Jake Hill is probably the first grandson of a chart-topping 1950s crooner to make Autosport’s own hit parade, and that’s appropriate because the diminutive Kentishman has ‘no other love’ (check out grandad Ronnie Hilton’s 1956 tune of that name) than motorsport.
It’s been a long, hard road to the top of the BTCC, but winter developments at West Surrey Racing to its BMW 330e M Sport, and a change in Hill’s mindset, added speed and consistency respectively.
Very rarely did Hill slip up, and his eight fifth places were arguably of just as much value in his success as his eight wins.
Engineer’s view
Hill’s maiden British Touring Car Championship title – actually, make that his first crown of any sort in car racing – has also allowed him to take his bow in Autosport’s top 50 drivers for the first time.
As in many forms of motorsport, the majority of the successful drivers have benefited from building a relationship with the same engineer over a period of several years. In the BTCC, that usually entails the double acts moving together from a team – as did Tom Ingram and Spencer Aldridge from Speedworks to Excelr8 for 2021, and Ash Sutton and Antonio Carrozza from BMR to Motorbase for 2022.
Hill first worked with Craig Porley at the AmD-run MB Motorsport Honda team in 2020, before they shifted to the Motorbase Ford squad in 2021, and then onto West Surrey Racing and its BMW 330e M Sport in 2022. And Porley has already described the refinement of Hill from a talented rough diamond into a consistent championship winner as a five-year plan.
Ask Porley about what Hill is like on the radio, and he replies: “He has been a lot calmer this year. We chat more than a lot of engineer/driver combinations on the radio.
“Jake’s a very naturally gifted driver, so he has the capacity to chat while still setting purple sectors. He makes us laugh sometimes with how many times he’ll be chatting, possibly about something not even related to what’s going on around him, and then the purple sector comes up.
“The one that always makes us chuckle is when he’s moaning about the tyres going or the handling, and sets his fastest lap of the race!
“He’s been good on the radio this year. It’s about trying to keep him calm. We chat more when he’s out the front because it’s about trying to keep him focused and in the right place.”
But Porley knows that, for all the glory in clinching the title at the Brands Hatch finale, the Dick Bennetts-run WSR squad has a job to do to keep its BMWs on top in 2025.
“Dick was chasing me for my race report after Brands, and the temptation to just write ‘we smashed it’ was there!” he jokes. “Ultimately we weren’t particularly quick at Brands in race one or two – we were fast, but not as fast as Tom Ingram. We can’t rest on our laurels. We’ve got to find some pace for Brands GP next year.
“Dick had to wait a bit longer for the report because it was a sort of summary of everything we’ve done this season and what we’ve got to work on over the off season, both in the workshop and also when we get back to pre-season testing again.”
