Collard takes race three at Donington

Rob Collard dominated proceedings to take his second victory of the season in difficult conditions at Donington, ahead of Colin Turkington and Jason Plato.

After a wet race and a dry race earlier in the day, race three began on a damp but progressively drying track, which made for tough tyre choices and entertaining racing.

Collard made his third excellent start of the day to escape into a lead that would never be challenged, as behind his Airwaves BMW teammate Jonathan Adam swapped places with pole man Harry Vaulkhard throughout the first lap.

There was contact on the first pass through the chicane, and then contact again at Redgate as Adam was spun out and Matt Jackson forced onto the grass in an evasive manoeuvre.

Collard kept extending his lead as Fabrizio Giovanardi moved up, sweeping around the outside of Plato through the Schwantz Curve on the third lap, and then two laps later getting past Vaulkhard at the Old Hairpin in a boisterous move.

Behind the Lacetti came the first of the Racing Silverline Chevrolet’s of Plato, with Turkington and championship leader Matt Neal the filling in this Lacetti sandwich as Jackson tailed them closely.

The West Midlander forced his way past Turkington first, and then a couple two corners later past Neal, who was forced wide allowing the Team RAC BMW through as well.

In the midfield double race winner James Thompson was reeling off fastest laps thanks to his decision to start with slicks on the front of his Civic, a move that began to look more and more inspired as the race progressed and the track dried out.

Jackson moved ahead of teammate Plato at Redgate on the thirteenth tour, before GM armageddon was unleashed further round the lap. With the three Chervolets, Giovanardi’s Vauxhall and Turkington all bunched closely together on the greasy surface, it was never going to end well. Vaulkhard tagged the Italian exiting McLeans, spinning him across the bows of the group and into the infield, prompting Plato and Jackson to dive either side of the Tempus car.

Running three abreast into Coppice, the trio of blue Lacetti’s all ran wide, opening the door for Turkington to nip through into second. A recovering Giovanardi made it back onto the track and re-caught the quartet, diving past Vaulkhard on the final lap, who was also out dragged on the run to the line by the fast Thompson, who ran out of laps to make it further up the standings.

Further back there was success for Team Aon, as Tom Chilton picked up the first points for the Ford Focus this season, while David Pinkney rounded out the points to complete a successful day for Team Dynamics.

Second place for Turkington allows him to slightly close the championship gap to Neal (89 points), moving to within 15 points, while victory moves Collard up to joint third in the standings with Giovanardi on 67 points. Third place finisher Plato is fourth on 58 points, seven ahead of Donington double victor Thompson.