HONDA BACK TO THE TOP
NEAL TOPS BTCC AT THRUXTON
The younger drivers in the British Touring Car Championship have shone over the opening portion of the season, but it was time for the big guns to strike back at Thruxton.
Matt Neal added his 62nd career win in the opener in Hampshire in the Team Dynamics Honda Civic Type R, while Colin Turkington bagged two second places and a fifth to reignite his title charge in his WSR BMW 125i M Sport.
Race two was claimed by the buoyant Power Maxed Racing team, with Josh Cook searing through the pack, while Adam Morgan took his second victory in as many meetings in his Ciceley Motorsport Mercedes-benz in the finale.
But the message leaving the circuit was clear: the old hands still have plenty of tricks up their sleeves.
Race one
Neal had promised before the season that his new-shape Civic Type R would be a formidable weapon at Thruxton. The slippery shape of the car was perfectly suited to the high-speed sweeps of the 2.356-mile circuit, and he proved that with record-breaking pace in qualifying for an 18th career pole. Perhaps more surprising was the pace of Turkington, who was also under the previous benchmark. Thruxton has never been the happiest of hunting grounds for the rear-wheel-drive German car, but the bigger tyres introduced into the BTCC in 2017 seem to have assisted with the handling.
The BMW also benefits from strong traction away from the line, so Neal knew he had a job on his hands to maintain his advantage into Allard. But he did.
They went toe-to-toe through the righthander, with Neal on the inside, and that gave him the inside for Campbell. He maintained an advantage that he wouldn’t lose, no matter what Turkington could throw at him.
“I was sitting there just waiting for the tyres to go off,” said Neal. “But getting in the lead was important. We know our car is good in the fast stuff and because I was ahead, it meant that I could stretch my legs to begin with and just get away a bit. The tyres held on, and it was a fantastic day for us.”
Turkington was rarely more than one second behind but knew the game was up after three-quarters of the 16 laps.
“I was able to hang on, but the rear started to lose grip over the latter stages,” said the Northern Irishman. “This championship is all about consistency. After the last meeting [where Turkington scored only six points], we needed to bounce back. Once the rears started to go, I pegged it back a little bit, but I am delighted to be back on the podium again.”
Neal’s team-mate Dan Cammish was pleased with third place too. He jumped fellow row-two starter Brett Smith (Eurotech Racing Honda Civic), who had bogged down badly away from the line.
Cammish had come under attack from Sam Tordoff (Motorbase Performance Ford Focus) over the latter stages of the race, but had enough in-hand.
Tordoff, and his team-mate Tom Chilton, had both overhauled Andrew Jordan’s WSR BMW 125i M Sport. Jordan was one of the heroes of the race, battling a severe stomach virus. He rocketed off the line to climb from eighth to fourth, but simply couldn’t hold back the Ford tide. He was very lucky to have made it to the end of the race at all.
His defence from Senna Proctor’s Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra earned him the hardest 10 points Jordan has ever won.
Smith recovered his composure for eighth ahead of the Vauxhall of Cook and the top 10 was rounded out by Chris Smiley in his BTC Norlin Honda Civic.
More should have been expected of Jack Goff, in the other Eurotech Honda. Goff, a race winner at Brands, was frustrated: “Look at our straight-line speed, we are nowhere. We can’t fight like this, but we are looking into everything. But it makes life tough on a circuit like this.”
He headed home Morgan, who was saddled with 66kg and he admitted to making a poor getaway, which meant he had to battle from the lower part of the top 20 to earn the points he did.
The top Subaru Levorg was champion Ashley Sutton in 15th spot after an uncompetitive performance from the car, while team-mate Jason Plato retired with a concern over his engine.
The main loser from the race was Tom Ingram. His Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Avensis (which had lost its fastest qualifying lap for a track limits infringement and started 10th) pulled into the pits after only four laps when the electrics on the machine died. He had a warning on the opening lap and the team tried different engine modes, but it failed to cure the systems and Ingram was left without power steering until he was forced to pull in.
It was a bitter blow for the points leader coming into the round. Although he had lost the 75kg of ballast he had been forced to carry into the meeting, he would start round eight still top of the pile, but was forced to line up 32nd, and last.
Race two
Weight is never thought to be too much of an issue at Thruxton. Of all the 10 configurations on the BTCC schedule, the high-speed track is where it is punished least.
Cook had lugged 57kg around in race one to ninth, which had been a solid result. But once rid of the extra lead bolted to the passenger footwell, the hatchback simply flew.
He had a lot of work to do from row four, but his move for the lead on lap 11 was performed with consummate ease as he outdragged Turkington coming out of Church for a second career win and his second in as many meetings.
