Colin Turkington nets 50th BTCC win in second Oulton Park race
Colin Turkington delivered another flawless drive in the second Oulton Park encounter to secure his 50th win in the British Touring Car Championship and further increase his lead at the head of the 2019 standings.
Turkington led home a West Surrey Racing one-two ahead of team-mate Andrew Jordan, who made another lightning start to jump Team Dynamics’ Dan Cammish, who came home in third.
It was another race short on drama at the front, with all the action in the lower reaches of the top 10 and below, and a series of incidents which led to two safety car periods and a total of eight laps under caution.
Behind the dominant BMW 330i M Sports and Cammish’s Civic Type R was Tom Oliphant in the third of the West Surrey Racing machines, with Cobra Sport AmD’s Sam Tordoff fifth ahead of a charging Stephen Jelley.
The Team Parker Racing man pulled off a series of overtakes in his 125i M Sport to finish in the top six ahead of Cobra Sport AmD’s Rory Butcher, Speedworks Motorsport’s Tom Ingram, Power Maxed Racing’s Jason Plato and BTC Racing’s Josh Cook.
Trade Price Car Racing’s Jake Hill came home 12th and benefited from the reverse grid draw to line up on pole for the final race, and will be joined on the front row by Team Dynamics’ Matt Neal, who charged through from the back of the field after his first race crash, passing cars at will from 29th on the grid.
The incidents began at the very start, with Power Maxed Racing’s Rob Collard tagging the Team BMR Subaru Levorg of Ash Sutton at Cascades, causing the 2017 champion to fly off backwards. Cook then tagged the rear of Team Hard’s Jack Goff into the Island hairpin, causing him to spear off into the side of the sister Honda of Chris Smiley, putting both out on the spot and leading to the first safety car period.
Motorbase Performance’s Tom Chilton retired with a technical issue on the first lap after racing resumed, before Plato, Jelley, Cook and Hill all demoted Ollie Jackson a spot in one move at Old Hall, dropping the Ford man well outside the top 10.
Jelley’s charge continued up the order, passing Plato at Old Hall on lap 13 before the safety car was deployed again after a crash for ExcelR8 Motorsport’s Sam Osborne at the Avenue.
Ingram made the save of the day after the restart, controlling a huge slide exiting Knickerbrook, but lost positions to Butcher and Jelley in the process, with Jelley then passing Butcher on lap 17 to make the top six.
The final drama came at the very last corner when Team Hard’s Michael Crees pitched the second ExcelR8 Motorsport MG 6 of Rob Smith into the wall exiting Lodge, with the former Mini man narrowly avoiding a roll.
Turkington now leads the standings by 38 points, with team-mate Jordan moving up into second.
The final race of the day is due to start at 17:10 BST.
