Adam Morgan has won the day’s final BTCC race at Thruxton in a lights to flag victory.
He got a great start from the reverse grid pole and immediately pulled out a large lead. Sadly for him the safety car was then scrambled for Warren Scott’s VW CC which had gone off at Goodwood corner. Morgan’s lead was eroded to nothing and he had to do it all again once the safety car pulled in. On the final safety car lap, he did the usual racers trick of holding back, leaving a huge gap between him and the safety car. He then charged through to complete the lap pulling out a small gap once again and then gradually increased this crossing the line 1.452 seconds ahead of Andrew Jordan’s Pirtek MG.
It’s Adam Morgan’s first win on the track. Officially he won at the 2014 Finale but it was after the race and the podium when Jason Plato was given a 20 second penalty by the stewards. This is the first time he’s had the opportunity to actually step on the top step of the podium.
Jordan had his best race of the day after being drawn in second on the reverse grid. Although he wasn’t able to stay with Morgan’s lightning pace, he pulled out a gap of 1.189 seconds on third placed Tordoff in his JCT600 Racing with Gardx BMW. This was Tordoff’s first podium since joining his new team and came after a weekend when he’d been off the pace. He came under constant attack from BMR’s Colin Turkington throughout the race with the Irishman less than half a second away from Tordoff’s BMW.
Gordon Shedden was fifth and has had a consistent points scoring weekend with a win, a third and now a fifth. Matt Neal had an impressive race going from dead last on the grid all the way up to sixth by the end of the race, just over a second behind team mate Shedden.
Shedden was delayed during the race though, getting caught up in battles with Austin, Collard and Goff as the race progressed. Neal was impressive with the way he dealt with rivals as he moved up the order. His last pass was on Jason Plato on the penultimate lap pushing his old rival down to seventh place in the final standings.
Plato’s team mate Smith was eighth ahead of Power Maxed Josh Cook. Cook had a very eventful race, hitting team mate Newsham on the fourth lap. He then got into a battle with Neal and Austin and eventually came out ahead until Neal repassed him at the chicane in the closing stages.
His top nine finish contributed to success in the Jack Sears trophy for the weekend, Cook coming out as best Rookie for the three races. He leads the standings in that championship with former main rival Mike Bushell out for the weekend following his qualifying smash.
Tom Ingram took tenth for Speedworks, despite getting battered in the early stages. The car shed several bits of fibreglass but continued.
Jack Goff took eleventh and MG won the manufacturer/Constructor award for their performance over the three races despite not winning a race when rivals Honda had.
Twelfth was Dave Newsham who came off worst in the early clash with his team mate. He hasn’t had the results this weekend that his pace deserved. Andy Priaulx finished thirteenth after a back of the grid start. He initially was charging up the field but his challenge faded towards the end of the race.
Rob Collard finished down in fourteenth in his WSR run BMW, he also faded as the race went on. The points finishers were rounded out by Eurotech’s Martin Depper in his Honda Civic.
Shedden leaves Thruxton in the lead of the championship with Turkington in second and Neal in third. Plato and Jordan are next up with Morgan moving up to sixth in the championship after a good weekend. Former championship leader after the first meeting, Jack Goff is seventh with Collard in eighth.
Full race results and championship standings are of course available from TSL.
The championship now heads to Oulton Park in Cheshire on the 6th and 7th June. Advance tickets are available from the MSV website. By Marc Waller
