Hill takes maiden win in dramatic final race after Neal clash

Trade Price Cars Racing's Jake Hill has taken his first ever British Touring Car Championship race victory after winning a dramatic reverse grid race at Oulton Park.

Hill started the reverse grid race from pole position but came under severe pressure from three-time BTCC champion Matt Neal during the opening laps of the race.

The Audi S3 driver led the Honda of Neal in the final corner at Lodge on the second lap of the race, but Neal managed to get the overlap on Hill coming out of the corner, meaning the Civic Type R held the inside line and, crucially, the lead heading into turn one on the third lap of the race.

However, just as Neal moved into the lead of the race, Hill, while attempting the undercut to get a better exit heading down towards Cascades, appeared to make contact with the three-time champion's Honda, which subsequently sent Neal into a spin across the track causing chaos behind.

Following that dramatic moment, Hill reappeared from the ploom of tyre smoke in the lead of the race with a plus five second lead ahead of AmD's Rory Butcher and Team Parker Racing's Stephen Jelley.

Although Neal managed to regather his Honda and resume further down the pack, the incident put the then third placed Jason Plato out of the race with damage to his Vauxhall, while Tom Ingram, who was another forced to take evasive action also retired later in the race.

As the race finally settled, Hill found himself five-seconds up the road with Butcher giving chase in second position.

By lap nine, the gap began to drastically decrease resulting in Butcher latching onto the rear of Hill's Audi with a handful of laps to go. However, a small error from Butcher at Island hairpin gave Hill the breathing space he needed to win the race ahead of the BMW 125i M Sport of Jelley in second.

Hill voiced his apologies to Neal for his part in the lap three contact during a post race interview over the circuit commentary.

Team BMW's Tom Oliphant completed the podium in third position after getting past Sam Tordoff late in the race.

BMW Pirtek Racing's Andrew Jordan recorded his third top-five finish of the weekend in fifth ahead of Butcher who recovered from his earlier off to finish in sixth.

BTC Racing's Josh Cook held firm for seventh place ahead of Subaru's Ashley Sutton and Team BMW's Colin Turkington following their race long pursuit of the Honda Civic Type R in eighth and ninth.

Aiden Moffat completed the top-ten order in tenth.