Turkington doubles up as MG‘s gamble backfires

Colin Turkington has taken his second win of the day at Croft during round 14 of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship for eBay Motors, to take his 8th victory around the North Yorkshire circuit.

While Turkington won, the other big story to come out of round 14 was MG as they took a big gamble on wet tyres that backfired leaving both Jason Plato and Sam Tordoff a lap down. The rain started just prior to the race and, with rain still coming down, the MG KX Momentum pair took the gamble on wet tyres. Despite running first and second in the first few laps by lap 4 it was clearly a circuit for dries as the pack went past.

This left Turkington to take his second win of the day although he did have to work harder than in race 1, coming under pressure midrace by the Honda Yuasa Racing Civic of Gordon Shedden. Turkington was able to pull clear with 5 laps to go to take his second win of the day by just over 2 seconds.

After the race Turkington admitted it had been harder than race 1 and said, “It was tougher with 45kg of ballast. With the track conditions as they were, it was slippery everywhere. I was trying to manage the gap and with 5 laps to go it was like turning on a switch and I found the grip and was able to pull away. The team gave me a great car even with the conditions, I was very strong in the final sector and I made the most of that.”

Shedden managed to go one better than in race 1 after he finished 2nd in race 2 and after his second place commented “Hopefully the trend continues for race 3. It was quite entertaining; seat of the pants stuff for the first few laps. But 2 podiums and lots of points so let hope it continues for race 3 where if the weather does what it says and rains, the car’s good if it rains so we are in good shape.”

In quite a lonely 3rd place, not if he minds, was Tom Onslow-Cole in the PPCGB.com/Kraftwerk VW Passat as he produced a fantastic result for both himself and his Team Hard squad led by Tony Gilham. After the race a delighted a delighted Onslow-Cole said, “The first few corners were good. The car seemed good underneath me, with the weather an excellent leveller. We are over the moon with another podium. The development of this car is coming on really quickly and keeps getting better and better.”

Finishing 4th was current point’s leader Matt Neal in the second Honda Yuasa Racing Civic as he held off a great 3 way battle between himself, Andrew Jordan, in the Independent Honda Civic for Pirtek Racing, and Rob Collard in the 2nd of 3 eBay Motors BMW.

With Jordan battling with Neal this allowed Collard to close up which produced a stunning final lap. Collard got up the inside of Jordan coming out of the last corner as the pair ran side by side heading into the chicane. With the chicane not big enough for 2 cars Jordan missed the chicane to keep the place. Jordan opted not to give up the place, however to settle any after race dispute Collard settled the argument on track and overtook the Pirtek Honda heading into the final corner to take 5th before the line.

Nick Foster had run as high as second into the first corner, making the most of his rear wheel drive get away but quickly fell back in the wet conditions and eventually had to settle for 7th. Foster stands a great chance of a podium in race 3 after the draw pulled out ball number 8, which was Adam Morgan in the Cicely Racing Toyota Avensis, meaning the ultra fast BMW of Foster starts alongside him.

Rounding out the top 10 was Jeff Smith in the second Pirtek Racing Honda Civic with Dave Newsham finishing 10th , following his race 1 non finish in the Speedworks Avensis.

The best battle during the race was no doubt between David Nye in the Welch Motorsport Ford Focus, race 1 winner Jake Hill in the Addison Lee Focus and Lea Wood in the Wheel heaven/Houseman Racing Vauxhall Vectra, who were all competing for victory in the Jack Sears Trophy.

In the end it was Nye who came through to take his maiden victory in the category, while Wood overtook Hill on the line to take second. Although that didn’t matter as the championship will be determined by wins rather than points at the end of the season.