Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport endured a weekend of highs and lows at Oulton Park during the fifth round of the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship. Despite a challenging qualifying session, the team fought back impressively to secure two seventh-place finishes and a strong fifth-place result, completing a hat-trick of top-ten finishes.
As the season approached its final round before the summer break, the team travelled to the scenic Oulton Park for Round Five of the campaign. Under soaring temperatures at the Cheshire circuit, Saturday’s action began with the team posting 16th and 19th place finishes in the opening practice sessions.
Drawn into the first group for Saturday’s qualifying session, Jake Hill narrowly missed out on advancing to the next stage in his WSR-run BMW 330i M Sport —falling short by just a tenth of a second. He ultimately qualified 13th for Sunday’s opening race.
Starting from the seventh row of the grid, the 2024 BTCC Champion wasted no time making up ground. Jake surged forward with two overtakes on the opening lap, moving into 11th before the safety car was deployed. Once racing resumed, his charge continued, and by the halfway mark, he had climbed to eighth.
Jake completed his sixth overtake of the race to finish in seventh place—an impressive recovery drive that also earned him a fourth-row start for Race Two.
Once again, Jake showed his racecraft early in the second contest, moving into sixth before another safety car interruption on lap three. When the action resumed, he immediately made another decisive move to take fifth—where he held position to the flag, securing another strong finish and valuable points.
As rain soaked the circuit ahead of the day’s final race, the grid lined up on wet tyres. Jake got a lightning start, leaping past two cars into third by the first corner. When Josh Cook ran deep at the chicane, Jake capitalised to move into second and began closing in on Gordon Shedden in pursuit of victory.
But a combination of two safety car periods, a drying track on wet tyres, and yellow flags in key overtaking zones made the chase a difficult one. A small mistake in the closing stages saw Jake drop a few spots, eventually taking the chequered flag in seventh.
Despite the late setback, Jake rounded off the weekend with a trio of top-ten finishes—demonstrating grit, pace, and consistency at Oulton Park.
Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport head into the summer break with Jake fifth in the Drivers’ Championship with 143 points to his tally, as racing resumes at Croft Circuit on 2 - 3 August.
“It’s been a mixed weekend really, two sevenths and a fifth from 13th on the grid isn’t bad, but it shows our qualifying didn’t reflect the pace we actually had. I’m proud of how the team pulled together without my Race Engineer, Craig—he’s been helping from his hospital bed, and my Data Engineer Rob stepped up massively, alongside the support of Dick and everyone at WSR.
Race Three was frustrating—running second then dropping back hurts, but I’m pushing flat-out just to stay in the fight. We’re not in a place to fight for the title this year, so it’s about making the most of the moments we get. Big thanks to everyone at Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport and WSR, and to all the fans sticking with us. A well-earned summer break now to reset and come back stronger.” - Jake Hill
“It’s been a challenging weekend and we’re not yet where we want to be, but there are still positives to build on. We had a solid race day, collected valuable points, and while we would have liked to come away with some silverware, it just wasn’t to be this time. We’ll make the most of the summer break to regroup, find more performance, and come back stronger for the second half of the season. A big thank you to our entire team, our partners, and our incredible fans for their continued support through the highs and lows.” - Mark Blundell
