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.
Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport and their WSR-run BMW 330e M Sport made the trip to the 1.98 miles National configuration of the Donington Park circuit on the weekend and enjoyed a successful start to the new season.
Beginning the season on Saturday with the weekend’s two practice sessions, Jake Hill finished the two practices in 12th and 6th place respectively as preparations for race day and qualifying begun.
In a new for 2024 qualifying format, the grid was split into two groups with Jake handed a place in the second group. Finishing 2nd in the first round of qualifying, Jake 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 4th place and bag his place in the top-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.
The opening race day of the season got off to a turbulent start as extreme rain forced the opening race of the day to be delayed with conditions too dangerous to race in. Once the standing water had cleared and the track had been deemed safe to race on, 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, and moved 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 of 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 and trips to the rostrum.
For the final race of the weekend, and the reverse grid race, Jake was handed a seventh-place starting position. In the usual chaos of race three, 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.
Jake now departs Donington Park 3rd 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 round of the 2024 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship.
