James Nash breaks BTCC duck

James Nash withstood last lap pressure from a host of BTCC stars to take his first ever touring car victory. The young Chevrolet driver put in a mature performance to hold off Colin Turkington, Fabrizio Giovanardi and Matt Neal over the closing laps to win the third race of the day at Snetterton.

Nash was involved in the action at the front throughout, taking the lead after a mid-race incident that saw him tip Rob Collard into a spin that resulted in a heavy accident with Stephen Jelley at the Bombhole. A lengthy safety car period turned the race into a three-lap dash to the flag, in which Nash did well to hold off the combined challenge of Turkington, Giovanardi and Neal to cross the line for his first win, in only his ninth BTCC race.

A lightning start by Collard had split the two Chevrolets on the front row of the grid, propelling the Airwaves BMW into a comfortable lead by the first corner. Behind Nash slotted into second, with Harry Vaulkhard in third and the second Airwaves car of Jonathan Adam fourth.

The Bamboo Engineering car was then shuffled down the order during the first lap, before contact with James Thompson at Coram sent the Lacetti spinning across the outfield and into heavy contact with the barriers.

Jason Plato then moved past Colin Turkington for fifth down the Revett Straight on lap two, before closing onto the back of Adam in front. The Racing Silverline driver found his way past at Sear Corner a few laps later, but then went straight on across the grass at the Esses as a front wheel puncture struck.

By lap seven Nash had closed right onto Collard’s tail as behind Turkington and Paul O’Neill found their way past Adam, as the BMW ran wide on the slick of oil that now lined much of the circuit.

A brief safety allowed Tom Chilton’s Focus to be collected from the Esses, with Collard, Nash, Turkington and O’Neill all pulling away on the re-start. Double winner from earlier in the day Giovanardi soon caught up, dragging the rest of the pack with him and lining the whole field up into one long line.

With so many cars running close together, there was bound to be contact, the most significant of which came when Nash and Collard made contact exiting the Esses, as the BMW moved across to shut the door on the second place driver.

A looping spin took Collard off onto the infield before spitting him back into the middle of the pack right on the apex of the Bombhole. Unsighted by the two Vauxhall’s in front, Jelley struck the rear three-quarters of the Airwaves car in a heavy accident.

Ahead the deployment of the safety car caught several drivers unaware, as both Nash and Turkington had to brake heavily across the finish line, with third placed man O’Neill doing well to keep his Integra out of the barriers as he took action to avoid the slowing cars ahead.

With a long safety car period to collect the remnants of the two BMWs from the circuit, only three laps remained for Nash to hold on. The 23-year-old made an excellent move from the re-start, jumping early to streak ahead, while behind O’Neill tumbled down the order.

Onto the final tour, and the two VX Racing cars were all over the back of Turkington, who in turn was pressurising Nash, but the youngster held on, to claim his first BTCC victory.

Turkington and Giovanardi both cemented their championship positions with second and third, while Neal’s fourth salvaged some points from a terrible weekend, which has seen him slip to 45 points behind the championship leader.

Like Neal, Plato too will be hoping for better luck in two weeks time at Knockhill, after he trailed home a lap down thanks to his puncture.