Kent’s Jake Hill and his Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport team will be looking to continue their winning momentum this weekend as the team heads for Thruxton Circuit to contest the fourth round of the 2024 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship.
The team head for the Hampshire circuit this week having enjoyed a strong start to the 2024 campaign which has Jake Hill tied 3rd in the Drivers’ Championship with 110 points – just 11 points adrift of the championship leader.
Kicking off the season with a brace of podiums at Donington Park and more points at Brands Hatch, the team returned to winning ways last time out as Jake Hill was the driver to beat in the third round of the season at Snetterton.
Storming to pole position by over six-tenths, Jake Hill secured a lights-to-flag victory in the opening race before doubling his winning tally in the second race as he dominated in the wet/dry race despite carrying a penalty.
With the highest average speed of any circuit visited by the BTCC, Thruxton’s fearsome reputation has drivers racing on a knife-edge as they tackle the 2.37-mile circuit.
Goodyear’s hard compound tyre makes its appearance at the Hampshire venue due to the relentless high-speed corners, and even with this precaution tyre management is always essential at Thruxton.
This weekend, Jake Hill, in his WSR-run BMW 330e M Sport, and the team will have to manage his hybrid deployment with his tied 3rd place championship position meaning he will have 5 Secs/Lap of hybrid in qualifying, deployed at a minimum speed of 135 KPH, with three laps of hybrid to be used in the opening 16-lap race on Sunday.
Speaking ahead of the weekend, Hill said: “We head to Thruxton on the back of a fantastic weekend at Snetterton where we showed what we are truly capable of!”
“Away from the track, we’ve been working non-stop to ensure that we keep the momentum going and stay fighting at the front of the field.”
“We’ve always managed to secure strong points on our trips to Thruxton, the circuit isn’t the optimal track for our package but we’ll be working hard to extract everything we can.”
“This weekend we’ll have to be at our very best once again as we know how competitive the grid is this year.”
Meanwhile, Mark Blundell added: “We head to Thruxton fully aware of the challenges the circuit possesses and carrying winning momentum from our last round at Snetterton.”
“The hard work behind the scenes paid off last time out so we need to go into this weekend with the same level of grit and determination.”
“Free practice will be crucial for finding the ideal setup as confidence in the car is key to a good lap time in qualifying – as well as tyre wear playing a big role in the races.”
“We’ve historically had good results here so we need to keep that form going this weekend to keep us at the sharp end of the field.”
All three races take place on Sunday, with live coverage available on TikTok, ITV4 and online at ITVX. Sunday’s triple header of races are scheduled to get underway at 11:45 (BST), 14:35 and 17:20 respectively. Live timing across the weekend is available here.