Jake Hill Secures Pole Position for Brands Hatch BTCC Weekend
This weekend’s British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) event at Brands Hatch’s Indy Circuit will get underway with Jake Hill on pole position for the first of three races. The West Surrey Racing BMW driver secured the top spot in a tightly contested qualifying session, edging out teammate Charles Rainford by a mere 0.021 seconds, as reported by Racer.com.
According to Racer.com, Hill’s best time of 46.493s in the final Quick Six portion of qualifying proved enough to see him claim pole position. Rainford, who had topped Q2, will start from second, with Adam Morgan – the highest-placed front-wheel-drive runner – qualifying third in his Excelr8 Motorsport-run Team Vertu Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance. Morgan’s time was just 0.005s back from Rainford.
The top six on the grid was completed by Tom Ingram, who will start fourth in his Team Vertu Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance, Dan Cammish fifth in his NAPA Racing UK Ford Focus ST, and Mikey Doble, the highest-placed independent runner, sixth in his Motor parts Direct with Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra. As Racer.com reports, Doble’s performance marked a strong showing for the independent teams.
Further down the grid, Sam Osborne will start seventh, having been eliminated in Q2. A late time from teammate Cammish dropped him out of a transfer spot. Daniel Lloyd will line up eighth for Restart Racing, ahead of Daryl DeLeon and Ronan Pearson, who was the highest-placed of the Toyota Gazoo Racing UK cars. The Speedworks Motorsport-run operation faced a difficult day, as noted by Racer.com.
A notable absentee from the sharp end of qualifying was championship leader Ash Sutton, who failed to advance from his Q1 group due to a lack of turbo boost allocation. Sutton’s best time put him seventh in his group, 0.54s adrift of Chris Smiley in the final transfer spot. As Racer.com explains, drivers in the top 10 of the championship standings receive less ‘TOCA Turbo Boost’ (TTB) allocation, with that amount starting at 1 second for the points leader and increasing by two-second increments up to the driver eighth in the points.
As a result of his TTB allocation, Sutton will start the first race on Sunday from 13th on the grid, behind Smiley and Stephen Jelley. The full grid for the first race is as follows:
The racing action will get underway on Sunday, with all three races broadcast live on RACER Network at 6:30am, 9am and 12pm ET. Fans can tune in to watch the action unfold.
As reported by Racer.com, The top 10 qualifiers are:
- Jake Hill – 46.493s
- Charles Rainford – 46.514s
- Adam Morgan – 46.519s
- Tom Ingram – 46.527s
- Dan Cammish – 46.535s
- Mikey Doble – 46.543s
- Sam Osborne – 46.551s
- Daniel Lloyd – 46.559s
- Daryl DeLeon – 46.567s
- Ronan Pearson – 46.575s
Qualifying Results as reported by Racer.com
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