Jake Hill made it three consecutive front-row starts for the first time in his British Touring Car Championship career as WSR and BMW enjoyed a strong qualifying day at Thruxton on Saturday.
The Kent racer, who had set the pace in the afternoon practice session aboard his ROKiT MB Motorsport BMW 330e M Sport, put himself second on the grid for the first of tomorrow’s three races at the Hampshire circuit.
With Team BMW’s Colin Turkington and Stephen Jelley both qualifying well in fourth and 10th, all three WSR drivers have every reason to feel confident heading into Sunday.
“A front-row start, two cars in the top four and all three cars in the top 10,” commented Dick Bennetts, Team Principal. “We’d have taken that ahead of the weekend given how Thruxton tends to favour front-wheel-drive cars over rear-wheel-drive. But the chassis has always been a huge plus-point of the BMW and the team at WSR have done an excellent job in adapting the BMW for the hybrid system we’re using this year.
“We’ve worked well as a team through the day, sharing information across all three cars, and that philosophy has benefitted everyone. We’re definitely looking to deliver some strong results for BMW UK at their home circuit tomorrow.”
Thruxton’s high-speed nature and abrasive surface means it plays to the strengths of the front-wheel-drive cars in the series, rather than the rear-wheel-drive machines.
But the development work performed on the BMW by the WSR technical team over the winter to incorporate the BTCC’s all-new hybrid system has improved the cars’ performance at all circuits, resulting in pole positions and victories at each of 2022’s first two events.
Jake took full advantage of this to top the timesheets in afternoon practice and then rocket to the head of the standings midway through qualifying – a spot he would eventually lose in the dying moments by less than eight hundredths of a second.
His second-place result does, however, give him a third consecutive front-row grid spot for the first time in his 176-race BTCC career.
Stablemate Colin had a tougher task as an understeering BMW had left him 15th on the grid with two thirds of the 30-minute session gone.
But a set-up refinement in the pits gave him a final chance to improve his position and the four-time series champion from Northern Ireland did just that to catapult himself into fourth spot with just two minutes remaining.
Leicester racer Stephen was on the pace from the get-go in qualifying and qualified inside the top 10 at Thruxton – one of his least-favourite circuits.
His 10th place on the grid also means he has qualified inside the top 10 at each of the first three rounds for the first time in his BTCC career.
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