Photo: PSP Images

Carl Boardley takes eighth TCR UK win of the year at Thruxton

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CBM with Hart GT’s Carl Boardley claimed his eighth TCR UK victory of the season with a commanding drive in wet conditions in race two at Thruxton.

The Cupra Leön Competición driver made the most of a multi-car incident on the opening lap, which took out his main title rival Callum Newsham, to work his way towards the front of the pack.

After a safety car intervention, Boardley made light work of early leader Sam Laidlaw to come home comfortably ahead at the flag.

Off the line, polesitter Mark Smith got a terrible start and was quickly swallowed up by Stewart Lines who grabbed the lead into the first corner.

Further back, chaos ensued as Newsham lost control of his Hyundai on the approach to the complex and took out Smith and Brad Hutchison, with Adam Shepherd also suffering damage in the melee.

Newsham, who had reduced Boardley’s championship lead to just five points, had been looking to make ground from the back of the grid, but dipped two wheels onto the wet grass and made contact with the back of Smith’s car.

The safety car was understandably deployed and Lines initially led away from the restart but was soon usurped by Sam Laidlaw with Boardley also making it ahead into second place.

Boardley didn’t waste time in closing onto the back of Laidlaw but the Cupra was caught and passed by Shepherd into Noble.

Shepherd’s race soon unravelled again as more mechanical dramas forced the Cupra driver out of the race after half-distance.

Now free of Shepherd, Boardley then upped the ante and made his move on Laidlaw for the lead which he duly completed with just over five minutes of the race remaining.

Boardley then immediately broke clear and extended his lead gap over Laidlaw in the remaining minutes, eventually coming home to victory by 3.775s.

Hutchison recovered from his opening lap dramas to complete the podium in third, while Steve Laidlaw prevailed in a superb battle for fourth place, beating Lines and Darron Lewis.

Rick Kerry was seventh and best of the Gen1 cars, with Luke Sargeant eighth ahead of Will Beech, while Smith was tenth.

The final TCR UK race of the weekend is scheduled to take place later on today, in a revised timetable due to bad weather conditions, at 18:05 BST (19:05 CEST).