Former BTCC champion Colin Turkington claimed his first victory since his championship winning campaign back in 2009 after a faultless drive in the final race at Donington Park. The result also marks the first win for the new eBay Motors BMW 125i M Sport.
Honda Yuasa Racing completed the podium order after both Gordon Shedden and Matt Neal muscled past the MG of Sam Tordoff on the final lap.
Starting from the front row, Turkington blasted by pole-sitter Tom Onslow-Cole off the line and immediately pulled clear. Onslow-Cole held on bravely in the early running as he fought off multiple challenges from behind in his VW Passat. The tussling enabled Turkington to pull clear, but even when Tordoff made it by Onslow-Cole he was unable to plug the gap to the flying BMW.
The race was broken up behind after a wild spin for Dave Newsham left his Toyota Avensis lying on the racing line at the high speed Craner Curves. A host of drivers took immediate avoiding action including Adam Morgans Toyota, the two manufacturer Hondas, Jason Plato and the Ford Focus of Aron Smith. In was a scary moment that left the chasing back trailing both Turkington and Tordoff.
Adam Morgan passed Onslow-Cole, and he briefly held third before both Honda Yuasa Racing duo eclipsed both the Passat and Avensis. They immediately set about chasing down Tordoffs MG and when the youngster ran wide at Coppice on the final tour, they both nipped by to snatch a last gasp double podium.
Morgan completed the top five order ahead of Onslow-Cole, who showed excellent pace towards the end of the race with the five cars ahead of him all running the soft Dunlop compound.
Airwaves Racings Aron Smith and Mat Jackson secured seventh and ninth with the MG of Jason Plato sandwiched between them. Jeff Smith completed his wild day with another off-track moment followed by a storming drive to round out the top ten. His team-mate and championship challenger Andrew Jordan endured his most difficult race of the season after having to pit to remove grass from his radiator that was causing the car to overheat. After a quick fire stop by the Pirtek Racing team, Jordan surged through the order to finish 13th and take the fastest lap of the race.
There were early spins for eBay Motors Rob Collard and Dynojets Frank Wrathallthe former recovering to finish 12th behind the Welch Motorsport Proton of Daniel Welch, whilst the latter retired following his moment.
Joe Girling took his first win in the Jack Sears Trophy after the Chevrolet Cruze driver pulled clear of the SEAT Leon of Warren Scott.
The points standings has closed up after difficult races for both Plato and Jordan, although both still hold the top two positions with a five point gap between them. Neal is in third, ahead of Tordoff and Shedden, with 20 points covering the top five drivers.
2013 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car ChampionshipDonington ParkRace 2
1 Colin Turkington (eBay Motors) +0.000 2 Gordon Shedden (Honda Yuasa Racing) +4.414 3 Matt Neal (Honda Yuasa Racing) +4.699 4 Sam Tordoff (MG KX Momentum Racing) +4.886 5 Adam Morgan (Ciceley Racing) +5.377 6 Tom Onslow-Cole (PPCGB / Kraftwerk Racing) 16 +7.290 7 Aron Smith (Airwaves Racing) +7.744 8 Jason Plato (MG KX Momentum Racing) +8.550 9 Mat Jackson (Airwaves Racing) +9.066 10 Jeff Smith (Pirtek Racing) +9.604 11 Daniel Welch (Welch Motorsport with Sopp + Sopp) +19.769 12 Robert Collard (eBay Motors) +26.398 13 Andrew Jordan (Pirtek Racing) +32.86414 Will Bratt (WIX Racing) +33.729 15 Nick Foster (eBay Motors) +34.136 16 Jack Goff (RCIB Insurance Racing) +34.409 17 James Cole (RCIB Insurance Racing) +39.78818 Joe Girling (M247 Racing with Tech-Speed Motorsport) +40.009 19 Warren Scott (Team BMR Restart) +50.248
Not Classified- Ollie Jackson (Speedworks Motorsport) +5 laps - James Kaye (AmDTuning) +9 laps - Dave Newsham (Speedworks Motorsport) +10 laps - Liam Griffin (Addison Lee Motorbase) +14 laps --- Lea Wood (Wheel Heaven / Houseman Racing) +15 laps --- Frank Wrathall (Dynojet) -- --
