Turkington takes the Silverstone race three victory to stay in the BTCC title hunt

Turkington pulled away once he had the lead (Photo by Marc Waller)

Turkington pulled away once he had the lead (Photo by Marc Waller)Colin Turkington has taken the final win of the day here at Silverstone making sure he is firmly in the title hunt going into the finale at Brands Hatch.

The drivers of the BTCC certainly saved the best till last with the final race producing easily the most entertaining racing of the day.

James Cole had started on pole position but a poor start allowed Rob Collard to go straight into the lead. Cole then made a mistake at Becketts, running wide and handing second to Turkington. Cole was clearly hoping to hold on for a podium but Tordoff had other ideas in his WSR BMW and was soon past as well. At the same time Turkington was on Collard’s tail and dived through on the inside at Brooklands. There was then a safety car period due to a big accident.

The midfield had all closed up into Becketts and like a motorway accident, the ones at the rear were caught by surprise and were unable to stop in time. Dan Welch’s Proton and Hunter Abbott’s Audi. The audi came off worse hitting the Armco at high speed causing a lot of damage to the Audi. Both drivers were unhurt and within a couple of laps the race was back on.

Tordoff and Collard immediately started battling for second like they were bitter rivals rather than team mates. Plato was hassling Cole and after a “friendly” tap he was through.

Collard then surprisingly allowed Tordoff to pass, probably as the result of team orders to see if he could catch Turkington. When he failed to do so, the pair swapped back in the closing stages.

Turkington takes the lead (Photo by Marc Waller)The two Hondas ran together (Photo by Marc Waller)Plato tries to make a move on Cole (Photo by Marc Waller)The BMWs battle as Plato hits Cole (Photo by Marc Waller)Cole meanwhile was plummeting down the order after being unsettled by Plato. Both Hondas, Adam Morgan and team mate Jackson all found their way past. Cole did briefly get back past Morgan after giving him a tap going into Maggots but Morgan was soon back past him.

So Turkington finally streaked across the line taking the win with Collard and Tordoff behind him. Plato took fourth and next up were the two Hondas with Shedden ahead of Neal.

Mat Jackson took an impressive seventh after fighting his way through the field from close to the back. Considering the closeness of the whole field this weekend it was an amazing drive.

Morgan took eighth ahead of Cole, taking his best ever BTCC finish with ninth. This will have eased the disappointment of dropping down so far from the pole he started on.

There was a big battle for tenth between Aiden Moffat, Ton Ingram and Andrew Jordan. This was eventually won by Moffat in his Laser Tools Racing Mercedes. Tom Ingram’s Toyota took eleventh with Jordan down in twelfth. His mathematical chance of the title gets ever smaller.

Thirteenth was Mike Bushell’s AMD tuning Ford Focus, winning the Jack Sears rookie honours for race three but overall Josh Cook takes another trophy. He can’t be beaten going into the final round but Mike Bushell will be hoping to at least win the battle at Brands Hatch even if he can’t win the “war”.

So with just three races to go, five drivers have at least a mathematical chance of the title. Shedden leads the battle by twenty three points from Jason Plato. Turkington is now only a further nine points back thirty two off Shedden’s lead. Matt Neal and Andrew Jordan are fourth and fifth but their chances of winning rely on the top three having the weekend from hell.

The battle for tenth was close (Photo by Marc Waller)Turkington takes the flag to the cheers of his team (Photo by Marc Waller)The race three podium (Photo by Marc Waller)The weather could well play a part in the title battle and the past few years finales have all been wet ones. However the long term forecast is currently for dry and sunny conditions much like this weekend. Honda lead the Manufacturers championship from MG and look a strong bet to win that as BMR aren’t entered. In the team’s championship it’s BMR in front from Honda with MG third and Team JCT600 with GardX (WSR) in fourth.

Colin Turkington leads the independents championship battle from Jason Plato, with Adam Morgan in third. Team BMR also lead the independent teams trophy from Wix Racing with Speedworks in third.

Advance tickets are available from the Brands Hatch website if you want to attend what is sure to be another exciting finale. If not, as always, it will be shown live and in full on ITV4 and we will be reporting from all three races here on the site.

Full results from race three are available from TSL timing where they also have a page showing the championship standings

Race three results
 
Championship standings By Marc Waller 

 

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