Adam Morgan secures victory in messy final race

Adam Morgan took his second win of the BTCC season in a messy final race of the weekend at Thruxton.

Morgan had been drawn on pole and was able to lead the field into Allard for the first time, with Colin Turkington on row two jumping ahead of Senna Proctor off the line and Jake Hill slotting in behind.

Towards the back however, there was drama as Gordon Shedden tried to go between Nicolas Hamilton and Jade Edwards into turn one only to tag Edwards’ car – sending both Honda Civics off heavily into the tyres.

Whilst Shedden managed to bring his car back to the pits, Edwards was left buried in the tyre wall in a similar fashion to her incident in the first Thruxton meeting earlier in the year, with the safety car deployed whilst her car was recovered and barrier damage repaired.

The action resumed on lap six with Morgan backing the field up until the last moment before maintaining his lead ahead of Turkington, with the two BMWs edging away from Proctor’s Honda and Hill’s Focus.

Rory Butcher, Josh Cook and Tom Oliphant followed behind, but points leader Ash Sutton found himself under pressure for eighth from Tom Ingram’s Hyundai.

Ingram heaped pressure on the Infiniti ahead and managed to get ahead with a fine move around the outside into the chicane on lap seven, with Sutton delayed enough that both Jason Plato and Chris Smiley were able to nip ahead on the run up the complex.

Ingram then made a move on Oliphant for seventh at Noble before the safety car was called a second time after Carl Boardley had a spin going up to the complex and Sam Smelt went off in avoidance.

Racing resumed on lap 13 with Morgan again keeping the lead but there would be no change at the front before another caution period was called to recover the Ford Focus of Ollie Jackson from the complex after he pulled off with suspension failure.

A quick recovery meant the action got back underway again on lap 16 with Morgan going early to get the jump on Turkington.

A lap later however, Morgan outbraked himself into the final corner and straightlined the chicane – emerging the other side with an extended advantage before he eased off to ensure he avoided a penalty. Tom Oliphant would take a similar line at the chicane as he dropped down outside the top ten.

Ingram cleared Cook on the exit of the chicane to move into the top six and then set about chasing down Butcher, getting a run going into Noble on the final lap to take fifth spot.

The leading four drivers were too far up the road however, with Morgan taking the flag in first place ahead of Turkington, with Proctor rounding out the podium in third from Hill, Ingram and Butcher.

Cook and Plato followed behind, with the top ten completed by Chris Smiley and Sutton.