BTCC Thruxton: Morgan beats Turkington in BMW 1-2

Polesitter Jason Plato “got too much wheelspin at the start”, and Morgan used the rear-wheel drive of the Ciceley Motorsport BMW 330e M Sport to surge into the lead from the West Surrey Racing-run BMW of Colin Turkington.

Plato’s BTC Racing Honda Civic Type R initially fell to fifth, with Dan Rowbottom moving his Team Dynamics Honda into third and Ash Sutton fourth with the lead Motorbase Performance Ford Focus.

Rowbottom made a move around the outside into the Complex to take second place from Turkington on lap two, but it didn’t come off, and Sutton repeated his first-race trick around the outside of Noble to grab third from the Honda, with Plato following him through.

The leading quartet then ran close together following an early safety car.

An attempt by Plato at the chicane on the seventh lap of 17 to pass Sutton resulted in minor contact.

A few laps later, Plato ran slightly wide at Goodwood and, with marbles on his tyres, he skated onto the grass at Church Corner, and was forced to pit to have grass removed from his radiator.

Morgan led Turkington and Sutton through the last few laps in close formation, with the two BMWs repeating their reversed-grid performance from this circuit last season.

In 2021, Morgan bypassed the chicane on one occasion but kept his win; this time, he was more cautious, allowing the trio to bunch up on the final lap and Sutton to think about an audacious pass on Turkington before bailing out of the attempt.

“The chicane was always in the back of my mind and I was probably braking five metres earlier than I should do all weekend,” said Morgan.

“Then it started to rain a little bit and my wipers weren’t working, so on the last lap I braked probably 20 metres too early just to be safe!

“While the tyres were good I thought I’d make hay and get down the road, but you’re never going to get away from Colin – you always know he’s there, but it’s very difficult with three cars at the same speed to make a move unless someone makes an error.”

Plato’s excursion promoted Rowbottom back to fourth, and the bearded Midlander did a solid job to fend off the BTC Honda of new championship leader Josh Cook and Tom Ingram’s Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N.

Ingram had a battle early on with Jake Hill, but contact between the pair worked the WSR BMW’s rear bumper loose and officials summoned him to the pits to have it removed via the black-and-orange flag.

That should have put Gordon Shedden’s Dynamics Honda into seventh, but the Scot ground to a halt on the penultimate lap with what the team is still unsure whether it is engine or turbo failure.

Dan Lloyd therefore completed an Excelr8 Hyundai 6-7 ahead of the Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astras of Michael Crees and Ash Hand, and Rory Butcher’s Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla.

The safety car was triggered after Stephen Jelley was tapped into a spin at the Complex by Tom Chilton, with Ricky Collard collateral damage, but scarcely had the ‘SC’ boards appeared than everyone had got going again, so the race restarted after just one lap.

BTCC Thruxton race 3 results - 17 laps

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Time	Gap
1	Adam Morgan		22'49.005
2	Colin Turkington		22'49.604	0.599
3	Ashley Sutton		22'50.008	1.003
4	Daniel Rowbottom		22'52.792	3.787
5	Josh Cook		22'53.540	4.535
6	Tom Ingram		22'53.749	4.744
7	Daniel Lloyd		22'56.889	7.884
8	Michael Crees		22'57.173	8.168
9	Ash Hand		22'57.643	8.638
10	Rory Butcher		23'04.798	15.793
11	Tom Chilton		23'05.616	16.611
12	Bobby Thompson		23'08.312	19.307
13	Aron Taylor-Smith		23'10.842	21.837
14	George Gamble		23'11.156	22.151
15	Sam Osborne		23'13.592	24.587
16	Stephen Jelley		23'17.637	28.632
17	Aiden Moffat		23'18.033	29.028
18	Ollie Jackson		23'19.585	30.580
19	Ricky Collard		23'20.092	31.087
20	Dan Cammish		23'26.291	37.286
21	Jake Hill		23'26.546	37.541
22	Rick Parfitt Jr.		23'54.094	1'05.089
23	Jack Butel		23'02.004	1 Lap
24	Jason Plato		23'05.959	1 Lap
	Gordon Shedden		20'19.914	2 Laps
	Jade Edwards		19'22.497	3 Laps
	Dexter Patterson		17'07.709	5 Laps
	Will Powell		10'18.213	10 Laps
	Nicolas Hamilton		7'36.847	12 Laps
View full results