BTCC - Snetterton: Turkington tops BMR 1-2-3 in Race 1

Reigning BTCC champion Colin Turkington (Volkswagen CC, Team BMR) is the winner of the first race at Snetterton Circuit today. Turkington started from pole position, ahead of team-mates Aron Smith and Jason Plato. After 12 laps, all three of them finished the race as they started, with Turkington’s comfortable gap of 1.7 seconds.  It was Turkington’s second victory of the season.

“I feel much more comfortable in the car. We had two really good test days over the break and I’ve turned a corner in terms of confidence. We’re free to race at this stage and we all want to win, so it was pretty intense in the first few laps. We simulated this exact situation in testing, and it’s paid off with a brilliant result for the team. We’re in good shape – the car is fast and it’s going to be important to bag big points on days like this,” Turkington said.

Andrew Jordan in Triple Eight’s MG started and finished fourth, ahead of Andy Priaulx and Matt Neal, who changed positions a few times during the race. Priaulx had a successful attack in Lap 7 at Riches but immediately ran wide on the exit of the corner, so Neal could repass him. In the next attack at Bomb Hole, Priaux took the fifth place and remained there till the end.

There was an unfortunate incident behind them as West Surrey Racing’s Sam Tordoff hit his BMW 125i M Sport team-mate Rob Collard in the rear on the run down to Riches on the opening lap. Collard seemed to brake early and Tordoff was caught unawares. After heavy contact Collard was forced to retire. Tordoff continued but he did slip down the order and finished 11th.

Four more racers who completed the top 10 are Adam Morgan, Dave Newsham, Jack Goff and Tom Ingram. Mat Jackson, in the first race after Motorbase Performance returned to the championship and finished 12th. Gordon Shedden, who was the championship leader, had a difficult race. Despite making early progress from 16th to 10th, because of suffering tyres, he felt down and finished 14th.

Nic Hamilton had a serious accident in AmD Tuning’s Audi S3. He has noted that his throttle stuck open on the exit of Agostini, which fired the car into the barrier at high speed. It’s not yet known if he’ll make the second race.

Check out all the fresh results on SnapLap result pages.

Photos: btcc.net