Colin Turkington wins final Brands Hatch race
West Surrey Racing’s Colin Turkington took victory in the third and final race at Brands Hatch, in a fascinating encounter where the soft tyre played a major part in the result.
Turkington jumped into third at the start behind team-mates Rob Collard and Nick Foster, and was soon second when Foster was given a drive-through penalty for a false start. He then passed Collard out of Clearways on lap six, to take a lead he wouldn’t lose.
The BMW 125i driver had enough of a gap to hold off the charging pair of Matt Neal and Jason Plato in the final laps, with the Honda Racing Team and Triple Eight drivers both passing Collard into Paddock Hill Bend on the penultimate lap.
Plato sliced through the field from 12th on the grid, making his soft tyres last well, but they fell off the cliff for many drivers in the closing stages, leading to a number of changes in the order.
Behind the top four, a charging Alain Menu was fifth for Team BMR after an incident with Tom Ingram, ahead of Gordon Shedden, Mat Jackson, Jack Goff, Dave Newsham and Adam Morgan.
Eurotech Racing’s Andrew Jordan fell down the order to 13th from sixth on the grid, but still retains his championship lead by two points from Neal, and three from Turkington.
It had looked like a West Surrey Racing 1-2-3 in the early stages, but Foster’s penalty put pay to that, and he came home 19th.
There were also early dramas for United Autosports’ Glynn Geddie, who spun at Graham Hill, and Martin Depper, who was again involved in an incident with Marc Hynes, and hit the barrier along Cooper Straight.
The other major talking point came when the safety car was deployed on lap 12, after an incident involving Ingram and Menu. The Swiss made contact with the rear of Ingram’s Toyota Avensis on the Cooper Straight, causing the Speedworks Motorsport car to take a heavy impact with the barrier.
Ingram was unhurt, and the resulting closing of the pack made for a frantic final 11 laps. Plato treated the large crowds to some demon overtaking, passing team-mate Sam Tordoff at Druids, Morgan at Paddock Hill and Shedden at Paddock Hill in the space of four laps.
He caught Neal and the pair started to catch Turkington, but the 2009 champion had enough of a gap to bring it home.
