WSR and Jake Hill will begin the defence of his British Touring Car Championship title from the fourth row of the grid after a hard-fought qualifying session for the opening race of the season at Donington Park.
The Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport driver and his WSR stablemates took a measured approach across Saturday as all four worked together to refine balance issues experienced by their BMW 330i M Sports around the East Midlands venue.
“It was a tough qualifying today, but we do have three new drivers in the team,” commented Dick Bennetts, Team Principal. “Even with Jake’s time he says the BMW feels pretty good and Charles (Rainford ) has done a good job to get into Q2 on his BTCC debut. We’re going to sit down tonight and debrief; when that happens we usually end up with a good car for race day so we’ll see how we go.”
Jake, who could break the 2000 career-points mark during Sunday’s triple header, made numerous set-up changes during the day and improved the speed of his BMW through practice and qualifying.
Frustratingly he missed a spot in the Q3 pole position by just two hundredths of a second and will start eighth as a result.
Charles Rainford belied his lack of experience of touring car racing to progress into Q2 and qualify 12th for his BTCC debut for LKQ Euro Car Parts Racing with WSR.
Aiden Moffat, in the second LKQ car, lost vital track time in both practice sessions due to technical issues, and began qualifying on the back foot as a result. He narrowly missed the cut for Q2 and will start Race One from 20th spot.
That will put him directly behind another new WSR recruit, Daryl DeLeon, who starts 18th after he – like Aiden – had a fast lap disallowed during Q1 for exceeding track limits.
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