Colin Turkington found a way past pole man Gordon Shedden to win the first BTCC race at Snetterton.
Their battle lasted the entire race as Shedden got a good enough start to be able to defend his lead over Turkington going into the first corner.
They then raced nose to tail for the next eight laps before Turkington managed to get a better run through Palmer’s and came out ahead. Shedden was unable to find a way back past and Turkington took his third win of the season, the first person to do so this year.
“That was one of my most memorable races. I’ve never won around here in a rear-wheel drive car so it’s great. My pace was much better than I expected, I just tried to be patient and I made the move when the opportunity came up. I was in two minds; do I let him go on up the road a bit and take the pressure off myself from the Ford behind? Then, I thought no, I’ll hammer Gordon [Shedden] while I can. He went in deep and I forced my way through on the switchback. I won’t give up on the championship until it’s mathematically impossible. If we can keep the momentum going then there’s every chance.” Said Turkington afterwards.
Shedden explained things from his side;
“I had to be very defensive in a lot of places. He used the strengths of the car on the overlap at the hairpin and made his way through. I was going as slow as possible while trying to stay in the lead! Second place was good but obviously a win would have been better. It’s great, though. I’ve not been on the podium for six races or something. It was one of those enjoyable ones where it was a proper dice between myself, Mat [Jackson] and Colin [Turkington].”
Jackson had made a great start from fifth on the grid to third and he then had a tough job as he tried to find a way to pass the leaders while at the same time defending from Adam Morgan and Ashley Sutton.
Although he didn’t manage to find a way past the leaders he successfully defended from the rest of the field to take a third place in Motorbase’s three hundredth race. Jackson spoke afterwards;
“We came into the race hoping we could get onto the podium after qualifying, and to deliver that it’s good. It’s points for the championship and for our 300th race – it’s a great result. It’ll give us a good start for race two. We got punted in the rear and it did rub against the tyre there at the start but it sorted itself out.”
Morgan and Sutton kept swapping positions in the battle for fourth but it was settled firmly in favour of Morgan when Sutton’s MG slowed with a puncture.
Behind that, Plato had just found a way past Ingram for sixth so that became fifth with Sutton’s Demise with sixth for Ingram.
Sam Tordoff and Matt Neal too seventh and eighth to score important points in their title battle despite carrying a lot of success ballast.
Warren Scott and James Cole were ninth and tenth, their best results of their BTCC careers and the first time all four works Subaru’s have finished in the top ten.
Hunter Abbott had an impressive race after getting spun out of sixth on the first lap. He fought back up to fifteenth for the final point and an extra point for fastest lap.
The other points finisher from eleventh to fourteenth were Jack Goff, Jake Hill, Rob Austin and Andrew Jordan. Jordan also had a fighting drive from the back after missing qualifying.
Results
1 Colin TURKINGTON (GBR) Silverline Subaru BMR Racing 23:46.178 (89.93 mph)
2 Gordon SHEDDEN (GBR) Halfords Yuasa Racing +2.771s
3 Mat JACKSON (GBR) Motorbase Performance +4.042s
4 Adam MORGAN (GBR) WIX Racing +5.400s
5 Jason PLATO (GBR) Silverline Subaru BMR Racing +6.880s
6 Tom INGRAM (GBR) Speedworks Motorsport +8.994s
7 Sam TORDOFF (GBR) Team JCT600 Racing with GardX +9.607s
8 Matt NEAL (GBR) Halfords Yuasa Racing +10.172s
9 Warren SCOTT (GBR) Silverline Subaru BMR Racing +11.160s
10 James COLE (GBR) Silverline Subaru BMR Racing +12.647s
11 Jack GOFF (GBR) Team IHG Rewards Club +12.876s
12 Jake HILL (GBR) RCIB Insurance Racing +13.441s
13 Rob AUSTIN (GBR) Handy Motorsport +14.393s
14 Andrew JORDAN (GBR) Motorbase Performance +15.137s
15 Hunter ABBOTT (GBR) Power Maxed Racing +15.817s
16 Robert COLLARD (GBR) Team JCT600 Racing with GardX +22.488s
17 Dan WELCH (GBR) Goodestone Racing +25.276s
18 Michael CAINE (GBR) TLC/RCIB Insurance Racing +27.669s
19 Ollie JACKSON (GBR) AmD Tuning.com+30.768s
20 Michael EPPS (GBR) RCIB Insurance Racing +43.162s
21 Stewart LINES (GBR) Maximum Motorsport +45.929s
22 Matt SIMPSON (GBR) Speedworks Motorsport +46.136s
23 Aiden MOFFAT (GBR) Laser Tools Racing +1m12.850s
24 Mark HOWARD (GBR) BKR +1m16.003s
25 Ashley SUTTON (GBR) MG Racing RCIB Insurance +1m21.015s
26 Josh COOK (GBR) MG Racing RCIB Insurance +1m21.617s
DNF Kelvin FLETCHER (GBR) Power Maxed Racing +2 laps
DNF Martin DEPPER (GBR) Eurotech Racing +4 laps
DNF Jeff SMITH (GBR) Eurotech Racing +9 laps
DNF Aron SMITH (IRL) BKR
DNF Alex MARTIN (GBR) Dextra Racing
By Marc Waller
