JORDAN REIGNITES TITLE CHARGE
Scottish victory combined with woe for points leader Turkington tees up BTCC showdown. By Matt James
The British Touring Car Championship wins at Knockhill were shared between a popular home victor, a championship chaser and a first-time winner. While Rory Butcher showed prodigious pace to claim a race one win at a canter in his Amdtuning.com Honda Civic Type R, WSR BMW 330i M Sport racer Andrew Jordan thrust himself right back into the points picture with a lights-to-flag victory in race two. Jake Hill then finally took a trophy he could keep in race three in his Trade Price Cars Racing Audi S3.
But it was the dramatic shift in the championship fight that stole the big headlines. Disaster for table-topper Colin Turkington in race two has given a conspicuous chink of light to his rivals. It is very much game on in the 2019 battle and there are only two meetings remaining.
Race one
Butcher’s pace in qualifying was sensational. He was on the front foot right from the opening exchanges of free practice and carried that on into the 30-minute session on Saturday afternoon. His lap record-breaking pole lap put him more than 0.24s clear of the rest, headed by Dan Cammish’s Team Dynamics Honda Civic Type R.
Jordan’s second-row starting BMW, which had recorded its impressive time despite 48kg of success, was lurking though. Its rear-wheel-drive starting prowess was a threat to the top two as they lined up and pointed towards the top of Duffus Dip.
When the lights went off, Jordan did make some rapid progress but it was not quite enough to usurp the polesitter. Butcher held firm, while Cammish slotted into third spot ahead of Tom Chilton in fourth in the Motorbase Performance Ford Focus.
An immediate safety car spoilt Jordan’s plans for an early attack as Michael Crees slid his Team Hard Volkswagen CC wide at Mcintrye’s after contact and then, as he was collecting the moment, collided with Nic Hamilton’s Motorbase Ford. The Focus ground to a halt at Butcher’s and a six-lap hiatus was called for.
Butcher knew that he was in trouble at the restart, although it took a while to unfold. “I lost second gear, which is not ideal,” explained the leader. “Around here, you only really need to use it at the hairpin, but I was having to use third instead. That meant I was pushing extra hard over the opening part of the lap to build a gap, and then manage the car coming out of the last turn.”
Jordan, unaware of his foe’s problems, reeled him in and then, as the cars began their final lap, he pounced. When the Honda struggled for traction out of Taylor’s, the BMW shot to the left of the leader to inch ahead by the timing line, and then Jordan edged to the right to take the inside – and the lead – into Duffus Dip.
“I was on the dirty side of the track and I just couldn’t get into the corner,” explained Jordan. “I decided to abort pretty quickly and let it run wide and Rory was back ahead.”
Butcher, for his part, knew where his retaliation would come: “I had planned to send it down the inside into Mcintyre’s,” he said. “But, he was wide anyway and that was enough.”
After the quick two-step, order was restored and the Scotsman claimed his third victory of his season.
Cammish, on the less-favoured medium Dunlop tyres (the softer tyres were the prime choice), wanted to get the pain out of the way early on, especially as he had 42kg aboard. He was jumped by Chilton’s Focus at the end of lap nine of the 27 at the hairpin, although Chilton would later err at the chicane and then was roughed up as he tried to overtake Turkington and plummeted to an eventual seventh.
That drama allowed Cammish to bank his 10th podium of the season. “I think that worked well for us,” said the Honda driver. “The race was like a qualifying session, we were flat out all the way.”
After the threat from Chilton disappeared, Cammish had been forced to look to his mirrors over the latter part of the race as Turkington, the improved Senna Proctor (BMR Racing Subaru Levorg) and Chris Smiley’s BTC Racing Honda Civic were queuing up behind.
Following Chilton across the line, Tom Ingram (Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla), Adam Morgan (Ciceley Motorsport Mercedes-benz A-class) and Hill rounded out the top 10.
Further back, champions Matt Neal and Ash Sutton both failed to finish after a collision on lap 11. Sutton put his Subaru down the inside of the medium-tyred Honda going into Mcintyre’s as they battled over 10th place. Both were forced to retire with damage, and Sutton also collected a verbal reprimand as a result.
Race two
While Jordan had come within a hair’s breadth of winning the opener, he knew his big chance would be in race two with a front row start and Butcher now saddled with the maximum level of success ballast. But little did he know just what a turnaround the race would provide for both him and his championship chances.
True to form, the Pirtek-backed driver used the rear-drive prowess away from the line to reach the first corner first, and simply didn’t look back. “That is the best touring car I have ever driven,” said Jordan. “It is pretty much as we started the weekend with it and it was doing everything I asked of it. [My engineer] John Waterman has done an amazing job. I was gone.”
Indeed, he was away to his sixth victory of the campaign and there was barely a speck in his rear-view mirror as he took the flag more than 1.7s clear.
It was behind where the real drama played out. Butcher, on the less favourable medium Dunlops and with his 54kgs, was immediately playing the defensive and Cammish behind knew that he had to take advantage early.
