Jake Hill announced as National Driver of the Year at Autosport Awards

After an excellent 2024 BTCC campaign where Jake Hill went on to win the title, he was voted to be the winner of the National Driver of the Year at the Autosport Awards Ceremony.

The Kent driver after years of hard work finally took home not just his first BTCC Drivers Championship but also his first ever Drivers Championship in any series in 2024 where it went down to a title fight of the ages. Hill went into the final race weekend at Brands Hatch level on points with 15-year rival and 2022 BTCC Champion Tom Ingram and with three races to decide it. The two also had Ash Sutton chomping at the bit only a handful of points behind the pair. After a lap 1 incident in the first race of the weekend involved both of Hill’s rivals, this allowed him to move up to second place behind BMW teammate Colin Turkington. While Sutton’s race and championship hopes ended there, Ingram managed to keep it going and in a mega drive through the field came home P3 after a defensive drive from Turkington who let Hill through to help his championship quest.

Race 2 saw even more drama for the two remaining championship combatants as Ingram managed to squeeze by Turkington on the opening lap meaning it was a straight fight between Hill and Ingram. But it wasn’t long before Ingram made his move, he knew he needed to act fast as he dived it up the inside into turn one on the second lap in an excellent display of skill and control from both drivers pushing each other to the limit to keep it clean. Ingram took the lead and went on to win the race with Hill trailing in second place meaning there was a single point between the two heading into the final race of the season.

However, one more twist was added as rain hit the track later that afternoon meaning it was quite slippery for the final race of the season. Hill and Ingram started 6th and 7th for this race after the reverse grid draw meaning they would not only be fighting with each other but with a number of other drivers as well. Ingram got a good start passing Hill in the first couple of corners but as the race went on, Hill had much better speed in these conditions passing the Hyundai in a move that took from Surtees until Hawthorn Bend to complete before pulling away. He would go on to overtake a few more drivers that race while Ingram struggled. This allowed Hill to take the title in an astonishing final race of the season.

Despite winning the title in an epic title fight, Hill’s championship was not the only reason he claimed this award. He was up against nominees like British F4 champion and record breaker Deagen Fairclough and British GT runner-up Sandy Mitchell who both had similarly incredible feats. But Hill outside of his victories in the BTCC raced in all sorts of historic racing throughout the year, driving and winning on multiple occasions in the ex-works Nissan Primera at Brands Hatch’s Super Touring Power meeting as well as winning in the TVR Griffith at Donighton Historic Festival. To show even more diversity in his ability and race craft, he won in the HWM-Jaguar at Goodwood Revival after an absolutely astonishing race that same day in the AC Cobra against BTCC title rival Ingram.

Hill joins an already impeccable list of National Racing Driver of the Year award winners like BTCC Champions Gabriel Tarquini, John Cleland, Frank Biela, Alain Menu, Rickard Rydell, Laurent Aiello and Tim Harvey alongside other notable winners like Lando Norris in 2017 after a captivating European F3 title as well as 2023’s Ginetta Junior King Freddie Slater who pipped last years BTCC Champions Ash Sutton for the award.

After winning the award, Hill said: “I’ve been coming to the Autosport Awards for 15 years, since I’ve been racing cars, and maybe one day I hoped to win. It might be the smallest award of the night but honestly, I am so proud.”