TURKINGTON BACK ON TOP

BMW ACE SCORES BIG AT OULTON

F

ollowing the second meeting of the season at Donington Park, Colin Turkington was in despair. He’d amassed just six points over three races in a weekend that was plagued by electrical problems.

As he stepped from the podium after race three at Outon Park, he was smiling. His third place in the finale came after a win in race two and sixth in race one. He left the track 12 points clear of the rest – and the next stop for the WSR racer is Croft, a BMW haven.

The weekend had begun with a superb maiden win for Matt Simpson in the Simpson Racing Honda Civic following a dominant performance, and it ended with a WSR lock-out of the race three rostrum with Rob Collard and Andrew Jordan joining Turkington. But it was the man on the bottom step with the most to celebrate.

Race one

“I knew if I could reach Knickerbrook still in front on lap one, then that would be most of the hard work done,” said Matt Simpson.

The polesitter had turned heads with his pace on Saturday, dominating free practice and then the shootout for grid positions. The Eurotech-run Honda Civic Type R, with the latest-spec Honda motor, is a potent weapon this season as Simpson’s championship-chasing team-mate Jack Goff has proved. Simpson came to Cheshire free of success ballast, and the ingredients were right for him to shine.

And he did. From pole, he made a beautifully controlled start to head the pack – which was led by Tom Chilton’s Motorbase Performance Ford Focus – into Old Hall. While Chilton was forced to look to his mirrors to fend off first his team-mate Sam Tordoff and later the flying WSR BMW 125i M Sport of Jordan, Simpson was able to make good his escape.

His run to his maiden victory was not without its concerns though. Firstly, puffs of smoke started to emanate from the front-left corner of his hatchback from the half-distance point. Simpson was aware, but had asked the team to tell him nothing on the radio.

“I didn’t want to know anything – not even how many laps were left,” said Simpson. “I could see the smoke, but I was putting everything to the back of my mind just to get home.

“Over the closing laps, the brakes were going slightly. I was having to be very careful because, after all that good work, I didn’t want to ruin anything.”

He didn’t and crossed the line just over 0.2s clear. Chilton put on a late charge on his medium tyres, whereas Simpson had taken the softer ones. Chilton was griplimited over the latter stages but still tried to outfox his rival into Lodge on the last lap, but it failed to work.

Jordan was pleased to return to the rostrum, but felt that he could have had even more. The rear-wheel-drive runner had been expected to gain places off the line, but was thwarted immediately.

“I don’t know what happened – the car just bogged down,” said Jordan. “Maybe I had too much heat in the rear tyres. After that, the car was really fast, but there was just nothing I could do about Tom Chilton. He was placing his car well and slowing it down at the right points on the circuit.

“I got alongside him coming out of the Island hairpin on one lap, but he had too much traction for me.”

Matt Neal claimed an excellent fifth place in the Team Dynamics Honda Civic Type R. Coming to the meeting with 33kg on his hatchback meant that he expected to struggle to reach the podium.

In the end, qualifying fifth was an excellent effort and he finished in that spot too, with Turkington’s WSR BMW 125i M Sport in his wheeltracks. Turkington had been the main benefactor of overtaking in the race, passing the Eurotech cars of Brett Smith and Goff, before despatching James Cole (Motorbase Performance Ford Focus) on the exit of the Island hairpin with a well-planned move on lap 14.

Goff hauled his 48kg of extra lead home in eighth spot behind Cole and narrowly held off Collard (WSR BMW 125i M Sport) and Rob Austin (HMS Racing Alfa Romeo).

Championship leader coming into the race, Adam Morgan, had 75kg of success ballast fitted to his Ciceley Motorsport Mercedes-benz at a track that is tough on cars with extra weight. He could only qualify 19th and rose to 18th after a difficult race. The only silver lining on his cloud was that title rivals Tom Ingram (Speedworks Toyota Avensis) and Josh Cook (Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra) were both in a similar boat with 57kg and 66kg respectively. Only Ingram would be able to register a championship point with 15th place.

Race two

Simpson’s joy at winning race one was very soon squashed. As the Eurotech team investigated the smoke from race one, they quickly established it was as a result of an engine problem which would require a change – that ruled him out of race two. Subsequent problems installing the new unit meant he was out

for race three as well.

Chilton inherited pole and had 66kg of ballast on board but he had the BMW of Jordan alongside. Despite that, the Ford managed to maintain his advantage on the run to Old Hall from Jordan – but the bubble would eventually burst.

