Jake Hill reclaims championship lead with race two victory

Laser Tools Racing’s Jake Hill reclaimed the lead of the British Touring Car Championship drivers’ standings with victory in the second race at Knockhill, finishing ahead of NAPA Racing UK’s Daniel Rowbottom.

Race one winner Colin Turkington started the race from pole and lead for the early laps, but soon came under pressure from the soft tyre-shod Hill and Rowbottom.

Hill took stablemate Turkington for the lead into Duffus Dip on lap six, with Rowbottom following past at the same corner for second two laps later.

There was little risk of Hill losing the lead thereafter, as the BMW ace opened up a lead of over two seconds to claim his sixth win of the season.

Despite being handed a five-second time penalty for a false start, Rowbottom then managed to open up enough of an advantage over Turkington to secure second place.

Turkington completed the podium in third as the leading medium compound driver, the Northern Irishman moving to within 50 points of the series lead with another strong result.

Speedworks Motorsport’s Josh Cook was again the top Toyota driver, finishing in fourth and keeping himself in the title hunt.

Reigning champion Ash Sutton brought his NAPA Ford home in fifth, passing the BMW of Adam Morgan four laps into the race but failing to progress further from there.

Morgan took sixth, settling into the place after Sutton’s pass, ahead of NAPA’s Dan Cammish in seventh, who passed Toyota’s Rob Huff on lap three then spent much of the race sandwiched between the Vauxhall of Árón Taylor-Smith and Huff’s Toyota.

However, Taylor-Smith fell out of the top ten in the closing laps, with EXCELR8 Motorsport’s Tom Chilton and Tom Ingram completing the top ten, the latter after passing the Irishman into Duffus Dip on the final lap.

Taylor-Smith was 11^th, with Huff in 12^th. After the race, Hill drew the top 12 to be reversed, giving Huff pole ahead of Taylor-Smith, whilst Ingram will be hoping to salvage his weekend from third on the grid.

Race three is scheduled to begin at 17:20 BST.

Race result

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	24	20:58.075	51.641	5
2	32	M		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	24	7.980	51.420	7
3	20	M		Colin TURKINGTON	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	24	8.717	51.792	1
4	66	M		Josh COOK	LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	24	11.800	52.230	2
5	1	M		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	24	12.879	51.697	6
6	33	M		Adam MORGAN	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	24	13.248	52.212	3
7	27	M		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	24	14.698	52.231	9
8	16	M		Aiden MOFFAT	LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	24	24.308	52.512	16
9	3	M		Tom CHILTON	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	24	24.313	52.249	14
10	80	M		Tom INGRAM	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	24	25.841	52.359	20
11	40	I		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	24	26.474	52.381	4
12	12	M		Rob HUFF	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	24	26.863	52.336	8
13	222	I		Chris SMILEY	Restart Racing	CUPRA Leon	24	32.088	52.925	13
14	11	M		Andrew WATSON	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	24	33.780	52.746	11
15	77	M		Sam OSBORNE	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	24	37.053	52.515	12
16	18	I		Daryl DELEON	Duckhams Racing with Bartercard	CUPRA Leon	24	37.921	52.522	15
17	22	M		Nick HALSTEAD	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	24	40.674	52.734	19
18	88	I		Mikey DOBLE	Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	24	41.560	52.508	10
19	29	I		Scott SUMPTON	Restart Racing	CUPRA Leon	24	42.903	52.519	18
20	14	M		Ronan PEARSON	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	22	+ 2 LAPS	52.223	17