TURKINGTON STRIKES FIRST IN BTCC
But rivals queue up to unsettle the champ,
Colin Turkington stands on the edge of making British Touring Car Championship history if he can conquer the series this year.
The WSR BMW 330i M Sport driver left the opening exchanges at Donington Park last week at the top of the pile, but it is already clear he has a huge fight on his hands to retain his silverware. Dan Cammish claimed the opening race in his Team Dynamics Honda and Ash Sutton powered the Laser
Tools Racing Infiniti Q50 to its maiden BTCC success in the reversed-grid finale to lay down the gauntlet to the Northern Irishman.
The portents already indicated a huge scrap for honours in this season’s contest.
Race one
Cammish knew that he would have a job on his hands from the off, with the rear-wheel-drive BMW of Turkington on pole after a record- breaking lap and Sutton’s rejuvenated Q50 in third place.
So it proved. As Turkington turned into
Redgate ahead with Sutton in his wheeltracks, Cammish had to consolidate third place from Tom Oliphant’s WSR BMW and Tom
Ingram’s factory Toyota Corolla.
Ingram dealt forcibly with Oliphant at the Old Hairpin and opened the door for Rory Butcher to follow through in his Motorbase Ford to move the Focus up to fifth.
Turkington could not escape the clutches of Sutton, who was determined to make the most of his team switch, in the early stages.
The 2017 champ made his move, which would ultimately lead to his downfall, on lap four. He got a run on the leading BMW out of the Old Hairpin and bravely went around the outside of the WSR car through the left-hander of Schwantz. It looked like he had done it, but the Infiniti and the BMW made the slightest of contact at the turn-in point for McLeans, dragging them both wide.
“It was a ballsy move from Ash,” said the following Cammish. “As they pushed each other wide, I just drove into the gap.”
The Honda man was on the inside of the recovering Sutton on the run up to Coppice.
“Ash tried to come over on me, and I thought
‘I am not having that’,” added Cammish, who kept his foot in and grabbed the lead at the apex.
Sutton checked up and was hit in the rear by Turkington, who was, in turn, hit by the unsighted Ingram. The results sent Sutton spinning and allowed Butcher into third place.
Cammish, who had come so close to the title last term, was delighted. He even survived a late- race wobble to head home Turkington, Butcher, Ingram and Matt Neal (Team Dynamics Honda). Sutton recovered for 14th.
Race two
Cammish would now be the man saddled with winners’ success ballast – up to 60kg this term – and went from pole, but he was again looking out for the rear-wheel-drive car of Turkington.
The Civic driver held on manfully away from the line, but Turkington eventually got the traction down better and was able to slice across his rival going into Redgate, with Butcher following from the fast-starting Oliphant, who was quickly demoted by Ingram.
Turkington was able to pull away with ease over the opening laps as Cammish struggled with his extra weight. Butcher got a run down the inside of the second-placed Honda man into the Chicane at the end of lap three. That precipitated a slide down the pack from Cammish, who would eventually finish sixth.
Turkington, carrying 54kg, knew that those opening exchanges had been vital for his result. He said: “Our race was going to be made off the line and we just made it, although Dan hooked up really well. We had tested with weight in, so we knew it settles the car down. I was delighted with that.”
After Cammish’s woes, Butcher consolidated second place with Ingram losing out to Oliphant, who was capitalising with advantageous tyre wear on his rear-wheel-drive BMW, on the penultimate lap.
Butcher was pleased with runners up spot in the brand new Focus. “We nearly ran out of grip at the end and I had to be very defensive from Oliphant, but I am happy with that result,” said the Scotsman.
A mid-race safety car to clear up the errant VW CC of Nicolas Hamilton gave fresh hope to some – including Sutton, who was battling from 14th. When the caution period was called on lap nine, Sutton had already climbed to eighth and he made short work of the next few, jumping Stephen Jelley’s Team Parker Racing BMW, Neal and the ailing Cammish to grab an excellent fifth – right in the wheeltracks of Ingram’s Corolla. Behind Neal, Adam Morgan (TripleR Mercedes-Benz A-Class) grabbed a battling eighth from Jelley.
The reversed-grid draw reached even further down the order, to its maximum number of
12. That was a boon for Chris Smiley in the new Excelr8 Hyundai, which would take pole alongside the Motorbase car of Ollie Jackson. It was good news for them, but a disaster for Turkington. He faced a get-go from row six and 60kgs.
Race three
From the front row, Jackson wasn’t going to squander his chance. A superior launch to
Smiley, plus the fact the Hyundai man was intent on protecting his track space from the fast-starting Jelley, meant that the Focus hit the front at Redgate.
Smiley knew he had fluffed his lines: “Maybe I just haven’t worked out how to hook up the Hyundai away from the line yet…”
He wasn’t done though, because the Northern Irishman launched a stunning attack to reclaim top spot on lap seven with a late-braking lunge at the Old Hairpin. It worked, and served to muscle Jackson back to fifth.
Josh Cook (BTC Racing Honda Civic) was on Smiley’s tail and, incredibly, Sutton was tracking them both. He made short work of Morgan and set off after Cook. On lap nine, he made it through with superb traction out of Coppice. One lap later, he pulled a mirror image move on
Smiley to scorch the Infiniti away to its first championship win.
Smiley held on to second from Cook, while Morgan and Jackson hounded them both.
Ingram performed a late-race pass on
Cammish to grab sixth, while Neal kept the weighty BMW duo of Oliphant and Turkington at bay to the finish line.
Sutton was thrilled with his maiden win for his new team, and left with an ominous message for others. “We have been chipping away at the set-up of this car, and it really clicked in race three,” he said. “This is the best BTCC car I have ever driven.”