Jake Hill edges out Rory Butcher to claim crucial race two win

MB Motorsport’s Jake Hill scored his third British Touring Car Championship win of the season by passing Toyota’s Rory Butcher for the win in race two at Silverstone, moving to just two points from the lead of the championship.

Race one winner Butcher led away from the line, whilst Hill had to fend off a challenge from the Ciceley Motorsport BMW of Adam Morgan in the first half of the lap.

However, both drivers lost out to Team Dynamics’ fast-starting Gordon Shedden, who stole second under braking into Brooklands, whilst NAPA Racing UK’s Ashley Sutton also took advantage to take fourth, with Morgan quickly being shuffled out to fifth.

Hill reclaimed second from Shedden on lap four, shortly before a safety car intervention was required to recover the Infiniti of Laser Tools Racing’s Dexter Patterson, who had been spun off into the gravel on the exit of the final corner.

Racing resumed on lap nine and two laps later Hill, now with his tyres up to temperature, took the lead from Butcher with a well-timed run exiting Luffield and completing the move into Copse on the next lap.

After eight further laps of racing, another late-race safety car period was required when Ricky Collard’s Toyota, running in ninth at the time, caught fire and needed recovering from the Woodcote gravel.

That left a five-lap sprint to the chequered flag, and Hill immediately made a superb restart to extend a lead of over a second, ultimately going on to win by two seconds from Butcher.

Shedden completed the podium, although with Hill’s win it means the Scot is formally out of title contention, being 91 points adrift of the lead with only 77 now up for grabs.

Sutton brought his Ford home in fourth, making no further gains after the opening lap although he had to withstand heavy pressure from Excelr8 Motorsport’s Tom Ingram in fifth.

Ingram had dropped to seventh on the opening lap, but he clawed a place back past Dan Cammish on the following tour before going around the outside of Morgan for fourth two laps later.

Morgan finished in sixth, ahead of the second NAPA Ford of Cammish in seventh.

BTC Racing’s Josh Cook was eighth, and after the race the Honda driver was randomly drawn to start the final race of the day from pole position. Cook must win the final race to keep his slim title hopes alive, as he is now 74 points from the championship lead with only 77 still available.

Team HARD’s Bobby Thompson and team-mate Árón Taylor-Smith completed the top ten – marking the first time this year that the outfit has had two cars inside the top ten.

Team BMW’s Colin Turkington took the chequered flag in 13^th after a recovery drive from 27^th on the grid. The Northern Irishman made his biggest gains on the opening lap, moving up seven places to 20^th, before steadily gaining ground later in the race and benefitting from team-mate Stephen Jelley moving aside.

Excelr8’s Dan Lloyd completed the points in 15^th after being dropped two places by the BMWs on the last lap.

Race three is scheduled to get underway at 17:10 BST.

Race result

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	24	M		Jake HILL	ROKiT MB Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	25	27:09.022	57.854	2
2	6	M		Rory BUTCHER	Toyota GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	25	2.092	58.006	1
3	52	M		Gordon SHEDDEN	Halfords Racing with Cataclean	Honda Civic Type R	25	2.452	57.951	4
4	1	M		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	25	2.886	57.872	6
5	80	M		Tom INGRAM	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	25	3.078	57.695	5
6	33	I		Adam MORGAN	Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	25	3.412	57.956	3
7	9	M		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	25	4.189	58.132	7
8	66	I		Josh COOK	Rich Energy BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type R	25	4.868	57.992	13
9	19	I		Bobby THOMPSON	Autobrite Direct with JourneyHero	CUPRA Leon	25	5.897	58.132	11
10	40	I		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	Yazoo with Safuu.com Racing	CUPRA Leon	25	6.868	58.152	15
11	48	M		Ollie JACKSON	Apec Racing with Beavis Morgan	Ford Focus ST	25	8.118	58.096	19
12	3	M		Tom CHILTON	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	25	8.449	58.120	10
13	50	M		Colin TURKINGTON	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	25	8.603	58.181	27
14	12	M		Stephen JELLEY	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	25	8.925	57.926	9
15	123	M		Daniel LLOYD	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	25	9.000	58.029	12
16	16	I		Aiden MOFFAT	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	25	11.812	58.231	25
17	11	I		Jason PLATO	Rich Energy BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type R	25	12.980	58.379	14
18	32	M		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	Halfords Racing with Cataclean	Honda Civic Type R	25	13.639	58.250	18
19	777	I		Michael CREES	CarStore Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	25	13.885	58.413	16
20	42	I		George GAMBLE	Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	25	14.230	58.422	24
21	97	I		Ash HAND	CarStore Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	25	15.289	58.455	28
22	96	M		Jack BUTEL	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	25	15.469	58.292	29
23	77	M		Sam OSBORNE	Apec Racing with Beavis Morgan	Ford Focus ST	25	16.543	58.496	20
24	99	I		Jade EDWARDS	Rich Energy BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type R	25	19.145	58.814	17
25	20	I		Will POWELL	Autobrite Direct with JourneyHero	CUPRA Leon	25	20.728	58.916	22
26	62	I		Rick PARFITT JR	Uptonsteel with Euro Car Parts Racing	Infiniti Q50	25	22.168	58.893	21
R	21	M		Ricky COLLARD	Toyota GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	16	DNF	58.052	8
R	28	I		Nicolas HAMILTON	Yazoo with Safuu.com Racing	CUPRA Leon	12	DNF	58.881	23
R	17	I		Dexter PATTERSON	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	4	DNF	58.831	26