paid the price.”