Jake Hill led from start to finish after fending off the charge of championship leader Ash Sutton to take victory at Knockhill.
Hill in his MB Motorsport BMW won by a margin of 0.374 seconds. Sutton was constantly behind as they both clattered almost every kerb in their fight for victory.
Despite Hill leading from start to finish it was not simple for Sutton. The NAPA Racing UK car moved up to third on the opening lap after Ricky Collard locked up and drew Andrew watson wide. This opened the door for Sutton to capitalise early on.
An early safety car halted the race momentarily after Jade Edwards found herself in the barrier after being squeezed onto the grass. This left Hill with a mega restart as he crossed the line 1.575 seconds in front of Stephen Jelley. This put Sutton in a prime position to take second which he would do that lap.
Jelley rounded out the podium in his Team BMW car making it two BMW’s on the podium. The gap was immense from the front pair as the gap from Hill to Jelley was 11.946 seconds.
In fourth was Árón Taylor-Smith who impressed from a drive from seventh. The Power Maxed Racing car made most of its moves after the safety car restart jumping up to fourth in the opening corners. The rest of the race was looking back cementing fourth with a 6.925 second gap to Jelley.
Dan Lloyd was the driver trying to take that fourth place away at the end of the race. After starting 10th Lloyd started carving his way through the field to put himself inside the top five. Behind was the man Taylor-Smith had to deal with through the majority of the race.
Collard was the driver who finished in sixth. After making up places off the line his lock up pushed the Toyota Gazoo Racing UK car backwards. Collard was stuck to the rear of Taylor-Smith before running wide at the Chicane to put that fight to bed.
In seventh was Ronan Pearson who held on well to a great result. After starting fifth, the highest Hyundai faced some trouble with fast cars behind starting out of position after a chaotic opening race. In the end only 0.270 seconds behind Collard.
Josh Cook had one of the drives of the race after starting 24th to finish the race in eighth. What was more impressive is that Cook was the only driver on the medium tyres inside the top 14. Meaning Cook will be the closest driver to the front on soft tyres in race three.
In ninth was Andrew Watson who after starting on the front row struggled with the pace of those behind. Stuck, in the end, in the group of cars behind Collard. The pace of Cook was almost unstoppable to keep behind.
To round out the top 10 was race one excluded Tom Ingram. After starting 26th, like Cook, the EXCELR8 driver sliced his way through the field to get himself inside the top 10 to recover some ground lost earlier. Unlike Cook, Ingram was on the soft tyre so will not have that advantage going into race three.
Race results
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 | 26 | 23:48.509 | 51.626 | 1 | |
2 | 116 | M | Ashley SUTTON | NAPA Racing UK | Ford Focus ST | 26 | 0.374 | 51.369 | 6 | |
3 | 12 | M | Stephen JELLEY | Team BMW | BMW 330e M Sport | 26 | 11.946 | 52.090 | 3 | |
4 | 40 | I | Árón TAYLOR-SMITH | CarStore Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 26 | 18.881 | 52.015 | 7 | |
5 | 123 | I | Daniel LLOYD | Autobrite Direct with Millers Oils | CUPRA Leon | 26 | 19.616 | 52.413 | 10 | |
6 | 37 | M | Ricky COLLARD | TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 26 | 21.441 | 52.129 | 4 | |
7 | 14 | M | Ronan PEARSON | BRISTOL STREET MOTORS with EXCELR8 | Hyundai i30 N Fastback | 26 | 21.711 | 52.177 | 5 | |
8 | 66 | I | Josh COOK | One Motorsport with Starline Racing | Honda Civic Type-R | 26 | 22.171 | 52.037 | 24 | |
9 | 11 | I | Andrew WATSON | CarStore Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 26 | 22.912 | 52.479 | 2 | |
10 | 1 | M | Tom INGRAM | BRISTOL STREET MOTORS with EXCELR8 | Hyundai i30 N Fastback | 26 | 23.771 | 52.142 | 26 | |
11 | 42 | M | George GAMBLE | TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 26 | 26.969 | 52.484 | 8 | |
12 | 88 | I | Mikey DOBLE | CarStore Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 26 | 30.098 | 52.642 | 9 | |
13 | 17 | I | Dexter PATTERSON | Re.Beverages and Bartercard with Team HARD. | CUPRA Leon | 26 | 32.015 | 52.520 | 12 | |
14 | 79 | I | Rob HUFF | Go-Fix with Autoaid Breakdown | CUPRA Leon | 26 | 33.464 | 52.666 | 13 | |
15 | 6 | M | Rory BUTCHER | TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 26 | 33.687 | 52.231 | 23 | |
16 | 3 | M | Tom CHILTON | BRISTOL STREET MOTORS with EXCELR8 | Hyundai i30 N Fastback | 26 | 33.883 | 52.262 | 27 | |
17 | 77 | M | Sam OSBORNE | NAPA Racing UK | Ford Focus ST | 26 | 34.218 | 52.706 | 18 | |
18 | 777 | I | Michael CREES | Autobrite Direct with Millers Oils | CUPRA Leon | 26 | 37.677 | 52.671 | 20 | |
19 | 16 | I | Aiden MOFFAT | One Motorsport with Starline Racing | Honda Civic Type-R | 26 | 38.495 | 52.623 | 22 | |
20 | 96 | I | Jack BUTEL | Go-Fix with Autoaid Breakdown | CUPRA Leon | 26 | 40.853 | 52.880 | 19 | |
21 | 22 | M | Nick HALSTEAD | BRISTOL STREET MOTORS with EXCELR8 | Hyundai i30 N Fastback | 26 | 45.275 | 52.653 | 15 | |
22 | 18 | I | Daryl DELEON | Re.Beverages and Bartercard with Team HARD. | CUPRA Leon | 26 | 51.878 | 52.701 | 21 | |
23 | 32 | M | Daniel ROWBOTTOM | NAPA Racing UK | Ford Focus ST | 25 | + 1 LAP | 52.341 | 25 | |
24 | 33 | M | Adam MORGAN | Team BMW | BMW 330e M Sport | 21 | + 5 LAPS | 52.552 | 16 | |
R | 27 | M | Dan CAMMISH | NAPA Racing UK | Ford Focus ST | 24 | DNF | 52.568 | 14 | |
R | 4 | M | Colin TURKINGTON | Team BMW | BMW 330e M Sport | 24 | DNF | 52.239 | 11 | |
R | 99 | I | Jade EDWARDS | One Motorsport with Starline Racing | Honda Civic Type-R | 21 | DNF | 52.627 | 17 |