THE OLD STAGER IS BACK: PLATO WINS AGAIN. FULL BRANDS HATCH REPORT
Wins shared at Brands, but BMW man retains his title as Honda suffers last-gasp disaster.
Colin Turkington had virtually thrown in the towel after race two at Brands. Having been nerfed out of second place on the opening lap of the British Touring Car Championship showdown, the WSR BMW 330i M Sport driver thought he was out of the picture.
That, allied to a win and a podium for Team Dynamics Honda Civic driver
Dan Cammish in the opening exchanges, left the 2018 champion exasperated.
Andrew Jordan, Turkington’s teammate in the WSR BMW, pushed as hard as he could too over the opening two races, and the three went into the final 15 laps separated by just 13 points.
In the end, the BTCC played out one of its most dramatic final chapters, with heart-breaking mechanical failure for Cammish, a valiant sign-off from
Jordan and the biggest prize of all firmly back in Turkington’s grasp.
The weekend was also provided the first wins of the season for Ash Sutton (BMR Racing Subaru Levorg) in race two and Jason Plato (Power Maxed
Racing Vauxhall Astra) in race three.
But they were just subplots. The joy belonged to Turkington.
Race one
The first task was the most important qualifying session of the season. The 30-minute period on Saturday afternoon was held in full wet conditions, which was the first boost for the BMW drivers Jordan and Turkington.
A halfway house of slippery conditions is a nightmare for the rear-wheel-drive machines given the dynamics of the drivetrain. A full wet set-up makes the machines more predictable, but what wasn’t predictable was Turkington’s utter domination of the session, despite his full load of 54kg.
He made a spring change early on in the session to return to the sodden Tarmac and post a time more than 0.3s faster than Sutton for pole – and earn an extra championship point to boot.
Jordan simply had no answer and eventually ended off skating at Hawthorn with five minutes remaining and clouting the wall. He was stripped of his best lap time, but his second was enough for him to retain third spot.
The third WSR driver, Tom Oliphant, set the fourth best lap and put himself in prime position to be a useful player in the battle ahead.
The other major contender in the points chase, Cammish, was mired in 12th after handling difficulties in the conditions in his Honda Civic Type R. Even he admitted that his hopes had faded. “I went to bed thinking that it was slipping away and I could still be proud if I could manage to finish in the top three of the points,” said the 30-year-old.
He had given that quote after stepping from his victorious car following 18 hectic laps in race one. The weather, which had been on the verge of becoming wet, decided to play its hand halfway through the event and it turned into one of those BTCC classics.
Initially, Turkington lost ground to Sutton but regained the advantage at Druids on lap four. Rory Butcher, up from fifth in the Amdtuning.com Honda Civic, ran in a strong third from Jake Hill (Trade Price Cars Racing
Audi), as Jordan struggled with grip and slipped back to fifth.
When Matt Simpson fired his Honda into the tyre wall at the top of Paddock Hill Bend at the start of lap five, the safety car was called. There was a real sting in the tail here: while that bunched up the pack, it also coincided with the rain increasing.
The leaders held their nerve, but Cammish’s Team Dynamics team-mate Matt Neal decided to roll the dice. “It was on the turning point, and I thought I had nothing to lose,” said the three-time champion. He led a phalanx of cars darting into the pits, but his crew turned him around fastest and he rejoined in 18th spot.
His call had proved to be correct as it was clear the more slippery surface was going to have a big impact on the outcome. It was equally bad news for the rear-wheel-drive runners, with the format being harder to handle in the slicker conditions.
“I knew we would be a sitting duck for the front-wheel-drive cars when it went green again,” said Turkington, who slipped to an eventual fifth.
As the race went live, Cammish, from seventh, wasted little time in passing the tip-toeing Oliphant, Jordan and Sutton, who was struggling particularly, to grab fourth. A move on Turkington into Hawthorn on lap 12 to grab third signalled a real shift in the power battle in the race.