When the attack came, it came from an unlikely source: Turkington. The Northern Irishman had run fourth initially, but knew he had a decent chance.

“Within a couple of laps, I knew that I had a car capable of winning underneath me, and I had to strike,” said Turkington.

He certainly did. Third-placed Tordoff was his first victim on lap one going into Old Hall, and then he went inside team-mate Jordan at Lodge on lap four. Two laps later, the lead was his with a neat move down the inside on Chilton into Lodge.

“I didn’t want to fight too hard,” said Chilton. “I knew I had weight, and I figured that if I battled too hard, I would push us all back into the pack. I decided to play the wise game and I was desperate to bank another podium.”

He did that, but he had also had to cede second to Neal before the end. The Honda man was on the softer tyres and had 39kg of ballast, but while he could slice through the mid-order with ease, it took him until lap seven to finally overhaul Chilton, which he did with a superb move down the inside into Old Hall.

“I tried to keep the pressure on Colin, but he was simply too good,” said Neal. “I figured if I could try to keep the heat on because it is possible that the BMWS can chew their rear tyres if they push too hard, but Colin was too good for that.”

Jordan held on to fourth place ahead of Cole, who had been involved in an early battle with team-mate Tordoff. However, Tordoff’s run was cut short when a fuel pipe split and set the engine bay on fire. It would destroy the electrics on the car and rule him out for race three.

That gifted sixth to Collard ahead of Austin, and the latter was drawn on reversed-grid pole for the finale.

The win lifted Turkington to the summit of the points table, and that was due, in part, to the struggles of those further back. While Ingram battled manfully to 10th just ahead of Morgan, Cook was the one in the wars. He was caught up in a lap-one skirmish on the way to Cascades which ultimately sent him into the pits.

Race three

From his position on the front row of the grid for race three, Collard was looking like a strong bet for the finale. He nailed his start and as Austin tried to rein in too much wheelspin, the BMW was away.

It was for naught, though, as the red flags flew. Mid-grid contact between Mike Bushell (Team Hard VW CC), Tom Oliphant (Ciceley Motorsport Mercedes-benz A-class) and Rory Butcher (Amdtuning.com MG) caused chaos, which also involved both BTC Norlin Honda Civics of Dan Lloyd and Chris Smiley. The race was stopped.

“My heart sank,” said Collard. “I knew it would be all about the start, and I had done a great one. Then I had to do it all over again.”

It wasn’t a problem, and he nailed Austin into Old Hall again. Jordan moved into third place ahead of Cole, and Chilton while Turkington and Goff followed.

Collard was on the softer tyres and only had 33kg – the race was his to lose. “I knew I had to concentrate and I just got my head down,” said the winner. “It was the perfect race.”

It was far from perfect for Austin. He kept Collard honest over the opening period of the race but on lap nine, the Alfa Romeo trailed into the pits with a broken gearbox. Its driver was truly heartbroken.

That allowed Jordan into second place and Turkington, who had performed two strong overtakes on both Chilton and Cole, into a remarkable podium spot.

Goff’s fourth place was opportunistic, as he had followed Turkington through on a couple of his moves to climb the order, but he was lucky to cross the line at all as he had a tyre deflating rapidly over the final tour.

“If it had been another lap longer, I wouldn’t have finished,” said Goff. “I had to run on the grass when I came across Austin’s car going slowly, and I am not sure if that caused something, but we were very very lucky.”

That was the top order sorted, but a lot of eyes were on two of the championship’s major players: Morgan and Ingram. Morgan was immediately into the top 10 and on the bootlid of Ingram, but the Mercedes man was in the right place on lap eight when Ingram tried to capitalise on Neal’s tardy getaway from Knickerbrook. The cars went side-byside into Lodge and made contact, which was the only invitation Morgan needed to nip down the inside of both of them on the exit of the corner and in to eighth.

As the Motorbase Performance cars chewed their rubber with their heavier ballast weights, Morgan was able to leapfrog both of them as well to land fifth – a remarkable feature given that his weekend had started with 18th spot in the opener.

Ingram had performed a similar recovery job for sixth ahead of Chilton. Bushell and Jake Hill (Team Hard VW CCS) hauled themselves into eighth and ninth, while Cole dropped to 10th at the flag after being assaulted by Hill at Cascades on the final tour. The officials took a dim view and switched the positions between Hill and Cole back after the flag.