Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport enjoyed a strong start to the year with two trips to the podium as Jake Hill recorded a brace of third place finishes and a fifth place to commence the 2024 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship.
In the new-for-2024 ‘Quick Six’ qualifying format, the grid was split into two groups with Jake handed a place in the second group. Finishing second in the first round of qualifying, he progressed through to the next stage which saw the top-six from each group make up the 12 cars battling for the six spaces in the final shootout.
Another strong session saw Jake finish in fourth place and bag his place in the ‘Quick Six’ shootout. In the final part of the day's qualifying, Jake finished the session in 4th place to secure a second row start for the opening race on Sunday.
Once the standing water had cleared, the opening race of the season eventually got started with Jake getting a fantastic launch from the second row.
Flying past Ash Sutton and into third place, Jake continued on the attack and passed Colin Turkington down the Craner Curves, moving up to second place within half a lap. Racing was paused after a big collision for Sam Osborne forced repairs to be made to the tyre barrier.
Racing resumed with just a handful of laps remaining and unfortunately, Jake lost a position to Sutton and crossed the finishing line in third place to record a trip to the podium in the opening race of the season.
Starting in third place for race two, Jake got another sensational launch off the line and passed both Sutton and Ingram heading into turn one.
Jake then tried to extend his lead at the front of the field but was soon caught by both Ingram and Sutton, falling behind both drivers before the end of the race to record back-to-back third-place finishes.
For the final race of the weekend, and the reverse grid race, Jake was handed a seventh place starting position. Jake was able to make good progress up the order and came home in fifth place to round out a strong opening race day of 2024.
Hill ended the opening weekend third in the Drivers' Championship with 42 points, 16 points adrift of leader Tom Ingram, as we head to Brands Hatch Indy (11/12 May) for the second race weekend of the 2024 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship.
