Jake Hill says fighting for this year's British Touring Car Championship title has made him even hungrier to return next season – but he is yet to confirm which team he will be driving for.

The Platt's Heath charger, 27, finished fifth in the standings aboard his MB Motorsport Ford Focus, grabbing nine podiums including two victories.

Fresh from winning the Gerry Marshall Trophy at the Goodwood Members' Meeting, Hill entered the final round of the season at Brands Hatch with a chance of the overall crown.

But with 48kg of success ballast on board, he could only finish 12th in race one on Sunday – a result that dropped him out of contention for the championship.

Despite being knocked wide at Druids on the first lap, Hill improved to 10th in race two before grabbing the fastest lap on his climb to fourth in the finale.

Looking ahead to 2022 after enjoying his "best year by some way," Hill said: "I am pretty sure I'll be returning – we just need to go away and sort out the commercial aspect of it all.

"Now we've been in the title fight, you just want it even more.

"I will come back stronger and hopefully the machine I'll be driving will be just as good and we can have a go.

"Touring cars is a great career to have; I've enjoyed my time in it and I'm enjoying it even more now so hopefully we can continue it for a bit longer."

Hill, whose car was run by Wrotham-based Motorbase Performance this year, says he knows more pre-season testing will be needed before the 2022 campaign.

When asked which team he will be driving for, the former Ginetta ace says nothing will be confirmed until the finances are in place.

"I have enjoyed it this year – the car has been good to drive most of the time and we have been in a good place for a lot of the season," Hill added.

"Realistically, we just needed more testing. It's made me highlight how much testing you probably need to get it ready for the year.

"You may make it quick on the day, but you need that 'what-if' set-up in your back pocket and we never really created that; we just kept guessing.

"That's why in the last three rounds we have just been slow in qualifying [at Silverstone, Donington and Brands Hatch] because the car hasn't been in its window and we haven't had that knowledge of the 'what-if' set-up.

"That is what has screwed us over, to be honest, for the championship win, but it has been good and we learnt a lot about the car through our mistakes, so it's onwards and upwards."

Laser Tools Racing's Ash Sutton (Infiniti Q50) claimed his third title in the second race at Brands, eventually beating Team BMW star Colin Turkington to the crown by a handsome 51 points.

BTC Racing pilot Josh Cook (Honda Civic) had taken the spoils in races one and two before Sutton rounded out the year in style by winning race three.

Cook leapfrogged EXCELR8's Tom Ingram (Hyundai i30N) and Hill to finish third in the overall standings.

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