Colin Turkington has won the second race of the day at Croft this time beating Ashley Sutton into second.
Turkington didn’t waste any time in passing Sutton this time, drawing alongside off the line he then ran alongside the Subaru before passing Sutton into the Chicane. Rob Collard had moved into third.
The leading trio then pulled away from the rest of the pack with Sutton trying to pass Turkington while at the same time defending from Collard.
Turkington’s win was significant for several reasons; It was the fiftieth win for WSR and BMW as a combination with the first also scored by Turkington at Croft 2007. It was also WSR’s seventy fifth BTCC victory. On top of this it means Turkington has a record twelve wins at Croft with WSR winning Seventeen at the North Yorkshire circuit.
“It’s great to get another milestone for BMW.” Said Turkington after the race, “Wins aren’t easy to come by so to notch up 50 between WSR and BMW is a huge achievement. I had to work hard for it and the race was won off the start. He got a cracking launch and I was under pressure for the whole race. No wins are easy to come by but this was a particularly tough one. We went up to the chicane side by side and as we discussed through the drivers’ briefing there’s no way that can happen without someone heading for the grass, so I had to take avoiding action. I could see Rob (Collard) in third and I was hoping he’d have more pace to pressure Ash (Sutton) early in the race. My heart rate was already at 180, trying to defend early on so the hard work was done.”
Sutton was still pleased with second place;
“The start was key in race one. We bogged down a little bit but we lost out in turn one and I was straight back onto the attack. Another podium though, so what more could I want? The last couple of laps it was like someone flicked a switch and I felt like I had a puncture or something. We know that wasn’t the case though, so we’ll work on the setup to solve those problems.”
Collard was also happy with his podium;
“To get another podium at Croft and a fifth of the year is fantastic. I wanted to be second or to go after the win but it was hard up against the Subaru – a real cat and mouse game. It’s nice to bring the BMW home on the podium. There were a few times I attacked but Ash (Sutton) didn’t make any mistakes. We couldn’t show our pace at the very end there which is a shame, but bring on race three.”
Gordon Shedden had a lonely race to fourth while behind him Jason Plato and Andrew Jordan battled for fifth with Jordan coming out on top at the end.
Mat Jackson couldn’t hold on to the front runners this time but hung on to seventh place with team mate Depper bringing further cheer to the team with tenth, his first points of the season.
Between them were Rob Austin in the Handy Motorsport Toyota and Ollie Jackson in the AMD Tuning Audi. They had a tough fight for eighth and ninth with Austin winning out. Jackson had the last laugh though as his was the position drawn out for the race three pole!
Jackson’s AMD tuning team mate also had a great race with a season best eleventh place.
2017 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship – Round 14 – Croft
1 Colin TURKINGTON (GBR) Team BMW 15 laps
2 Ashley SUTTON (GBR) Adrian Flux Subaru Racing +2.445s
3 Rob COLLARD (GBR) Team BMW +2.890s
4 Gordon SHEDDEN (GBR) Halfords Yuasa Racing +14.954s
5 Andrew JORDAN (GBR) BMW Pirtek Racing +17.864s
6 Jason PLATO (GBR) Adrian Flux Subaru Racing +18.029s
7 Mat JACKSON (GBR) Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Duo +21.310s
8 Rob AUSTIN (GBR) Handy Motorsport +22.523s
9 Ollie JACKSON (GBR) AmDtuning.com with Cobra Exhausts +23.920s
10 Martin DEPPER (GBR) Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Duo +24.265s
11 Ant WHORTON-EALES (GBR) AmDtuning.com with Cobra Exhausts +31.860s
12 Michael EPPS (GBR) Autoaid/RCIB Insurance Racing +32.554s
13 Senna PROCTOR (GBR) Power Maxed Racing +33.990s
14 Aiden MOFFAT (GBR) Laser Tools Racing +34.220s
15 Adam MORGAN (GBR) Ciceley Motorsport +34.241s
16 James COLE (GBR) Adrian Flux Subaru Racing +35.987s
17 Matt SIMPSON (GBR) Simpson Racing +43.802s
18 Matt NEAL (GBR) Halfords Yuasa Racing +44.032s
19 Dave NEWSHAM (GBR) BTC Norlin Racing +44.367s
20 Chris SMILEY (GBR) BTC Norlin Racing +45.046s
21 Dennis STRANDBERG (SWE) Team Parker with Maximum Motorsport +45.553s
22 Jack GOFF (GBR) Eurotech Racing +48.899s
23 Josh COOK (GBR) MG Racing RCIB Insurance +1m12.163s
24 Josh PRICE (GBR) Adrian Flux Subaru Racing +1 lap
25 Jake HILL (GBR) TAG Racing +4 laps
26 Will BURNS (GBR) Autoaid/RCIB Insurance Racing +9 laps
27 Stephen JELLEY (GBR) Team Parker with Maximum Motorsport +11 laps
28 Tom INGRAM (GBR) Speedworks Motorsport +14 laps
29 Tom CHILTON (GBR) Power Maxed Racing +15 laps By Marc Waller
