Written by Ollie Lewis, Edited by Vyas Ponnuri
Home hero Jake Hill won the 2024 British Touring Car Championship, racing for MB Motorsport at Brands Hatch on Sunday.
While touring car racing may not garner as much popularity as international racing series, the standard of racing is world-class and almost always hair-raisingly close.
The final rounds of the BTCC were no exception, featuring three races throughout the day in all conditions.
Before the weekend even began, the championship looked to be up for grabs, with three drivers in contention. The trio included Hill, 2022 champion Tom Ingram, and reigning champion Ash Sutton, who was looking to snatch his fifth title.
Unfortunately for the latter, a DNF in the first round meant he lost out to Hill and Ingram after his No.1 NAPA Racing Ford Focus ST was beached in the gravel, following a first-lap clash with Toyota Gazoo Racing driver Josh Cook.
A win for Hill in the first round at the Brands Hatch GP Circuit and a subsequent win for Tom Ingram in the second round meant they went into the final round of the season separated by just a single point.
The Battle of Brands began at 17:45 pm British Standard Time (BST) in damp and slippery conditions with fading light, setting quite the ominous scene before the lights went out.
Jake Hill and his teammate Colin Turkington had the advantage of rear-wheel drive, with the BMW being the only car in the championship to use it. The RWD powertrain allowed for the BMWs to push off the line much quicker than their front-wheel drive counterparts, launching them straight into the action.
Following a reverse grid draw, Hill and Ingram started the race sixth and seventh respectively. However, all the cars in front of Hill were FWD so were ever so slightly slower off the line, causing them to come together and form a barrier preventing anyone from moving through.
Hill tried his luck around the outside of Paddock Hill Bend, the first corner at Brands Hatch, but was stopped in his tracks by a gaggle of Fords and Toyotas.
Ingram went the other way and managed to sneak up the inside of the pack on the run up the hill into Druids, temporarily placing cars between himself and Hill.
More scuffles within the pack meant that Dan Cammish, racing for NAPA, was tagged and forced in front of Hill. Cammish, stout in his defence, made it particularly difficult for Hill to overtake him, costing valuable time.
Ingram began to slowly pull away until the third lap, where the BMWs began to fire up their tires and traffic began to disperse.
Within a lap, Hill had caught Ingram, who was now beginning to struggle in his No.80 Hyundai I30n Fastback.
In a post-race interview conducted by ITV, Ingram stated that his car had lost ‘front-end grip’ as the race went on, proven by his sudden drop in laptimes when he suddenly began losing up to a second per lap to Jake Hill and the leaders.
Hill made what is possibly the most crucial overtake of his career on lap 5, using the BMW’s extra drive from the rear to power himself down Hawthorns Hill, the longest straight on the track.’
Approaching Hawthorns, the quickest corner of the track, Hill lined up an overtake on the inside of Ingram. Cars are often doing well over a hundred miles an hour into this right-hander, making Hill’s overtake especially risky in the wet.
Despite a slide coming out of the corner on the run into Westfield, Hill retained the position and began his surge up the field chasing down Josh Cook in third, trying to put a car in between him and Ingram.
Ingram held on for a couple of laps, but he was blocked by another barrier of cars fighting for the lead coming out of Graham Hill Bend. This time, however, it was Hill who benefitted as he moved into third, while Ingram was held up in fifth.
For a few laps, Ingram was held up by Aron Taylor-Smith, racing for Evans Halshaw, which allowed Hill’s teammate Turkington to apply pressure on Ingram by lining up overtakes behind.
By lap 10, Ash Sutton was flying in the lead with a five-second gap to Hill, who had just overtaken Josh Cook.
On lap 13, Ingram unfortunately fell further down the order, losing out to Cammish and Turkington before crossing the line in sixth on lap 15. Sutton took a dominant final win of the season, ending his championship reign in style.
Following a stellar season, BMW won the manufacturers’ championship, with contribution from Hill, Turkington, and Adam Morgan, the trio having stellar seasons in the series.
Jake Hill’s final drive of the season was nothing short of a champion, with most agreeing that it was fully deserved and a long time coming.
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