The phenomenal action continued in the second BTCC encounter at Knockhill as Jake Hill held off title rival Ash Sutton in a breathtaking duel to the chequered flag.
Hill (Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport) led from start to finish while Sutton (NAPA Racing UK) made light work of his charge from sixth on the grid. The #116 Ford Focus made it past Ronan Pearson (BRISTOL STREET MOTORS with EXCELR8) at the start, before Ricky Collard (TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK) ran wide on the opening tour allowing Sutton to nip past a further two cars.
A brief safety car spell didn't stop Sutton from making ground as he soon scythed by Team BMW's Stephen Jelley and into second.
Sutton gradually reeled in Hill, but the latter produced a defensive masterclass for the remainder of the bout.
Both drivers and cars were brilliant to watch as they danced through the chicane lap-after-lap, with Sutton having a number of minor attacks for victory. Eventually the chequered flag ended the battle as Hill took his second win of the day.
Jelley had a lonely race but completed the rostrum result, following on from his fourth place finish in the opening bout.
There were good results for a quartet of runners as Aron Taylor-Smith (CarStore Power Maxed Racing), Daniel Lloyd (Autobrite Direct with Millers Oils), Ricky Collard and Patterson occupied fourth through to seventh.
The young racers were further rewarded post-race with the reverse grid draw handing Pearson pole position for the finale later today, which will mean that Collard, Lloyd and Taylor-Smith will complete the first two rows.
Josh Cook (One Motorsport with Starline Racing) and Tom Ingram (BRISTOL STREET MOTORS with EXCELR8) produced brilliant drives from the back of the pack – virtue of their opening race misfortune – as the talented duo made up more than 30 positions between them to end up eighth and tenth respectively.
Andrew Watson (CarStore Power Maxed Racing) – fresh from his maiden BTCC podium – faded during the opening exchanges of this particular race and eventually had to settle for ninth position.
The final BTCC race of the day will take place at 1720 and is live on ITV4.
Jake Hill said: "Huge, huge thank you to Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport. They've done an enormous job over this weekend and the car is going well. It might not be the fastest thing out there but it's going more than well enough. Huge thank you to them – credit where it is due.
"The first few laps I thought the gap had not really changed – once he got past [Jelley] he came at me a little bit but then it stabilised and I thought, 'sweet, i'll just keep doing this'. But then I messed up the chicane a couple of laps in a row and he just reeled me in.
"It was a fairly clean battle and I'm happy to have secured the result."
Ash Sutton said: "If I'm honest I thought Jake [Hill] had that 100% settled up and we were aiming for second regardless. I got second a bit quicker than I planned and figured i'd give it a go!
"I think initially we were similar, then we started to chip away, then a few mistakes started to come through the chicane and I got deja vu of last year in race two – so I thought I would give him a little cheeky flash just to remind him of that!
"Fair play, he hung on there and it was a mega result for NAPA Racing UK to claw that back when it looked like race one was upside down for us. To come back with a second is great."
Stephen Jelley said: "It was great! I was a bit disappointed with yesterday but it all came good today.
"Only at Knockhill could a weird situation turn into something great, so really happy for Jake [Hill] getting the win and holding out shop. More of the same – onwards and upwards!"
2023 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship – Race 2 – Knockhill
