Colin Turkington headed a Team BMR 1-2-3 in a dominant display at Snetterton for the first BTCC race of the day.
His team mate Aron Smith made a better get away but Turkington managed to hold him back and from there started to pull away with Smith in second also slowly pulling away from Plato whose car was carrying success ballast.
Turkington explained afterwards where his extra pace has come from this weekend;
“I feel much more comfortable in the car,” he said. “We had two really good test days over the break and I’ve turned a corner in terms of confidence. We’re free to race at this stage and we all want to win, so it was pretty intense in the first few laps. We simulated this exact situation in testing, and it’s paid off with a brilliant result for the team. We’re in good shape – the car is fast and it’s going to be important to bag big points on days like this.”
His team mates found themselves under attack from the chasing pack led by Andrew Jordan in his Pirtek MG. Behind Jordan the positions changed several times over the course of the race. Neal was fifth in the opening laps with Andy Priaulx looking for a way past.
Behind, Priaulx’s team mates came together when Collard braked to avoid the pack slowing ahead of him. Tordoff was caught unawares and ran into the back of Collard. This put Collard’s car out of the race and Tordoff’s chances of a good result were also gone as he dropped down the order.
So with Priaulx and Neal battling for fifth, Behind Goff found himself under attack from Power Maxed’s Dave Newsham. Newsham surprised Goff with a move on lap two and then n the next lap he dropped down again when Adam Morgan’s Wix Mercedes got past.
Morgan then took the opportunity to pass Newsham to take fifth. At this point the Priaulx and Neal battle came alive as Priaulx tried to pass at Riches on the seventh lap. He ran slightly wide and Neal repassed him. But Priaulx wasn’t in a mood to be held back and he was soon past again at the Bomb Hole, making it stick this time.
Priaulx then joined Plato and Smith in the battle for the podium positions behind Turkington. But BMR weren’t to be denied and held him off to take the teams first ever 1-2-3 finish.
Jordan closed on Priaulx in the closing stages but ran out of laps before any more progress could be made and took fifth. Neal held on to sixth with Morgan and Newsham battling for Seventh, Morgan coming out on top. Goff eventually took ninth ahead of Tom Ingram tenth in his Speedworks Toyota
Tordoff salvaged eleventh after his inter team collision with Mat Jackson taking twelfth on the return of Motorbase and their Ford Focus.
Thirteenth was Warren Scott, team boss of BMR considerably behind his quicker team mates and probably just as happy to see them on the podium as if he’d been up there himself. Fourteenth was ballast laden Gorden Shedden who had a miserable race as he fell down the order. Josh Cook took the final points beating Mike Bushell in the battle of the Rookies. Bushell’s team mate Nick Hamilton crashed out in the closing stages leaving his team with a lot of work to do to fix the car for race two.
To top an excellent start to the day, Turkington also took fastest lap giving him pole for race two. By Marc Waller
Full result are available on TSL Timing
