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Marcus Simmons

BTCC Silverstone: Turkington wins as title fight goes down to Sutton and Ingram

Turkington’s West Surrey Racing team-mate Jake Hill charged his BMW 330e M Sport from the back of the grid to eighth, but has now fallen out of championship contention.

With Ash Sutton finishing third behind Tom Ingram, that means Sutton and his Motorbase Performance Ford Focus ST take a 45-point lead to the Brands Hatch finale over Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N driver Ingram.

Turkington had to work for it in the early going from fifth on the grid.

Reversed-grid poleman Michael Crees got beaten into Copse Corner by Ronan Pearson, and then duffed up on the opening lap.

As Crees ran three-abreast along Wellington Straight between Adam Morgan and Rory Butcher, Morgan began to move across without realising Butcher’s Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla was on the other side of the polesitting Team Hard Cupra Leon.

After contact with Crees, Morgan’s WSR BMW speared across and wiped the innocent Butcher into the barriers. Morgan was apologetic, but was given a reprimand and two licence penalty points for the incident.

Pearson’s Excelr8 Hyundai got a bit loose through the stadium section on the opening lap, allowing Dan Rowbottom up the inside and into the lead in his Motorbase Ford, while Dan Lloyd (Team Hard Cupra) and Turkington also got past.

The race went under the safety car to clear up the damaged Toyota, and on the first lap of the restart Turkington passed Lloyd around the outside of Brooklands for second place.

He then hunted down Rowbottom – the Ford defended through Brooklands and Luffield, but the compromised line allowed Turkington to accelerate into the lead.

Colin Turkington, Team BMW BMW 330e M Sport (Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images)

Turkington built up a gap at the front while Ingram, whose rookie team-mate Pearson had allowed past for third, squeezed his way past Rowbottom for second.

Ingram was just under 1.5 seconds adrift of Turkington and tried to hunt down the leading BMW, but a loss of power-steering forced him to settle for second.

“I could feel the car had pace in this race,” said Turkington. “I had a really good front end compared to race two, and I felt if I was patient I could make the moves.

“Once I got in the lead I knew I had the pace. I could see Tom Ingram had gone into second and thought, ‘Here we go, he’ll be putting on a light show’, but I knew I had a couple of laps more hybrid.”

Like Ingram, Sutton was also on the move, and Pearson did a terrific job to fend off his team-mate’s title rival before succumbing to the inevitable. He then stayed glued to the Motorbase Fords before Sutton got ahead of Rowbottom with two laps remaining.

Rowbottom just beat Pearson to fourth, with Josh Cook, who was crowned 2023 Independents champion in race two, sixth in his One Motorsport Honda Civic Type R.

Ricky Collard (Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla) was seventh ahead of Hill, who got up to eighth position with 10 laps remaining but then suffered a recurrence of the turbo boost sensor problem that ruined his second race, albeit not to as severe an extent.

Dan Cammish’s rotten luck continued – after a tyre delaminated in race two, he worked his Motorbase Ford from the back to ninth before slowing with an identical problem on the final lap. Aron Taylor-Smith (Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra) and the recovering Morgan therefore completed the top 10.

BTCC Silverstone race three results (25 laps):

 
 
       
Driver Info
 
 
 
   
Cla Driver # Car Laps Time Interval km/h Retirement Points
1 United Kingdom C. Turkington Team BMW   BMW 330e M Sport 25 26'32.144       20
2 United Kingdom T. Ingram BRISTOL STREET MOTORS with EXCELR8   Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance 25 2.559       17
3 United Kingdom A. Sutton NAPA Racing UK   Ford Focus ST 25 5.541 2.982     15
4 United Kingdom D. Rowbottom NAPA Racing UK   Ford Focus ST 25 8.143 2.602     13
5
R. Pearson BRISTOL STREET MOTORS with EXCELR8
  Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance 25 8.583 0.440     11
6 United Kingdom J. Cook One Motorsport with Starline Racing   Honda Civic Type R 25 9.389 0.806     10
7 United Kingdom R. Collard Toyota Gazoo Racing UK   Toyota Corolla GR Sport 25 10.693 1.304     9
8 United Kingdom J. Hill Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport   BMW 330e M Sport 25 14.564 3.871     8
9 Ireland A. Taylor-Smith CarStore Power Maxed Racing   Vauxhall Astra 25 17.090 2.526     7
10 United Kingdom A. Morgan Team BMW   BMW 330e M Sport 25 17.287 0.197     6
11 United Kingdom D. Lloyd Autobrite Direct with Millers Oils   Cupra León 25 17.625 0.338     5
12 United Kingdom A. Moffat One Motorsport with Starline Racing   Honda Civic Type R 25 18.913 1.288     4
13 United Kingdom S. Jelley Team BMW   BMW 330e M Sport 25 19.243 0.330     3
14
M. Doble CarStore Power Maxed Racing
  Vauxhall Astra 25 20.397 1.154     2
15
G. Gamble Toyota Gazoo Racing UK
  Toyota Corolla GR Sport 25 21.072 0.675     1
16
D. Patterson Re.Beverages and Bartercard with Team HARD.
  Cupra León 25 21.574 0.502      
17 United Kingdom S. Osborne NAPA Racing UK   Ford Focus ST 25 21.799 0.225      
18 United Kingdom A. Watson CarStore Power Maxed Racing   Vauxhall Astra 25 22.937 1.138      
19
N. Halstead BRISTOL STREET MOTORS with EXCELR8
  Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance 25 23.295 0.358      
20
J. Edwards Re.Beverages and Bartercard with Team HARD.
  Cupra León 25 24.259 0.964      
21
D. De Re.Beverages and Bartercard with Team HARD.
  Cupra León 25 24.949 0.690      
22
B. Thompson Go-Fix with Autoaid Breakdown
  Cupra León 25 31.727 6.778      
23 United Kingdom D. Cammish NAPA Racing UK   Ford Focus ST 25 45.075 13.348      
24
J. Butel Go-Fix with Autoaid Breakdown
  Cupra León 24 1 lap        
dnf United Kingdom T. Chilton BRISTOL STREET MOTORS with EXCELR8   Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance 20 5 laps     Retirement  
dnf
M. Crees Autobrite Direct with Millers Oils
  Cupra León 13 12 laps     Retirement  
dnf United Kingdom R. Butcher Toyota Gazoo Racing UK   Toyota Corolla GR Sport 0       Retirement  
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