He jumped to second when Hill slewed wide at Graham Hill Bend, and then his move to deprive Butcher of the lead on lap 16 was sublime, as he went to the outside at Paddock and braked as late as he dared. Skirting around the outside of the corner, the Dynamics car made it into first place.
“I was worried as the car slid towards the gravel,” said Cammish. “I held my breath, and it just stayed on. The car was superb. I had asked the team to give me a car which wasn’t necessarily the fastest over a single lap, but gave me confidence and that I could push with and it worked perfectly over the opening part of the race. That set up my win. That was really emotional and I had to concentrate on every corner.”
But the drama wasn’t done, as eyes turned to those who’d opted for wets. Neal and Tom Chilton (Motorbase Ford Focus) were ripping through those who where sliding about. By the time Cammish hit the front, Neal was up to eighth and picked off rivals two-by-two to eventually pounce on Butcher on the run to the line and seal second, and he dragged Chilton with him to a podium.
That was significant because it had pushed Butcher down to fourth and Cammish’s rival Turkington to fifth and Jordan down to eighth.
The points swing put the Honda man just eight points adrift of the championship summit after the chequered flag– even though he survived a late scare when he had five seconds added to his race time for a slight overlap on the out-of-shape Oliphant as the cars sped towards the restart line for the second part of the contest. Luckily, his winning margin had been a whopping 7.8s.
Behind Turkington in sixth was Mike Bushell (Amdtuning.com Honda) and Stephen Jelley, who had stopped to swap to wets on his Team Parker Racing
BMW 125i M Sport. Rounding out the top 10 behind Jordan were stoppers
Jack Goff (Team Hard VW CC) and
Ollie Jackson (Motorbase Ford Focus).
The race also brought the end of the outside title hopes of Josh Cook (BTC Racing Honda Civic Type R) and Tom Ingram (Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla). Cook slid wide at Hawthorn on lap four and was lucky to collect the moment. He continued, stopped and then eventually retired when the low fuel alarm flashed on inside the Honda.
Ingram was battling inside the top 10, but contact with Sutton while trying to depose the Subaru man from sixth on lap 12 ripped the tyre off the rim and he was forced to pit for repairs. He eventually finished 23rd.
Race two
Three corners, and the complexion of the 2019 title fight took another huge swing in race two. This time, it was Turkington who was on the receiving end in the slippery conditions where all the leading runners opted for wet tyres.
After making a storming getaway from fifth, he chopped ahead of Chilton and Butcher in front before ducking to the outside of Neal to follow leader Cammish through Paddock Hill Bend in a sensational second place. It wasn’t to last, as Neal lunged for the inside of the BMW at Graham Hill Bend and the two made contact. The BMW spun to last position, while Neal reclaimed second.
“I didn’t see anything wrong with it,” said Neal. “My car was clearly down the inside of him and he turned in on me.
If I had wanted to do him, I would have done it in race one. Colin just turned in.”
Predictably Turkington, who stopped for slicks and could only race to 25th at the flag, saw things very differently.
“If that had been a Honda in front of him, do you think Matt would have got off the brake a bit sooner? I think he probably would have,” said the Northern Irishman. “It was a professional foul, simple as that and it has ruined my championship.”
Behind that, a multi-car pile-up at Paddock, involving Oliphant, Adam Morgan (Ciceley Motorsport Mercedesbenz) and Goff resulted in a four-lap safety car period.
Cammish, up front, seemed to be sitting pretty with wingman Neal behind. But Sutton had picked his way through to fourth place after the opening lap skirmishes and was loving the feeling from the Levorg and set about his rivals. He despatched Chilton on lap six, the first green flag lap after the hiatus. And then he took only one further tour to chop ahead of Neal coming out of Surtees and then jump ahead of Cammish coming across the start-finish line later on during the lap.
Cammish admitted that he was happy to let Sutton go as he knew that was not his particular fight, and the 2017 champion consolidated his advantage to take his first win of the year.
The eyes turned to the other major