Team HARD’s Jake Hill said he was amazed to take an unexpected victory in the Jack Sears Trophy after a strong showing in race three of the 2018 British Touring Car Championship at Donington Park.

The Kent driver scored his maiden podium at his home circuit three weeks ago, gambling on slick tyres on a damp circuit in race two of the season opener at Brands Hatch.

This momentum, however, was immediately halted at the Leicestershire circuit, as a technical issue in free practice one meant he set no competitive time.

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With more running in FP2, Hill then posted a time good enough for tenth position in qualifying, but he failed a random ride-height check due to a loose splitter and his time was deleted.

He climbed the order to 17th in race one, but fell to 23rd in the second contest as he struggled on the hard tyre.

In the reverse-grid race, Hill progressed 13 positions to finish tenth, winning the Jack Sears Trophy in doing so.

“It was awesome – the car was unbelievable in that last race,” said Hill. “The whole weekend we struggled, especially with the brakes in the dry.

“But yeah it came strong in that last race, and I can’t fault the car. The team did a great job.

“Saturday was bad. And the first race was really good, the second race was not so bad and then the last race it just came strong.”

To score the top-ten in the final race of the day, Hill made an audacious move on reverse-grid pole-sitter Rory Butcher down the Craner Curves.

“It was a bit touch and go,” Hill told TouringCars.Net. “I got my nose in and he just kept coming across. I didn’t want to turn him around – I was trying to avoid him.

“I didn’t overtake him on the grass which I think is the key point, I just tried to get out the way of him and then obviously he let me back on which was good.

“And then just thought, I’m going to keep my foot in. And it worked and we just drove away then.”

When he came into the pits after the race, Hill underwent scrutineering checks, and was shocked when he found out about the JST victory.

“I had literally zero idea,” he explained. “The team was like ‘good job, p10, great drive’ and then that was it and then they called me in. And I was like ‘what are they calling me in for?!’ I said ‘what have I done?!’

“They said you were so fast at the end that they wanted to make sure your ride height is OK, because that’s what I got done for in qualifying.

“And I thought that’s strange, and then they did the checks and I got told I won the Jack Sears! Amazing!”