Turkington steals the show: BTCC Rnds 19/20/21

Having lost out on a potential victory on no fewer than two occasions at Snetterton, Colin Turkington made amends in fine style with a pair of victories when the BTCC made its annual trip to Scotland.

The eBay Motors man won races one and two at Knockhill and looked set to close to within 17 points of the championship lead before a technical infringement saw him excluded from race three; which was won by Pirtek Racing’s Andrew Jordan.

Saturday’s qualifying session had produced something of a surprise, as Rob Austin stormed to a maiden pole position at the wheel of his WIX Racing-run Audi A4.

It was the first time that an Audi car had qualified on pole since the corresponding event back in 1997 – when German legend Frank Biela powered his way to top spot in qualifying at the wheel of his four-wheel drive A4 Quattro.

“I am extremely happy – I need a beer!” Austin said afterwards. “I knew the car was good at Snetterton but admittedly I didn’t do a great job there personally. I knew we had a chance here at Knockhill but it’s hard to say I expected pole. I am pretty confident going into tomorrow.”

Austin went into race day aware of the challenge that lay ahead, with his margin over Turkington and Jordan in qualifying having been less than a tenth of a second. In fact, such was the pace shown in the session that the top 15 drivers all lapped below the previous qualifying lap record, while the top 19 were within a second of the pole time.

As it was, Austin was only able to stay out front until the second lap when race one got underway, with Turkington finding a way through at the hairpin and then pulling clear of the chasing pack for what was his first win at Knockhill since his Ford Fiesta Championship days.

Even a mid-race Safety Car period after a clash involving team-mate Nick Foster and the returning Paul O’Neill – which saw O’Neill go heavily in the barriers exiting the final corner – couldn’t prevent the eBay Motors man from taking win number four of the year.

Running on the soft tyres, Austin was also unable to keep Gordon Shedden’s Honda at bay and slipped back to third place, although he fought back to keep the defending champion honest as the race wore on and his tyres came back to him.

Adam Morgan took fourth after a fine run in his Toyota, which included him battling ahead of both Jason Plato and Matt Neal. Post-race however, he was handed a time penalty that dropped him back to fifth behind Plato for contact while making his move for position.

“I think the penalty was a little harsh given some of the moves we have seen this season, but I am not complaining,” Morgan insisted afterwards. “I was quicker than Jason and didn’t want to get caught up in the pack behind so, when there was a gap, I had to go for it.”

Even though his race one win meant his BMW was laden with additional success ballast for race two, Turkington was again in dominant form when the lights went out for the second race of the weekend, leading throughout for a fifth win of the campaign.

A series of storming laps early on would allow the 2009 title winner to quickly build a lap of more than four seconds and he would be able to ease off in the closing stages as he closed right in on the championship lead.

Behind, Austin made the perfect start in his Audi to jump ahead of Shedden’s Honda into turn one and it would prove to be the only move for position within the top three as the Audi driver ensured that the positions were reversed from the opening encounter earlier in the day.

“The car is brilliant, there wasn’t a hope in hell I was going to lift into turn one!,” Austin said. “There’s nothing to lose in race three for us, we’re not in the championship hunt after our mid-season performance, but the car has good pace and hopefully we can go forward.”

A solid run from Rob Collard saw him cross the line in fourth spot, with Neal and Andrew Jordan rounding out the top six – the latter then taking pole for the final race thanks to the reverse grid draw.

With his weekend having started on something of a low thanks to a six-place grid penalty handed out for hitting ‘three strikes’ for driving infringements, Jordan ensured it would end on a high with a fine drive to victory in race three.

Leading every lap, the Pirtek Racing man took win number four for the campaign to leave him just six points shy of Neal in the title race; the Honda driver taking second spot to minimise his losses.

Collard completed the podium places with his first top three finish of the year having lost out to Neal following a mid-race Safety Car period called to remove the stranded VW of Warren Scott from the side of the circuit.

Outside the podium places, Turkington took a fine fourth spot to further close the gap to the championship lead, putting him just 17 points away from Neal in third place, with Austin and Plato rounding out the top six – the latter having struggled throughout the weekend with the handling of his MG6.

“The results this weekend are more than I though would be achievable,” Turkington said. “I thought we would be competitive, but when we saw the pace we had, it was important that we capitalised. When you have the car underneath you, you have to hammer home the advantage and that is what we did. The car was great in race one and even with the added ballast in race two, we had the pace to pull away.

“I’m not in a position where I’m thinking about the title and we have to take things one race at a time as we don’t know how we’ll perform when we get to Rockingham; it’s a circuit that could go either way for us. I don’t expect us to be as dominant as we were here, but we’ve shown we have a car capable of running at the front and we’ll aim to challenge.”

Turkington’s joy however would be short-lived when his car failed post-race technical checks for a turbo overboost, resulting in an exclusion that dropped him back to fourth in the title race, 30 points away from top spot.

With the field behind all shuffled up a place in the results, Dan Welch picked up a season’s best sixth at the wheel of his Proton to cap easily his best weekend of the year.

Despite failing to win, Neal heads away from Knockhill still leading the championship ahead of Jordan, with defending champion Shedden third after Turkington’s late drama. The Scot himself failed to finish race three when his engine let go in fiery fashion and forced him into retirement.

“This championship could come down to the odd point so it’s critical that we keep pushing for every result,” Neal said of the weekend’s action. “I said before this weekend that Turkington could be the one to watch and we’d all be foolish to discount Plato too, but it’s great to have three Civics in the top three of the championship.”

In the Jack Sears Trophy for Super 2000-spec cars, Lea Wood went into the weekend with a comfortable lead but saw closest rival Liam Griffin take victory in the opening two races to close in on the championship lead.

However, Griffin’s hopes of a hat-trick were ended when debutant Kieran Gallagher – driving an NGTC-spec Vauxhall Insignia for Team HARD. – tipped him into a spin exiting the hairpin in the final race of the weekend.

With Wood then taking victory, he retains a four win lead in the race for the standings, with James Kaye – who missed the weekend due to a knee injury – now needing to win each of the remaining nine races to take the crown.

“Two great wins but still a disappointing end to what could have been a very, very good weekend,” Griffin said. “I’ve had Lea behind me for the last three races and dealt with it fine but for Gallagher to come out and do that is just unnecessary.

“I would have been two points away from Lea and now I’m four, it just makes it a whole lot harder to close the gap and make the championship challenge at the end. Race three was there for the taking, but unfortunately Gallagher put paid to that. I’m a bit annoyed to be fair.”

Next stop on the calendar is the Rockingham circuit in Northamptonshire on the weekend of 14/15 September.

Words thanks to Matt Salisbury and Inside BTCC.

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