Turkington takes another BTCC victory at Snetterton

Turkington leads off the line with fast starting Morgan slotting into second (Photo by Marc Waller)

Turkington leads off the line with fast starting Morgan slotting into second (Photo by Marc Waller)Colin Turkington stayed ahead of the drama behind him to win the second BTCC race of the day at Snetterton.

Once again starting from pole, he lead into Riches on the first lap and from there pulled away. Adam Morgan got the start of the day so far to move into second place in his Wix Racing Mercedes.

Tordoff by contrast got a terrible start and dropped down the order with team mate Priaulx also passing him. But their team mate Rob Collard had an even worse time as he was fired into the barriers as several cars made contact at Riches. Also off were Stewart Lines and Barry Horne. All three drivers recovered back to the track but with their races severely compromised.

Further round lap one the two works Hondas made contact with Neal hitting Shedden from behind, firing the Scotsman into the barriers. Neal was then himself hit by Rob Austin and Mat Jackson also joined the mess. Both Hondas struggled on for a while but eventually retired, Shedden on that lap, while Neal tried to carry on for a bit longer before giving up with the damage to his car too great to allow him to be competitive.

At the front Morgan held on to second much to the delight of his Wix racing team. He spoke afterwards about his feelings on taking another podium;

”That was probably the hardest race I’ve ever done. Everyone has done a great job – I didn’t get the break on Andy [Priaulx] early on which meant I was looking in my mirrors for the entire race. The BMW badge in my mirrors kept getting bigger, but unusually I’m really pleased with my performance and I’m looking forward to race three now.”

Support Our Paras made their point (Photo by Marc Waller) Jackson made the top eight for Motorbase (Photo by Marc Waller) Cole scored points on his second race back (Photo by Marc Waller) Bushell had his best result of his BTCC career so far (Photo by Marc Waller) Neals car falls apart as rivals line up to pass (Photo by Marc Waller) Second to fifth crossed the line together (Photo by Marc Waller) Morgans team and family were overjoyed with second (Photo by Marc Waller) Turkington on top again (Photo by Marc Waller)

Priaulx, Tordoff and Plato battled for the final podium slot with Priaulx eventually coming out on top leaving Plato fourth and Tordoff’s BMW fifth.

Team mates Goff and Jordan were sixth and seventh for MG with Mat Jackson taking a welcome top ten for Motorbase in eighth. Ninth was Rob Austin recovering something from what hadn’t been a good weekend for the Audi driver up until now.

Mike Bushell took tenth in his AMD tuning Ford Focus, his best result in the BTCC to date and also the Jack Sears trophy win for this race.

James Cole took eleventh making it a double points finish for the first time this year for the returning Motorbase team and their two Ford Focus.

Twelfth was Hunter Abbott making up for his disappointing race one in the second Alcosense Exocet Audi. Barry Horne, standing in for Alex Martin took his first BTCC points with thirteenth just ahead of Rob Holland who took his first points since returning in place of Simon Belcher. Derek Palmer took the final points scoring position for Support Our Paras Racing.

Turkington spoke after the race on his brilliant day at Snetterton so far;

”All credit to my team, they’ve put another fantastic car underneath me. If anything the balance in that race was even better than the first. If you can pull out a couple of lengths in the first few laps then it makes the race so much easier to manage. I got a good start, I was just expecting to see the BMW come alongside me! I enjoy driving at the front, but it’s hard to keep focus and consistency. The car is quick enough for three wins, but overtaking is tough at the front, so we’ll be focussed on bagging more points.”

Sixth place was drawn for the reverse grid pole giving Jack Goff a great chance to take his first race victory.

Full results for this race are on TSL Timing By Marc Waller


     

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