BTCC Weekend Superstar: Jake Hill

Silverstone produced some absolutely fantastic racing that featured various stand out performances. There were epic drives through the field from Rob Collard, Colin Turkington and Gordon Shedden, as well as strong performances from Rob Austin, who scored his second podium of the year in race one, and Aiden Moffat, who managed to finish inside the top in all three races. But our Weekend Superstar award goes to none of these; it goes to Jake Hill. Here's why:

It was a great start to the weekend for Hill in qualifying where he finished a season best of eleventh, ahead of several more experienced and better equipped drivers. Hill also lapped significantly quicker than his two teammates; Tony Gilham would be twenty seventh and Michael Epps thirty first, although to be fair to Epps he did have a mechanical problem.

Hill's impressive performance continued into race one when he went wheel to wheel with some of the best drivers in British Motorsport. Hill showed his true class as he managed to battle cleanly and fairly with the likes of Matt Neal, Gordon Shedden and Aron Smith. While other drivers where having problems and making mistakes, Hill stayed consistent and was rewarded with a fantastic seventh place finish which became fifth place after the disqualification of the MGs.

Onto race two, which was once more a very impressive performance by the youngster. Again Hill would battle both hard and fair against several more experienced drivers, and at one point wasn't far off from scoring a podium. Sadly, this impressive run was brought to an end after he, rather bizarrely, picked up a left rear puncture that sent the Toyota spinning down the order.

Race three would see Hill perform an amazing charge through the field from twenty seventh to fourteenth. Using his knowledge and race-craft, Hill made several incredible overtakes and blasted through the field, setting an amazing lap time in the process. Teammates Michael Epps and Tony Gilham would finish sixteenth and twentieth respectively despite both starting out much higher on the grid.

This performance from Jake Hill shows that he has the potential to be a race-winning British Touring Car Driver. Despite having a lack of funds and not much experience, Hill was able to run with and beat some of the best drivers in the championship - if Hill were to have a seat with a front running team he would have the ability to achieve an awful lot of success in the future. Sticking to the present though, it's clear that there's no one more deserving of our Weekend Superstar award than Jake Hill.

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