Jake Hill bolstered his championship challenge with a crucial victory in the second British Touring Car Championship race at Croft, which saw race one winner Aiden Moffat and BTC racing’s Josh Cook complete the podium.
Moffat started the race from pole having claimed his first 2021 win earlier in the day, but the Laser Tools Racing driver now had the maximum 75 kg of success ballast on board his Infiniti.
At the start, Hill made it past Moffat for the lead at the Complex at the end of the lap and he never looked back opening up a comfortable lead thanks to the defensive driving of Moffat.
The safety car was required on the second lap of the race for two separate incidents. Rory Butcher’s weekend woes continued as he was sent into the barriers at the Complex, whilst Tom Oliphant went off at the first chicane on the second lap with right-rear suspension damage on his BMW.
Racing resumed on lap six, but not before Nicolas Hamilton had crashed into the back of Jack Butel at the hairpin before the green flags, taking himself out of the race.
At the front, Hill was leading Moffat and BTC Racing duo Senna Proctor and Cook, with Cook getting past his team-mate for third on lap nine.
Three laps later, BMW’s Colin Turkington was briefly past Cook into third, but on the following lap, with a concertina of cars behind Moffat, Turkington was nudged off at Turn 1 by Gordon Shedden, dropping him to eighth.
Cook then held the final podium place to the end of the race, finishing ahead of Excelr8 Motorsport’s tom Ingram, who had crucially passed championship leader Ash Sutton for the place on lap 14 at the final hairpin.
Sutton took fifth, having at one stage been dropped to eighth, ahead of Shedden in sixth, the Team Dynamics driver losing ground in the incident on lap 13 with Turkington.
Turkington made back one place past Proctor by the end of the race to claim seventh, and with it the Northern Irishman also bagged the reverse-grid pole position for race three.
Proctor was eighth, with the top ten being completed by Excelr8’s Chris Smiley and Cicely Motorsport’s Adam Morgan.
Power Maxed Racing’s Daniel Lloyd had been running in 11th for the first half of the race, but lost out on lap 13 as BMW’s Stephen Jelley pushed him wide, before he was then knocked out wide again at the Complex, ultimately taking the finish in 18th.
That meant Jason Plato was PMR’s best-placed driver in 12th, a place behind Jelley.
Tom Chilton suffered a spin on the opening lap at the complex, dropping him to 28th, but the Ciceley motorsport driver recovered to 17th by the end of the race, including posting the fastest lap.
Victory for Hill moves him to 209 points, 22 points behind leader Sutton, followed by Cook (200), Ingram (197) and Turkington (191).
Race three is scheduled to take place at 17:05 BST.
Race result
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 24 | M |  |
Jake HILL | MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square | Ford Focus ST | 18 | 27:31.374 | 1:23.083 | 2 |
| 2 | 16 | I | |
Aiden MOFFAT | Laser Tools Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 18 | 5.508 | 1:23.533 | 1 |
| 3 | 66 | I | |
Josh COOK | BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type-R | 18 | 6.849 | 1:23.436 | 5 |
| 4 | 80 | I | |
Tom INGRAM | Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 18 | 7.512 | 1:23.102 | 12 |
| 5 | 1 | I | |
Ashley SUTTON | Laser Tools Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 18 | 7.749 | 1:23.601 | 6 |
| 6 | 52 | I | |
Gordon SHEDDEN | Halfords Racing with Cataclean | Honda Civic Type-R | 18 | 7.999 | 1:23.529 | 10 |
| 7 | 2 | M | |
Colin TURKINGTON | Team BMW | BMW 330i M Sport | 18 | 10.087 | 1:23.418 | 4 |
| 8 | 18 | I | |
Senna PROCTOR | BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type-R | 18 | 11.254 | 1:23.372 | 3 |
| 9 | 22 | I | |
Chris SMILEY | Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 18 | 11.916 | 1:23.441 | 7 |
| 10 | 33 | I | |
Adam MORGAN | Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport | BMW 330i M Sport | 18 | 12.262 | 1:23.327 | 8 |
| 11 | 12 | M | |
Stephen JELLEY | Team BMW | BMW 330i M Sport | 18 | 12.438 | 1:23.508 | 13 |
| 12 | 11 | I | |
Jason PLATO | Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 18 | 12.771 | 1:23.272 | 17 |
| 13 | 4 | M | |
Sam OSBORNE | Racing with Wera & Photon Group | Ford Focus ST | 18 | 13.152 | 1:23.511 | 16 |
| 14 | 48 | M | |
Ollie JACKSON | MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square | Ford Focus ST | 18 | 13.37 | 1:23.748 | 29 |
| 15 | 31 | I | |
Jack GOFF | Team HARD. with Autobrite Direct | CUPRA Leon | 18 | 13.81 | 1:23.701 | 18 |
| 16 | 32 | I | |
Daniel ROWBOTTOM | Halfords Racing with Cataclean | Honda Civic Type-R | 18 | 14.927 | 1:23.810 | 28 |
| 17 | 3 | I | |
Tom CHILTON | Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport | BMW 330i M Sport | 18 | 15.131 | 1:22.687 | 11 |
| 18 | 123 | I | |
Daniel LLOYD | Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 18 | 15.33 | 1:23.553 | 9 |
| 19 | 23 | M | |
Sam SMELT | Toyota Gazoo Racing UK | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 18 | 16.011 | 1:23.694 | 21 |
| 20 | 19 | I | |
Jack MITCHELL | Team HARD. with Autobrite Direct | CUPRA Leon | 18 | 16.472 | 1:23.394 | 22 |
| 21 | 99 | I | |
Jade EDWARDS | PHSC with BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type-R | 18 | 17.225 | 1:23.456 | 27 |
| 22 | 40 | I |  |
Árón TAYLOR-SMITH | Team HARD. with HUB Financial Solutions | CUPRA Leon | 18 | 18.419 | 1:23.810 | 14 |
| 23 | 41 | I | |
Carl BOARDLEY | Laser Tools Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 18 | 19.013 | 1:23.540 | 15 |
| 24 | 44 | M | |
Andy NEATE | Racing with Wera & Photon Group | Ford Focus ST | 18 | 31.145 | 1:24.031 | 24 |
| 25 | 42 | I | |
Nick HALSTEAD | EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 18 | 33.461 | 1:24.934 | 26 |
| 26 | 96 | I | |
Jack BUTEL | EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 17 | + 1 LAP | 1:24.153 | 23 |
| R | 28 | I | |
Nicolas HAMILTON | ROKiT Racing with iQuoto Online Trading | CUPRA Leon | 5 | DNF | 1:42.895 | 25 |
| R | 15 | M | |
Tom OLIPHANT | Team BMW | BMW 330i M Sport | 1 | DNF | 1:38.628 | 20 |
| R | 6 | M | |
Rory BUTCHER | Toyota Gazoo Racing UK | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 0 | DNF | N/A | 19 |