Jake Hill left the latest round of British Touring Car Championship at Oulton Park heartbroken after missing out on a maiden career win, and thinking what could of have been following a post-race penalty handing the victory to Stephen Jelley.
Hill seemingly tapped Matt Neal when trying to regain the place going down to Cascades which in turn spun the Honda. Despite this, the Trade Price Cars Racing driver thought he’d done enough only to get berated by Neal post-race and seemingly the stewards with him losing 20 seconds.
“The BTCC is all about small margins and ultimately, a small error has cost me my maiden win in the series.” said Hill. “I’m absolutely gutted not just for myself, but also for the whole team because we’ve worked so hard to try and get into a position to fight for a victory, and then we’ve had it taken away from us.
“Anyone who knows me will know that I’m not the kind of driver who will deliberately try and knock anyone off track. Matt made a move up the inside into the corner and when I tried to get the cutback, there was contact. It was a misjudgment when we were battling for position and there was no malice whatsoever on my part.
He spoke after the weekend and admitted that he is not only gutted for himself but for the team; Hill added that for him it was a misjudgement on his part and that there was no malice at all.
“Until that point we’d worked hard to improve the car as we were struggling for grip in the first race and the boys had done a great job to give me a car that was a fast as it was in that final race.
Despite having this taken away from him though, it has given him further determination to come back and finally claim an elusive maiden race win in the BTCC.
“Whilst I’m disappointed with the way that the weekend has drawn to a close, it only makes me more determined to come back after the summer break to try and fight for the win we should have had here.”
