Colin Turkington secured two Independents wins for Team RAC at the ninth round of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship at Knockhill Sunday (2 September).
After races twenty-five, twenty-six and twenty-seven Colin Turkington lies fifth in the drivers championship with 171 points, whilst Tom Onslow-Cole is in tenth with 107 points. Jason Plato (SEAT Sport UK) leads with 265 points.
Race 1
Colin Turkington began the first race of the day from second place on the grid. Turkington started positively but was unable to move ahead of SEAT’s Darren Turner. Gordon Shedden began putting pressure on the Turkington in the second lap and in lap 3 Shedden passed him.
Turkington remained in 3rd place for the majority of the race until Shedden retired after sustaining a puncture during an incident with Darren Turner.Turkington went on to finish in 2nd place, securing an Independents win for Team RAC.
Tom Onslow-Cole started from 8th place on the grid. A positive start saw him move up to 6th place early in the race. In lap 9 he moved in front of Jason Plato to go up to 5th place and began to put pressure on Fabrizio Giovanardi.
Onslow-Cole remained in 5th place and drove extremely well to hold off the championship leader as he tried to regain his place. However on lap 23 an incident with Giovanardi resulted in Onslow-Cole being disqualified from the race.
Tom Onslow-Cole commented “It is frustrating that I was disqualified from the race as I did not deliberately make contact with Giovanardi. Unfortunately my onboard camera was not working so I was unable to prove that I was not at fault. However I really enjoyed the race and was very happy with my performance and that of the car.”
Race 2
Colin Turkington began race 2 from 2nd place on the grid. Due to the well spaced grid positions at Knockhill Turkington was unable to use the benefit of the BMW’s rear-wheel drive to take the lead. He settled instead for 2nd place, keeping in mind the Independents Championship. Inspite of the extra weight on his car Turkington was quicker than in race 1 and was able to remain in 2nd place for the duration of the race, securing a second Independents win for Team RAC.
After his disqualification from race 1 Tom Onslow-Cole was forced to start the race from 17th place with a weight ballast of 18kgs. He experienced some difficulty with the clutch but was able to gain a few places to finish the race in 12th place.
Colin Turkington said: “It was a great result, two seconds and valuable points in the Independents championship, which is what I’m chasing now, so I’m delighted with my performance. We were quite a bit quicker in the second race even with the extra weight. Team RAC have done a great job on the car and it has performed extremely well all weekend.”
Race 3
Turkington began the final race of the day from 7th place and Onslow-Cole from 12th.
Turkington moved up to 6th place in lap 9 when he passed Adam Jones and went on to finish in the race in 6th. Onslow-Cole moved up to 10th place when Tom Chilton pulled into the pits towards the end of the race.
The race was won by Gordon Shedden (Team Halfords).
Dick Bennetts, WSR Team Principal, said: “Colin drove brilliantly this weekend. He did a storming lap in qualifying yesterday and got two strong seconds today. His performance has put us just one point behind Matt Neal in the driver standings and only three points behind Jordan in the Independents so it’s all on for Thruxton.”
Team RAC today secured the Independents Team Championship with 325 points, and sit fourth in the Overall Teams Championship with 260 points.
The BTCC action now moves to Knockhill on Sunday 14 October.
RAC were able to unveil the latest stage of their ‘RAC to the rescue’ campaign, which provides benefits to enhance the race day experience of fans at all 10 rounds of the season.
RAC came to the rescue of fans by offering them the chance to win tickets to Knockhill including ‘first class’ travel to the circuit.
Alastair Pegg, RAC Director of Marketing, said: “It was another action packed day in the British Touring Car Championship and was fantastic to see Turkington get two Independents wins for Team RAC. We were happy to give fans the opportunity to travel up to Scotland in style to watch the action.”
