Colin Turkington battles to fifth win to extend lead
Colin Turkington has extended his lead in the BTCC standings to 40 points after securing victory in the second race of the weekend at Snetterton.
The West Surrey Racing driver had started the race from the second row of the grid in his BMW 330i M Sport, but made the most of the rear-wheel drive prowess of his car off the line to rocket up into second place on the run to turn one.
Running on the most favourable soft tyre, Turkington set about putting pressure on race one winner Tom Ingram, who was running on the medium tyre in his Toyota Corolla.
Despite the BMW being the quicker car, Ingram was able to keep Turkington at bay, which allowed the chasing pack to close in behind – headed by Andrew Jordan after he battled head of Dan Cammish’s Honda at Wilson.
Ingram’s defence would last until the seventh lap when Turkington made a move up the inside at Wilson, with Jordan seeing his opportunity to try and go round the outside of the two cars ahead to get into the lead. Apparent contact between Turkington and Ingram saw the Toyota run wide, forcing Jordan wide in the process, as both Turkington and Cammish were able to get ahead.
As Ingram then started to drop back with a mechanical issue on the Corolla, Turkington was able to make the most of the soft tyre to charge away at the front as he secured victory by more than four seconds.
Cammish, on the medium tyre, was left to defend against Jordan for the remainder of the race and a solid defensive performance saw him rewarded with second place. Jordan in third was left to wonder what might have been had it not been for the earlier bid for the lead.
Outside the podium places, Ollie Jackson secured his best result of the season has he made the most of the soft tyres on his Ford Focus to run strongly at the front throughout, with Sam Tordoff and Jason Plato rounding out the top six.
Ash Sutton was seventh in his Subaru, whilst Chris Smiley was the big winner as he used the soft tyres to his advantage to come through from 15th atA the end of the opening lap to take eighth place – and pole for race three thanks to the reverse grid draw. Matt Simpson’s Honda and the Audi of Jake Hill then rounded out the top ten places.
Ingram would eventually end up as the 23rd and final finisher in the ailing Toyota, whilst there were no points for Matt Neal, Tom Chilton or Adam Morgan after their issues in the opening race, with Neal the best placed of the trio in 16th spot.
