Hill leads WSR 1-2 for first victory of 2025

Jake Hill kickstarted his bid for a second successive British Touring Car Championship crown by sailing to victory in the first race of the day at Brands Hatch.

Hill led home his team-mate within the West Surrey Racing-run BMW stable, the extremely impressive rookie Charles Rainford, to claim the honours by 0.662 seconds.

From pole, it was no surprise that rear-wheel-drive traction propelled Hill into the lead at the start, nor that Rainford converted his front-row spot into second place.

Tom Ingram, who had qualified fourth, swept around the outside of the sister Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N Fastback of Adam Morgan at Paddock Hill Bend to take third.

Initially Ingram cruised up to the back of Rainford, but a fastest lap from the new boy – who had the full 12 laps of TOCA Turbo Boost available to the six of Ingram – allowed him some respite.

The race was cat-and-mouse between the leading trio, but Morgan had not dropped too far away and, as half-distance approached, the Lancastrian still had armfuls of TTB available to use.

He deployed this during the third quarter to home in on the rear end of Ingram, until with six laps remaining all of the top quartet had six laps of TTB to use.

Charles Rainford, WSR BMW 330i M Sport

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Rainford, who had used TTB to further lower the fastest lap and claim a new lap record just before half-distance, finished narrowly adrift of Hill, with Ingram heading Morgan home in third and fourth.

“It was just a really nice race, that one,” said Hill, whose win was the 133rd in the BTCC for WSR, making the team the most successful in series history.

“Charles was perfect – he had a bit of pressure from Tom but he held his own. We had an initial plan, but you never know – he’s a new team-mate so you never know he’s going to stick to it. But it was plain sailing for both of us.”

“I put my headlights on on the last lap, but he’s a champion – you’re never going to put him off like that!” joked Rainford.

Dan Cammish got the better of a first-lap battle with Mikey Doble and thereafter had a lonely run to fifth in the best of the Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus STs.

Doble got shouldered wide at Clearways in his fight with Cammish and lost out further to another Alliance Ford – that of Sam Osborne, enjoying his most competitive weekend in the BTCC to date.

The Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra of Doble got inside Osborne at Clearways on the third lap and the Surrey man went on to a serene sixth, while Osborne got embroiled in a fight with the Restart Racing Hyundai of Dan Lloyd and WSR BMW of Daryl DeLeon.

Both eventually got past the Ford, with Lloyd taking seventh on the road, but a five-second penalty for a false start demoted the Yorkshireman to ninth, with DeLeon moving up to seventh and Osborne to eighth.

Best of those to opt for hard tyres in the opening race was pre-weekend championship leader Ash Sutton, whose Alliance Ford is sporting a special livery to celebrate the 100th anniversary of title sponsor NAPA.

Sutton was occasionally matching the pace of those on soft rubber as the race headed towards midway and tyre-preservation came into play, but fell away ever further as the race wore on.

Hill, Rainford and Ingram, as the top three in race one, will now have to take the hard Goodyears in race two.