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Autosport
Autosport
Sport
Marcus Simmons

BTCC Oulton Park: Turkington completes comeback with victory

Turkington started the day 27th and last on the grid but shot his West Surrey Racing-run BMW 330e M Sport back into contention with storming drives over the first two races. 

That put him third on the reversed grid for the finale, and Turkington got himself ahead of the front-row-starting Motorbase Performance Ford Focus ST of Dan Cammish at the start to move up into second. 

From fifth on the grid, the Motorbase Ford of championship leader Ash Sutton was squeezed into the pitwall when the gap he was aiming for inside the Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N of Tom Ingram vanished. 

That damaged the right-front suspension, and the stricken Sutton received a further punt from Josh Cook at Old Hall before parking the Ford on the grass on the inside of the circuit. 

This resulted in a safety car, with poleman Adam Morgan leading Turkington and Jake Hill in a WSR BMW 1-2-3. 

Hill, from seventh on the grid, had got up to fifth at the start, and the call for the safety car came as the cars headed up the hill out of the chicane. 

But no safety car boards were shown until the exit of Deer Leap, and Hill had already taken advantage by leapfrogging Ingram and Cammish at Druids. 

Jake Hill, Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport BMW 330e M Sport (Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images)

Two laps after the restart, Turkington drew to the outside of Morgan at Lodge, then hung on around the outside of Old Hall before audaciously taking the lead when he seized the inside line at Cascades. 

Morgan, shuffled onto the outside, also lost out to Hill, who then set fastest lap as he chased down Turkington. 

But Hill never got close enough to make a real attack for the lead, and as the race wore on Turkington looked ever stronger – with two laps remaining the gap was over a second and he won by 1.762s. 

“Last night I was not expecting to win a race – I didn’t know what sort of day I was in for,” said Turkington. 

“The start was the important thing. I didn’t know what the pace would be like on the hard tyres [the option rubber was run by all but four competitors in this race]. 

“Then it was pressure to the end – Jake was there but I felt I had enough in my pocket.” 

Ingram sat behind Morgan throughout to gain ground on Sutton in the championship with fourth place, while Cammish was next up. 

Josh Cook, One Motorsport with Starline Racing Honda Civic Type-R (Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images)

Aiden Moffat was the highest-placed of those on soft tyres in this race, and he charged up from 15th on the grid to sixth in his One Motorsport Honda Civic Type R, ahead of team-mate Cook, who had a three-place grid penalty from his incident with Bobby Thompson in race two and started from sixth instead of third. 

Cook just held on for seventh from Dan Rowbottom, whose Motorbase Ford was also on softs, while the Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corollas of Ricky Collard and Rory Butcher completed the top 10. 

With spots of rain in the air, the Team Hard Cupras of Nic Hamilton and Dan Lloyd started the race on wet-weather rubber, albeit Lloyd only did so when the turbo boost pipe came adrift on the green-flag lap and he was forced to pit anyway.

Cla Driver Chassis Laps Time Gap Interval km/h Points
1 United Kingdom Colin Turkington   18 28'55.921       20
2 United Kingdom Jake Hill   18 1.762       17
3 United Kingdom Adam Morgan   18 4.305   2.543   15
4 United Kingdom Tom Ingram   18 4.709   0.404   13
5 United Kingdom Dan Cammish   18 6.176   1.467   11
6 United Kingdom Aiden Moffat   18 7.179   1.003   10
7 United Kingdom Josh Cook   18 9.306   2.127   9
8 United Kingdom Daniel Rowbottom   18 9.512   0.206   8
9 United Kingdom Ricky Collard   18 11.786   2.274   7
10 United Kingdom Rory Butcher   18 17.512   5.726   6
11 George Gamble   18 19.322   1.810   5
12 United Kingdom Tom Chilton   18 19.949   0.627   4
13 United Kingdom Stephen Jelley   18 20.749   0.800   3
14 United Kingdom Sam Osborne   18 21.766   1.017   2
15 United Kingdom Andrew Watson   18 22.875   1.109   1
16 Jade Edwards   18 25.203   2.328    
17 Ronan Pearson   18 29.115   3.912    
18 Jack Butel   18 32.133   3.018    
19 Nick Halstead   18 33.189   1.056    
20 Dexter Patterson   18 33.375   0.186    
21 Will Powell   18 39.181   5.806    
22 Mikey Doble   18 52.137   12.956    
23 Bobby Thompson   17 1 lap        
24 United Kingdom Daniel Lloyd   17 1 lap        
25 Nicolas Hamilton   17 1 lap        
26 Ireland Aron Taylor-Smith   14 4 laps        
27 United Kingdom Ashley Sutton   0          
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