with race 1 win
Colin Turkington has moved to within one point of HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship leader Matt Neal after winning the first of today’s three races at the Oulton Park circuit in Cheshire.
Northern Irishman Turkington, starting from third, used his rear-wheel-drive Team RAC BMW’s superior traction off the line to pass the Silverline Chevrolet Lacettis of Jason Plato and Mat Jackson into the first bend. From there he was uncatchable as he steadily drew clear for his second win of 2009.
Turkington said: “I knew if I made the most of the BMW’s advantage off the start it could win me the race and that’s exactly what happened. After that the car was great and even in this heat looking after the tyres was relatively easy.”
Plato finished second, followed by the Airwaves BMW of Jonathan Adam that inherited the final podium position with just a lap to go when Jackson’s car suffered a punctured tyre. A new lap record prior to his decline at least earned Jackson a bonus point.
Plato added: "I made a decent start but Colin's was mega. And there was no way I was going to pass him. He is driving incredibly well at the moment."
Neal, meanwhile, finished seventh in his VX Racing Vauxhall Vectra – a result that keeps him at the top of the standings by just a point from Turkington. Before the race the gap between them had been 13.
Race two of three is scheduled to start at 2.30pm.
For full race results click on this link: http:/www.btcc.net/html/raceresults_detail.php?race_id=59&season_id=52
Just behind the top three, Fabrizio Giovanardi finished as the VXR team’s highest-placed driver in fourth but in the closing stages came under increasing pressure from Turkington’s determined team-mate Stephen Jelley. Adam Jones completed the top six in his Cartridge World Carbon Zero Racing SEAT Leon.
Behind Neal in eighth was James Thompson – up from 12th on the grid and who briefly got ahead of Neal in his Dynamics Honda Civic until dropping back. Ninth was a fading Robert Collard in his Airwaves BMW, but only after robustly brushing aside VXR’s Andrew Jordan who himself was struggling for pace with an oil leak on his Vectra – his mechanics are now changing its engine for race two.
Eleventh and just missing out on a point on his BTCC debut was James Nash in his RML Chevrolet. Twelfth, after finally passing the ever-improving Team Aon Ford Focus of Tom Chilton was local driver Paul O’Neill, from Widnes, in his Sunshine.co.uk with Tech-Speed Honda Integra. O’Neill had needed to make up time after an earlier tangle with Harry Vaulkhard’s Tempus Chevrolet which spun around before limping to the pit lane and retiring.
The only other retirement was John George whose TH Motorsport with JAG Honda Integra pulled off at the side of the track on the final warm-up lap. Jones’s team-mate Dan Eaves was a late starter, joining from the pit lane but gradually worked his way up to an eventual 16th.