He made an opportunistic lunge inside the AMD car at the end of lap six and got underneath his rival, accelerating clear on the exit. The move slightly delayed Butcher powering out of the corner and that gave the closely-following Turkington his chance. He pounced as well to relegate the race one winner to fourth.
But Butcher was feisty. He wanted his place back and went to push down the inside of Turkington at Mcintyre’s on lap seven. Butcher was never truly alongside as the BMW turned in, which it had every right to. Contact was made and the points leader was spun into the gravel. Turkington rejoined but finished a dejected 19th.
Butcher continued and was able to fend off Proctor’s Subaru to the flag, but his next appointment after the race was with the clerk of the course. He was handed a five-place grid penalty for race three, but allowed to keep his podium finish.
For Jordan, who had come into the meeting 30 points behind his main rival Turkington, the incidents in his wake moved him to four points away from the championship summit.
Butcher said that the contact had been
unintentional on his part. “I went down the inside, but as we got closer to the corner I could see that he was intent on turning in,” he said. “I tried to back out of it but I was unable to, and that was a shame. I respect Colin and that is not what we would have wanted to have happened.”
Turkington was left bemused by the move – and his team angered by the leniency of the punishment meted out. “It is quite clear that Rory went for a gap that obviously wasn’t there,” said the three time champion. “I had passed him quite cleanly into the first turn and then defended into Turn 3.
“Maybe he was expecting the gap to open up, I don’t know, but he hit me in the rear bumper on the right-hand side. The first tap unsettled me, but it was the second hit that did the damage. It rotated my car. By no means was it a clean, fair pass. The frustration for me is that Turn 3 is not an obvious overtaking place. There are a lot of other places with less risk where he could have tried to pass me so I am pretty upset about that.”
None of this was going to bother the winner Jordan, who crossed the line 1.7s clear of the pack. “I wasn’t looking at what was going on behind me [Turkington’s problems],” he said. “It is a shame for BMW, but us racing drivers are selfish. My sleeves are really rolled up now [in the title fight].”
Behind Proctor’s fourth-placed machine, Chilton had a lonely run to fifth in the Motorbase car, while Ingram was forced to fend off Morgan to land sixth.
Jason Plato, on the softer rubber for his Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra, did a good job to climb from 12th to eighth, and he held off the flying Josh Cook (BTC Racing Honda Civic) and Hill to the flag.
Hill’s job, on the harder medium tyres, had been a strong exercise in damage limitation and it also landed him pole position – with just 6kg of ballast and on the softer tyres – for the final encounter. There was much for him to smile about.
Race three
The ingredients were perfect for Hill to finally break his duck in race three. After having crossed the line first at Oulton Park in June, only to be pinged for contact and have it taken away, he was determined to make amends in Scotland.
He controlled the race beautifully, and had to cope with two caution periods to fend off Cook all the way through the
27-lap encounter.
“I don’t think I did anything wrong in that one,” beamed Hill afterwards, despite a small wobble on the last lap going through the chicane which could have undone all of his good work. “Cook was pushing me hard and I was trying to be as fast as possible and I misjudged it by a few millimetres. I just kept my foot in and it came back to me, so I was lucky. It is a great feeling.”
For his part, Cook knew that there was nothing he could do about the Audi driver in front. He professed to giving it his all, but the leader was strong at various parts of the track where the BTC pilot could not take advantage.
Morgan was on the move and put in a strong pass on Plato going into Mcintyre’s at the half-distance stage to grab his second podium in as many rounds. It started to unravel for Plato from that point as Smiley gave the Vauxhall a little tap as he motored ahead on lap 20, and then Ingram did a more comprehensive job of getting the Astra out of the way to claim fifth spot.
That delayed Plato enough to give Cammish sixth place and Chilton seventh spot. Ninth fell to Aiden Moffat’s Laser Tools Racing Infiniti Q50 after a strong weekend. Behind him was one of the stories of the race, Turkington, and it reflected how quickly fortunes can switch in the BTCC.
After the abject disappointment of the second race, this time it was Jordan’s turn to suffer. He had been, partly, the cause of the first safety car period. Seventh-placed starter Proctor spun at the chicane on the opening lap – the driver not sure if it was prompted by early car damage in the first turns – and Proctor was straight in the firing line for the following Jordan.
The BMW driver tried to run around the outside of the errant Subaru, but failed and ended up in the gravel.
“I had nowhere to go,” said Jordan. “I tried to get around Senna, but he rolled back and that was it for me. I am not going to get angry about it, because it was one of those things. But, in terms of the championship, it certainly is very much game on.”
Turkington’s finish earned him six vital points, which means the gap between him and Jordan is 10 points with six races remaining. Ominously, serial podium finisher Cammish is just one further adrift.
From what was looking like an open goal for Turkington, things have suddenly become a lot more serious and the British Touring Car Championship seems ready to deliver the dramatic final stages that it has become known for.