Jake Hill scored a last-gap victory in the final British Touring Car Championship race of the day at Oulton Park, denying race-long leader Mikey Doble a would-be maiden win.
Power Maxed Racing duo Doble and Árón Taylor-Smith locked out the front row of the reversed grid, after the top six were inverted for the final race.
Hill, starting from fourth, was boxed in by NAPA Racing UK’s Dan Cammish and the Vauxhall of Taylor-Smith at the start, as Doble was able to eke out an advantage of just over a second over his team-mate in the opening three laps.
Hill took third from Cammish at Cascades on the first lap and wasted no time in getting onto the back of Taylor-Smith to hassle him for second.
However, Taylor-Smith put up a stern defence of second, and it took Hill until lap ten to get past the Vauxhall on the run up to the Island hairpin, benefitting from a good exit at Cascades to power past before the corner.
Doble then had to put up his own stoic defence in the final laps, but with both drivers out of hybrid by the penultimate lap, Doble ultimately lost out to the BMW on the final tour, the duo rubbing panels on the run to the Hislops chicane before Hill prevailed on the outside line.
Hill broke clear over the final few corners to record his fifth win of the season and move into a four-point championship lead ahead of the summer break.
Doble scored his maiden BTCC podium in second, with Taylor-Smith also securing his first podium of the season in third – cementing the first-ever double podium for the Power Maxed team.
Fourth went to EXCELR8 Motorsport’s Tom Ingram after he dived inside Cammish at the Island hairpin on lap nine, with Cammish taking the chequered flag in fifth as the leading NAPA Racing UK driver.
Cammish had been heading a trio of NAPA Fords after Ingram’s pass, but two laps later Ash Sutton suffered from an issue with his front-right wheel arch, forcing him to pit and dropping the erstwhile points leader from seventh to 15th.
Having started from 16th, Sutton until that stage had been enjoying a charge through the field, passing five cars on the opening lap alone before picking off numerous others until his issue appeared at Cascades.
Sutton’s issue promoted team-mate Daniel Rowbottom to sixth, with BMW’s Adam Morgan in seventh after also completing a back-of-the-grid recovery drive following his race two spin.
Speedworks Motorsport’s Josh Cook was eighth, having fluctuated around that position throughout the race.
Restart Racing’s Chris Smiley was ninth, backing up his earlier top ten result with another strong finish, with Speedworks’ Aiden Moffat completing the top ten from the back of the grid.
Both Rob Huff and Sam Osborne received five-second penalties for false starts in the race, dropping the Toyota driver to 12th whilst Osborne retired in the pits after ten laps.
EXCELR8’s Tom Chilton was the only other retirement, having pulled into the pits before the formation lap with a fire extinguisher issue inside his car.
Heading into the summer break, Hill now leads the drivers’ standings on 211 points, ahead of Ingram (207), Sutton (187), Cammish (169) and Cook (153).
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 | 15 | 21:42.189 | 1:25.484 | 4 |
| 2 | 88 | I | |
Mikey DOBLE | Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 15 | 0.749 | 1:25.893 | 1 |
| 3 | 40 | I |  |
Árón TAYLOR-SMITH | Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 15 | 2.410 | 1:25.729 | 2 |
| 4 | 80 | M | |
Tom INGRAM | BRISTOL STREET MOTORS | Hyundai i30 N Fastback | 15 | 2.856 | 1:25.904 | 5 |
| 5 | 27 | M | |
Dan CAMMISH | NAPA Racing UK | Ford Focus ST | 15 | 3.714 | 1:25.975 | 3 |
| 6 | 32 | M | |
Daniel ROWBOTTOM | NAPA Racing UK | Ford Focus ST | 15 | 4.150 | 1:25.785 | 9 |
| 7 | 33 | M | |
Adam MORGAN | Team BMW | BMW 330e M Sport | 15 | 6.758 | 1:25.545 | 17 |
| 8 | 66 | M | |
Josh COOK | LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 15 | 7.474 | 1:26.110 | 6 |
| 9 | 222 | I | |
Chris SMILEY | Restart Racing | CUPRA Leon | 15 | 9.744 | 1:26.206 | 8 |
| 10 | 16 | M | |
Aiden MOFFAT | LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 15 | 12.474 | 1:26.060 | 20 |
| 11 | 14 | M | |
Ronan PEARSON | BRISTOL STREET MOTORS | Hyundai i30 N Fastback | 15 | 14.991 | 1:25.788 | 13 |
| 12 | 12 | M | |
Rob HUFF | TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 15 | 15.065 | 1:25.936 | 11 |
| 13 | 18 | I |  |
Daryl DELEON | Duckhams Racing with Bartercard | CUPRA Leon | 15 | 20.717 | 1:26.298 | 12 |
| 14 | 11 | M | |
Andrew WATSON | TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 15 | 20.902 | 1:26.181 | 10 |
| 15 | 20 | M | |
Colin TURKINGTON | Team BMW | BMW 330e M Sport | 15 | 30.738 | 1:26.131 | 7 |
| 16 | 29 | I | |
Scott SUMPTON | Restart Racing | CUPRA Leon | 15 | 39.908 | 1:26.729 | 14 |
| 17 | 22 | M | |
Nick HALSTEAD | BRISTOL STREET MOTORS | Hyundai i30 N Fastback | 15 | 1:03.918 | 1:26.492 | 18 |
| 18 | 1 | M | |
Ashley SUTTON | NAPA Racing UK | Ford Focus ST | 15 | 1:17.217 | 1:25.406 | 16 |
| R | 77 | M | |
Sam OSBORNE | NAPA Racing UK | Ford Focus ST | 10 | DNF | 1:26.346 | 15 |
| R | 3 | M | |
Tom CHILTON | BRISTOL STREET MOTORS | Hyundai i30 N Fastback | 0 | DNF | N/A | 19 |