Newly crowned British Touring Car champion Jake Hill will remain at the West Surrey Racing BMW team for 2025, when the squad could expand to as many as five cars.
Hill, whose clinching of the BTCC crown at the Brands Hatch finale last month represented his first championship title of any form in car racing, is the first driver confirmed for the Sunbury team’s fleet of 3-Series BMWs, and he has elected to carry the reigning champion’s number 1 on his car next season.
As usual, the deal is with his commercial and management team under the banner of Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport, with MB boss Mark Blundell taking Hill under his wing since their season as BTCC team-mates in 2019.
WSR has housed an additional pair of BMWs since absorbing the equipment of Adam Morgan’s family team Ciceley Motorsport for 2023.
But for 2024 it could only field three cars on a full-time basis, with highly rated Bobby Thompson joining the team in a fourth BMW for round three at Snetterton only to fall foul of a commercial glitch that immediately halted his season.
Thompson and Morgan are known to be in the frame for a seat in 2025, with WSR’s four-time champion Colin Turkington an obvious target to remain on board.
Team boss Dick Bennetts conceded that talks with Scottish BTCC regular Aiden Moffat are also ongoing, while rumours that were rife last winter of WSR fielding a second MB car alongside Hill have also not gone away.
MB-managed Andrew Watson was the obvious candidate for 2024 before joining the Speedworks-run Toyota team, but endured a very difficult season and is thought to be considering all options.
WSR boss Dick Bennetts told Autosport: “We’re trying very hard to get back up to four cars and possibly five – there’s enough interest, to be honest, and we’ve kept all the staff on.
“There are probably eight drivers on the list, but it’s the age-old problem of getting the numbers and the team harmony to add up.
“We’re very pleased to have Jake back on board with us for next year, and I’ve enjoyed watching him progress.
“He was a bit rough around the edges when we first had him in 2022, but now he’s matured and come on strong.
“He’s always been quick – there was never any doubt about that – and he’s a good little lad.”
Hill added: “I’m absolutely chuffed to bits. It’s a great honour to be going back to West Surrey Racing again for another year.
“It’s going to be great to go into 2025 with the number 1 on the side of my car – it’s really special and something I’ve never had the opportunity to do.”
Hill will therefore drop his traditional number 24 at least for 2025, although his use of that number came about by accident.
“I wanted to use 22 – that’s always been my number and it’s the date of my birthday – but Chris Smiley registered it two weeks before I was able to,” he said.
“So my dad [former racer, commentator, safety car driver and 1970s motorsport uberfan Simon Hill] said, ‘You’ve got to use James Hunt’s number 24 from his Hesketh days!’
“The 24 has become my trademark – my JH24 brand if you like – but I don’t want to pass up this opportunity.”
Meanwhile, WSR’s sporting and operations manager Carl Mitchell has been promoted so that his title now ends in ‘director’, and is working alongside the established triumvirate of Bennetts, finance director Mike Ewan and commercial director David Eggleton in what could become an expansion into other series.
Mitchell started at WSR on work experience from college before joining the team in 2013 as a mechanic, and has become one of the BTCC’s most highly rated team managers.
“We are having a look at other categories so all our eggs aren’t in one basket,” said Bennetts.
“We had a look at the Porsche Carrera Cup GB a few years ago and we are looking at it again now.
“Carl said, ‘Why don’t we look at other things?’, and at my age [77] I’m happy just doing BTCC, but if they want to expand then there’s a lot going on.
“Carl has been with us a long time and he’s really done well. I’m not getting any younger and it’s good to delegate, but I’m still involved on the engineering side and I still enjoy doing R&D work and making the car go faster.”
