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):

Main Information Additional Data Additional Data Driver Info

       

Driver Info			Main Information Additional Data
Cla	Driver	#		Car	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Retirement	Points
1	C. Turkington Team BMW			BMW 330e M Sport	25	26'32.144				20
2	T. Ingram BRISTOL STREET MOTORS with EXCELR8			Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance	25	2.559				17
3	A. Sutton NAPA Racing UK			Ford Focus ST	25	5.541	2.982			15
4	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	J. Cook One Motorsport with Starline Racing			Honda Civic Type R	25	9.389	0.806			10
7	R. Collard Toyota Gazoo Racing UK			Toyota Corolla GR Sport	25	10.693	1.304			9
8	J. Hill Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport			BMW 330e M Sport	25	14.564	3.871			8
9	A. Taylor-Smith CarStore Power Maxed Racing			Vauxhall Astra	25	17.090	2.526			7
10	A. Morgan Team BMW			BMW 330e M Sport	25	17.287	0.197			6
11	D. Lloyd Autobrite Direct with Millers Oils			Cupra León	25	17.625	0.338			5
12	A. Moffat One Motorsport with Starline Racing			Honda Civic Type R	25	18.913	1.288			4
13	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	S. Osborne NAPA Racing UK			Ford Focus ST	25	21.799	0.225
18	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	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	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	R. Butcher Toyota Gazoo Racing UK			Toyota Corolla GR Sport	0				Retirement
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