He gained a place off the line, and inched his way into the top five after three tours. Then work got a bit harder. As he tried to unseat Jordan from fourth at the end of lap four, there was controversy. Cook went to the outside of the BMW through the first right-handed element of the Club Chicane and the pair
went side-by-side towards the lefthander. Cook swerved left to avoid the inner kerbs, while Jordan took the apex. Cook emerged ahead.
One lap later, and Cook had caught and passed third-placed Tordoff coming out of Church. Another lap, another position, as he jumped Neal for second.
Leader Turkington would prove to be a much tougher nut to crack. Despite the fact the BMW was carrying 66kg of ballast, he had made a strong getaway this time to fend off Neal. The tyres were hanging on well and when Cook arrived on his bootlid on lap nine, it was still not certain that the German car would lose the lead.
It finally happened on lap 11, when Cook held a tigher line coming out of Church and powered around the BMW.
“The car was just on rails,” said Cook after his epic climb. “The front was gripping really well, but the rear was a bit lively, which made things interesting. But to win a race like that from the middle of the grid feels really special and the car had so much speed coming through Church that it made some of the moves easy. I was passing a lot of cars into the chicane, but it seemed Jordan didn’t like it and we had a little touch. There was no problem with what I did as far as I was concerned.”
Behind him, both Turkington and Neal were delighted with podium finishes, given the weight that they had both carried. Indeed, Neal felt that a better result could have been on the cards. “I made an OK start, but I knew I was faster than Colin around the back of the circuit. I was confident I would be able to get him back,” he said.
“I was looking in my mirror all the time and there was Tordoff close on me, so I had to be careful. Then I looked again and it was Josh Cook. I wondered where he had come from! There was no stopping him, Josh was on fire.”
Tordoff held on to fourth spot from Jordan and Proctor, who had been feisty in the midpack and even had time to give a place back to Chilton after a pass under yellow flags. Morgan, who was drawn on reversed grid pole position, came home in seventh place as Chilton wilted later on in the race. Goff also pounced in his improved Civic.
Cammish should have been in the lead group too, but he ran wide at Church on lap two and he pitted to assess the damage.
Ingram performed miracles from 32nd and was inside the top 15 after only eight laps, and built on that for 12th at the flag. It was a recovery job, but it wasn’t enough for him to maintain top spot in the points. The honours were passed over to Cook – albeit briefly.
Race three
The Mercedes on pole position should have been an ominous sight for the others. Morgan has taken two of his five career wins at the Hampshire track, and was light ballast-wise (27kg). The signs looked good for a strong result for the Lancastrian.
The signs didn’t look good for Jordan and Plato, as both were forced to withdraw from the race. The illness that Jordan had suffered all day finally got the better of him as he collapsed after race two and was taken to the medical centre, while Plato was still struggling with engine issues in his Levorg.
Morgan knew that his hard work would be done at the start, and he made it count. He made a peach of a getaway to head the pack into the Complex on the first lap. That was part one of the job done.
“After that, it was a question of getting my head down and putting in a series of qualifying laps to give me the break that I needed,” he said. “I was able to do that, but I still couldn’t back off. Others were coming up through the pack so it wasn’t until that last lap that I could relax a little bit.”
It was as untroubled an afternoon’s work as Morgan could have hoped for, but if he had have looked in his rearview mirror, he would have seen a truly fantastic drive from Goff.
With the extra weight now shed from the Civic, he was flying. He went from seventh to sixth at the start and then picked his way up the order until he got to Proctor’s second-placed Astra by lap nine.
The teenager proved to be a tougher foe and Goff had to wait until lap 14 to make a move stick. He pounced when Proctor ran slightly wide exiting the Club chicane and dashed for the inside as the cars crossed the line.
“We really found a sweet spot with the car for that race,” said Goff. “We went down the right [set-up] direction in race two, built on that for race three and it was magic.
“I was tracking Senna and I could see that he was beginning to struggle with his front tyres, so it was a question of waiting for it to come to me. Eventually, it did.”
Proctor said he had used his tyres too hard chasing Morgan early on, but was satisfied to bank the result – especially as he had picked up a track limits warning later on in the race.
Just off the rostrum was Tordoff, who capped a much-improved weekend with his third fourth place of the day. The Motorbase man was the only one in the team who was able to maintain tyre life throughout the 16-lappers.
Turkington took 66kg to fifth place ahead of Cook (with 75kg) in a relatively uneventful race. Ingram bounced back with seventh ahead of Neal, who complained that he was unable to make progress in the traffic.
Smiley hung on gamely for ninth, but the six-car dogfight for the final slot in the top 10 was entertaining at least. Eventually, the place fell to Rob Collard (WSR BMW 125i M Sport), who had struggled with poor handling all weekend.
As well as Plato’s machine, Team BMR also had a few headaches preparing Sutton’s car for the finale too as his car broke a driveshaft on the way to the grid and he was forced to start from the pitlane. He failed to take his place on the grid and contact in the midfield scuffles restricted him to 20th at the flag.