Two from two for Colin Turkington at Croft

West Surrey Racing’s Colin Turkington made it two wins from two at Croft, leading home the Honda Racing Team pair of Gordon Shedden and Matt Neal after another commanding performance.

Turkington made a clean getaway to again lead Shedden home, with the 2012 champion tailing the BMW 125i much more closely than in the first race, before slipping back in the closing stages.

Neal made it two Civic Tourers on the podium after passing Turkington’s team-mate Rob Collard at Sunny on lap 11, with Eurotech Racing’s Andrew Jordan completing the top five.

Behind them, there was more than a hint of controversy as Alain Menu and Jason Plato came to blows after a race-long battle.

The Swiss had tailed the Triple Eight MG closely for much of the race before passing Plato cleanly into Clervaux on the penultimate lap. But Plato then made contact with the back of the Volkswagen CC after the move was made, pitching Menu into the barriers and out of the race.

Plato came home sixth ahead of Mat Jackson, with Sam Tordoff, Tom Ingram and Fabrizio Giovanardi completing the top 10; the Italian being drawn out of the hat for pole position for the final race.

It was a disappointing 100th start in the BTCC for Dave Newsham, who came to grief just yards off the line after contact with the fast-starting Audi A4 of Rob Austin. The latter was out on the spot, while Newsham eventually retired his AmD Tuning Ford Focus in the pits.

Elsewhere, race one retiree Adam Morgan staged one of the drives of the race in his repaired Mercedes A-Class, carving his way through the field to 12th from 29th on the grid after a frantic midfield battle with the likes of Jack Clarke and Marc Hynes.

Motorbase Performance’s Clarke also scored his best result of the season in 13th, while West Surrey Racing’s Nick Foster came from the back to finish 15th.

Hunter Abbott’s strong run came to an end when he went off in his Audi A4 at the exit of the chicane on lap six, while Warren Scott also parked his Vauxhall Insignia on lap 10.

Aiden Moffat was pushed into the pits in his Chevrolet Cruze and didn’t take the start, while both Glynn Geddie and Simon Belcher pitted to have grass cleaned out of the front of their cars after incidents during the race.