Colin Turkington has taken a historic first win for Subaru in the first BTCC race of the day here at Oulton Park.
Turkington lead away from pole at the start and never looked like being passed in a race uninterrupted by safety car periods. It’s a big turn around for the team who have suffered from various problems since their debut at the beginning of the season including a fire for James Cole at Donington and then pulling out of the Thruxton weekend altogether due to safety issues with the fuel system. But they had always promised that things would imprive from Oulton Park after a big update and this has proved to be the case with a 1-3 finish for Turkington and Jason Plato.
Daniel Lloyd, had less luck from second on the grid in his Eurotech Honda and was passed off the line by Sam Tordoff’s fast starting BMW. Tordoff then slotted into a comfortable second, well ahead of the chasing pack but nearly two and a half seconds off Turkington in the lead.
The battle for third was fierce between Plato, Shedden and Lloyd. Lloyd initially held third but Shedden found a way past at the hairpin on lap two before also succumbing to Plato on lap seven. Plato then set about getting in front of Shedden. The two battled hard for several laps with Plato making repeated attempts at taking the place but Shedden was able to defend. On lap twelve Plato finally got through and pulled clear to take a comfortable third. This left Shedden to finish fourth in the Halfords Yuasa Honda.
Behind Lloyd’s pace had dropped off and he fell into the clutches of Tom Ingram. However it looked like he would stay ahead to take the independents win only for Ingram to make a late pass as they crossed the line, taking the independent team win by just 0.139 seconds.
Josh Cook’s MG was Seventh with team mate Ashley Sutton running in the top ten as well before an off saw him drop down the order.
Aron Smith was eighth in his Team BKR VW CC ahead of Ballast laden Matt Neal in his works Honda Civic. Similarly ballast laden Andrew Jordan took tenth in his Pirtek Racing liveried Ford Focus.
Eleventh was Hunter Abbott in the Power Maxed Chevrolet, his best result of the season. Jack Goff ended up twelfth in the IHG BMW just in front of the RCIB Insurance Racing Toyota Avensis of Jake Hill. Martin Depper took fourteenth, moving into the points from his twentieth starting slot. His team mate Jeff Smith went the other direction having been hit by Rob Austin and also suffering from brake issues. He dropped to twenty first. Rob Austin took the final points in the Handy Motorsport Toyota.
Rob Collard finished outside the points after a spin at the hairpin early in the race dropped him to close to last. He fought his way up to twenty third.
Jason Plato’s Subaru set fastest lap with Daniel Lloyd setting the fastest lap of the independents.
Disaster struck for Warren Scott’s Subaru when it caught fire at the end of the race. The team are now trying to fix his car while identifying the cause. They will hope it’s not a repeat of the previous issue that caused James Cole’s fire.
The second race gets underway at 14:45
Full results for this race are on TSL Timing By Marc Waller
