Jake Hill opens 2023 account in Oulton Park opener

Jake Hill battled ahead of points leader Ash Sutton to grab his first win of the BTCC season in the opening race of the weekend at Oulton Park.

Hill had qualified second on the grid behind Sutton but made a better start when the lights went out to head the Ford man into turn one for the first time.

As Hill worked to get heat into his tyres in the early laps, Sutton tried his best to get ahead – running alongside going into Cascades on lap two only for Hill to ease him wide on the exit of the corner.

From that point on, Hill was able to ease away at the front to secure victory for WSR, scoring fastest lap to beat Sutton to the line by just under two seconds.

Ricky Collard held third in the early stages but would be one of the drivers overhauled by a charging Tom Ingram.

Ingram jumped Bobby Thompson off the line to move into fifth at the start before slipping past Dan Cammish going into turn one on the second lap.

A similar move on Collard on lap five put the Hyundai man into third, where he would stay through to the flag ahead of Collard and Cammish.

Josh Cook would sit in sixth throughout in his One Motorsport Honda ahead of Thompson, who undid his good work from qualifying with a poor start that dropped him back from fourth spot.

Rory Butcher ran eighth on the road early on before a five second penalty for a false start and then a trip off track at Knickerbrook dropped him down the order.

Instead, it would be Adam Morgan who took eighth at the head of BMW train with Colin Turkington producing a storming run through the pack from the back after his exclusion from qualifying to take ninth. Stephen Jelley then rounded out the top ten.

Aron Taylor-Smith had been part of the battle for eighth but would exit the race in dramatic fashion late on when a brake issue for Dan Rowbottom saw his Ford clatter into the Vauxhall racer at Druids, putting his Astra off into the barriers and leaving Rowbottom to retire to the pits.