Opinions differ over race three incident

Opinions have differed over the five car accident that forced the final BTCC of the weekend at Oulton Park to be red-flagged.

Contact between Mike Bushell, Rory Butcher and Tom Oliphant when the lights went out resulted in both Butcher and Oliphant making contact with the pit wall, with Butcher’s AmD-run MG then spinning back across the circuit where it was collected by both of the BTC Norlin Racing Honda Civics.

With damaged cars littering the circuit, officials were left with little option but to stop the race, with Oliphant being critical of the manner in which the incident had panned out.

“I just got turned into Rory at the start,” he said. “We were side-by-side and then Bushell has hit me in the rear and it’s fired us all into each other.

“I don’t know how much damage there is to the car as I grazed the wall but it isn’t ideal. People need to learn how to behave and how to drive because you can’t do that.”

Butcher was more circumspect on the incident as he insisted it was one of those ‘unfortunate incidents where three cars go for the same part of tarmac’ whilst Bushell also said he felt it was nothing more than a racing incident.

“I got a good start but then Tom moved to the left as Rory moved to the right and I was already there,” he said. “They moved together and the moment there was a touch, I was straight onto the brakes but it was too late.

“I don’t see what I could have done differently as it was just three into one doesn’t go and whilst the end result is unfortunate, I don’t feel I’m to blame and the fact that I haven’t been called by the stewards reflects that.”