BTCC Oulton Park: Hill denies Doble with stunning last-lap pass
Jake Hill took a last-gasp victory in the final race of the Oulton Park British Touring Car Championship round to move into the series lead.
Hill had chiselled his way through the reversed-grid order until he found himself on the rear bumper of the Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra of polesitter Mikey Doble, and finally pulled off an audacious manoeuvre with half a lap remaining.
From fourth on the grid, Hill and his rear-wheel-drive West Surrey Racing BMW 330e M Sport surprisingly failed to make up any positions at the start, but he did manage to pull off a move on Dan Cammish to get past the Alliance Racing Ford Focus ST on the opening lap.
Out front, Doble was doing a superb job of leading a BTCC race for the first time and was gapping veteran team-mate Aron Taylor-Smith, who was keeping the chasing hordes at bay.
Hill’s favoured place for moves was around the outside of the hairpin, but could not quite make anything happen until the 10th lap of 15, when he used a blast of hybrid to complete the move on Taylor-Smith under brakes for the hairpin.
Instantly Hill zoned in on Doble, but going into the final laps the BMW had run out of hybrid while the Vauxhall still had two left.
Hill went to the outside of the hairpin, and the two continued side by side down the hill to the chicane, where the BMW went around the outside of the first apex and claimed the inside of the second.
He had just three corners to negotiate for his fifth win of the season, followed by the two Vauxhalls.
Tom Ingram was fourth in his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N after a mid-race move on Cammish at Old Hall, with Cammish and the sister Ford of Dan Rowbottom next.
Ash Sutton had just moved onto the tail of his team-mates when damage to his front-right sent him to the pits. He rejoined, but gained only one point for fastest lap.
Adam Morgan (WSR BMW) got past Josh Cook (Speedworks Toyota) on the final lap for seventh, while Chris Smiley put his Restart Racing Cupra in the points again in ninth ahead of Rob Huff’s Toyota.