KMR Sport’s championship leader moved closer to taking the GB4 Championship title this weekend with his ninth win of the season in the first race at Brands Hatch.
From pole, he led every lap, but had Fox Motorsport’s Liam McNeilly in his wheeltracks in the first half of the race. But Mills then pulled the trigger in the final stages to pull out a lead of one and a half seconds before easing off late on to take the flag 0.7 seconds clear.
Evans GP’s Cooper Webster completed the podium in third but needs to gain serious ground on Mills in tomorrow’s two contests to take the title fight down to the Donington decider weekend.
Fortec's Colin Queen finished 6.5 seconds further back in fourth, and was a similar distance clear of Elite's returning Josh Irfan.
Sid Smith enjoyed a strong run to sixth for Fox Motorsport, ahead of Fortec's Aditya Kulkarni, with Evans GP's returning contender Kai Daryanani matching his best GB4 result with eighth.
KMR's Jack Clifford finished eighth on the road but completed the top-10 in the final classification after a 10 second track limit penalty.
Mills made a strong start to lead the pack down to Paddock Hill Bend on lap one, and had a gap of almost one second at the end of the opening tour. But while he looked to break away, McNeilly had other ideas and closed the margin down to half a second next time around.
McNeilly was visibly pushing, kicking up dirt on a couple of corner exits as he closed the margin further to under four tenths on lap four.
But that was as close as it got, as Mills then began to pull away, and four laps later had pulled out an advantage of almost 1.5 seconds. With the race under control, his final tour was a second slower than his best, as he moves closer to wrapping up the title.
The second race of the weekend is due to commence at 10.25 tomorrow (Sunday) morning.
GB4 Championship, partnered by the BRDC, Brands Hatch GP race one provisional result:
1. Tom Mills, KMR Sport, 13 laps
2. Liam McNeilly, Fox Motorsport, +0.768s
3. Cooper Webster, Evans GP, +2.573s
4. Colin Queen, Fortec Motorsports, +9.218s
5. Josh Irfan, Elite Motorsport, +15.848s
6. Sid Smith, Fox Motorsport, +16.663s
7. Harry Burgoyne, Graham Brunton Racing, +18.530s
8. Aditya Kulkarni, Fortec Motorsports, +25.943s
9. Kai Daryanani, Evans GP, +26.254s
10. Jack Clifford, KMR Sport, +31.058s
11. Sebastian Murray, Graham Brunton Racing, +41.551s
12. Dylan Hotchin, Dylan Hotchin Racing, +54.520s
13. Zack Ping, VRD, +54.743s
14. Thomas Lee, Evans GP, +1 lap