Series leader Colin Turkington wins race one at Rockingham

West Surrey Racing’s Colin Turkington boosted his title hopes yet further with a lights-to-flag victory in race one at Rockingham, heading home the Triple Eight pair of Sam Tordoff and Jason Plato.

Turkington made the most of his rear-wheel drive BMW 125i to steal the lead from Tordoff off the line, and gradually edged away after resisting early pressure from the Yorkshireman’s MG 6.

As has often been the case this season, the status quo at the front wasn’t reflected throughout the field, with plenty of incidents and a safety car interruption on lap five after a nasty accident involving Lea Wood and Warren Scott.

Tordoff put big pressure on Turkington before the safety car and immediately after it, but the 2009 champion was able to pull out enough of a gap on both occasions to win by more than three seconds.

Behind the top three, Team BMR’s Alain Menu had his best race of the year en route to fourth, making several dramatic passing moves on the soft compound tyres.

Ciceley Racing’s Adam Morgan had another good race in fifth, ahead of Andrew Jordan, Fabrizio Giovanardi, Gordon Shedden and Mat Jackson, while Jack Goff came out on top in a furious battle with Rob Collard and Rob Austin to round out the top 10.

The start was relatively clean, with Turkington getting the drag on Tordoff into turn one, while Aron Smith was elbowed wide by Matt Neal exiting the hairpin and fell down the field, and Jack Clarke spun at Chapman.

The action started in earnest on lap two. Tordoff had a great run on Turkington at the start of the lap, taking the high line into the hairpin, but Turkington defended with aplomb.

On lap three, Chris Stockton attempted a move on James Cole at the hairpin which saw the two make heavy contact, and Cole’s United Autosports Toyota Avensis retire in the pits.

Then on the next tour, Shedden ran side-by-side with Plato and the pair made contact, causing the Honda to snap into a lurid slide and lose several places.

Proceedings were then brought to a temporary halt on lap five due to a frightening clash between Wood and Scott. Wood lost control of his Toyota Avensis on the run into the hairpin and flew into the corner backwards, smashing into the front left of Scott’s Volkswagen CC.

Wood retired in the pits with enormous rear-end damage, while a clearly shaken Scott was attended to by the marshals at the side of the track.

After the scene had been cleared, the green flag flew again on lap eight, with Tordoff seizing the opportunity to tow up behind the BMW into turn one. Turkington defended heavily into the hairpin and then began to eke out a gap.

Much of the rest of the race was all about Menu. The Swiss passed both Motorbase Performance cars of Mat Jackson and Fabrizio Giovanardi at Tarzan, while the two Focus STs made contact on the apex.

Menu passed Marc Hynes at the same spot on the following lap, the former Formula 3 champion struggling to hang on to his soft tyres. He then nailed Shedden in a bold move around the outside into the Brook chicane, before passing Jordan into turn one on lap 16, and Morgan at Tarzan on lap 17.

Giovanardi also made his move on Shedden at Tarzan on lap 15, while Goff somehow hung on from a swarm of cars, with Austin and Collard twice swapping positions behind him.

Elsewhere in the packed field, Rob Austin Racing’s Hunter Abbott had a very strong race from 31st, passing 17 cars to make it up to 14th by the flag.