Colin Turkington has taken his first win on his return to the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship in the third and final race of the day at Donington Park.
Despite spits and spots of rain over the course of the afternoon, the remaining NGTC front runners of Plato, Tordoff, Neal, Shedden, Jordan, J Smith, Turkington and O Jackson lined up on the grid with the soft option Dunlop tyres on their machines ahead of the race.
A good start from Colin Turkington saw him take the lead going into Redgate from Tom Onslow-Cole. A fight with Airwaves’ Aron Smith saw the Irishman takes second place from the VW whilst Sam Tordoff was making the most of his soft tyres and had got up to fourth.
A disappointing end to Frank Wrathall’s race saw him retire on circuit after some contact with Ollie Jackson’s Speedworks Toyota left sister Dynojet Toyota with rear suspension damage.
Race two winner Andrew Jordan also pitted early on in the race to remove debris from his Pirtek Racing Honda however did re-join the field albeit nearing the back.
A dramatic moment for Dave Newsham saw him spin his Avensis from fifth position going through Craner Curves, with drivers taking superb evasive action in order to avoid him.
Aron Smith, who was struggling on the harder compound tyres was falling down the order as the race went on, whilst up front, Colin Turkington had developed 4 second lead over Sam Tordoff who was now in second place for KX Momentum Racing.
James Kaye, who was leading the S2000 Jack Sears class, had a trip across the grass, handing the lead to Joe Girling for M247 Racing.
More bad luck for Ollie Jackson saw smoke pouring from the rear of his Toyota, resulting in the loss of oil. He span coming out of the final chicane before heading to the pits in order to retire.
With the rain starting to fall, Turkington’s 5.8 second lead was slowly decreasing as he maintained his tyres going into the latter stages. A last lap manoeuvre from the Honda duo Shedden and Neal saw the two pounce on the MG of Tordoff, whose soft tyres were starting to fall away, demoting him to fourth place.
Turkington crossed the line to take the first win of the season for eBay Motors – and the first on his comeback to the championship. Adam Morgan had a fantastic weekend to finish in fifth in his third top ten result of the day, whilst Aron Smith had to settle for seventh ahead of Jason Plato.
Andrew Jordan recovered well from his earlier pit stop to get back into the points to finish thirteenth. Tom Onslow-Cole, who started the race from pole position, finished the race in a strong sixth place for PPCG.com/Kraftwerk Racing.
Joe Girling took his first Jack Sears Trophy win of the year, finishing in eighteenth place overall.
Rob Austin and David Nye both failed to make the start of the race, with the Audi suffering engine issues and Welch Motorsport unable to repair the damage sustained to Nye’s Focus in the race two incident.
An interesting weekend of ups and downs – including three different winners – has come to an end. Rounds 7, 8 and 9 will be in two weeks’ time at Thruxton. Jason Plato leads championship standings five points ahead of Andrew Jordan in second place. Matt Neal and Sam Tordoff hold on to third and fourth respectively.
Race Three Classification:
1. Colin Turkington
2. Gordon Shedden
3. Matt Neal
4. Sam Tordoff
5. Adam Morgan
6. Tom Onslow-Cole
7. Aron Smith
8. Jason Plato
9. Mat Jackson
10. Jeff Smith
11. Dan Welch
12. Rob Collard
13. Andrew Jordan
14. Will Bratt
15. Nick Foster
Fastest lap: Andrew Jordan – 1:10:751 – Lap 5 By Nikki Thompson
