Battle intensifies as BTCC title fight heads for Silverstone

Heading to Knockhill a fortnight ago, Colin Turkington was sitting pretty at the top of the standings in his quest for a fourth British Touring Car Championship title.

Three drama filled races later and the Northern Irishman had lost two thirds of his advantage, with the battle for the title having been blow well and truly wide open…

With 134 points still available across the final two weekends of the season (half the total that Turkington has scored thus far), the top 13 drivers are still mathematically in contention for the championship crown.

Realistically however, the champion is likely to come from one of the current top five – barring a stunning run of form from one of the drivers currently sitting sixth or lower.

Turkington’s advantage heading to Silverstone this weekend is now down to just ten points but the WSR driver has a strong record through the years at the Northamptonshire circuit.

Although there is just a single victory back in 2015 at the wheel of a BMR-run Volkswagen CC, Turkington has stood on the Silverstone podium eleven times in his career and heads into the weekend in fighting mood as he seeks to at least maintain his current advantage.

“The final couple of race weekends of the season are always a little bit different,” he said. “The formbook tends to go out of the window and it’s a question of grinding out results, and that’s exactly what I intend to do.

“I’m not focusing on protecting my lead anymore – I’m going out there to properly attack and really enjoy the weekend, and in many respects, that is a simpler approach than keeping a constant eye in your mirrors. Every point will be crucial now and I’ve just got to go for it, which has always been the way I prefer to race.”

Turkington won’t be helped by the success ballast he will carry into the weekend and it’s a similar story on the other side of the WSR garage as team-mate Andrew Jordan looks to maintain his own title challenge.

A sixth win of the year in Scotland saw Jordan match the tally from his 2013 title-winning season, and with the real possibility that he could find himself without a drive next season, the Pirtek Racing-backed ace appears more determined that ever to end his year on a high.

With the two BMW drivers having been evenly matched in terms of pace all season, the pair will be looking to take advantage of any opportunity that comes along this weekend – with Jordan too making his intentions clear.

“Until Knockhill, I’d been taking a few points out of Colin here and there,” he said, “so to take 20 points out of his lead in one weekend has really blown the championship wide open with two rounds to go.

“Even with a retirement in the final race in Scotland, I’m carrying some good momentum into this weekend and my confidence is high. We’ll work hard through practice to make sure the car is dialed in for qualifying and then come race day, the gloves will be off as far as I’m concerned.

“I can’t control what Colin and the others do, so my focus is on trying to fight for more wins to take me closer to my goal of wrapping up the title.”

Heading those ‘others’ is Team Dynamics driver Dan Cammish, who has come up on the rails in the title race thanks to a campaign based around consistency rather than outright glory.

Whilst there has been just a single victory and only six laps lad all season, Cammish has scored more podium finishes that anyone else and is the only driver to have completed every racing lap; failing to score only twice in 24 races.

It means that suddenly he is just a single point behind Jordan in the title race and only eleven from the lead having been 70 behind just six races ago. Should Cammish maintain the form he has shown in the last two rounds, where has outscored Turkington by 59 points and Jordan by 33, then he could well add a first touring car title to his already impressive resume.

Perhaps crucially, Cammish won’t be ploughing a lone furrow either – with team-mate Matt Neal now in the role of wing man as Honda look to take the title from the battling BMW pair.

“The Honda is consistently strong,” Cammish admitted. “It digs out results when others don’t and that’s how you win titles.

“We go well at Silverstone and Brands Hatch and if I’m anywhere near, the top two have got to watch out.”

Behind the top three, BTC Racing’s Josh Cook sits 30 points off the lead after a strong season in his new FK8 Honda Civic, having spent much of the campaign ahead of the Dynamics-run works cars.

Cook fought back from a tough qualifying session in Scotland to snare his seventh podium of the year – beating his previous best of six from last season.

At the home circuit for the team, which is based down the road in Brackley, Cook will be hoping to keep his title battle alive but admits that an improved performance on Saturday will be vital.

“Saturday at Knockhill was tough and we didn’t find the sweet spot in qualifying,“ he said. “It made race day a challenge, but we had a plan to try and focus on race three and it paid off with a reverse grid podium.

“What we need to do when we get to Silverstone is make sure we qualify better, and then we can look to look to score more points from the first two races of the weekend.

“I love the two circuits that are still to come and having closed the gap to the championship lead, I’m confident about the remainder of the season.”

Cook is eleven points clear of the older FK2-spec Honda of Cobra Sport AmD’s Rory Butcher, who kept his own title bid on track with his third win of the year at his home track.

The Scot is arguably the outsider of the leading five when it comes to the championship in what is only his second full season in the series, but remains in contention for three titles with two rounds to go.

In fact, his fight with Cook for the Independents’ title is even closer than that for overall honours – with the pair split by just a single point – and it’s a battle that shouldn’t be overlooked through the final six races of the campaign.

“It’s all to play for going into the final two rounds and it is nice that we have got to the business end of the season in contention for some silverware, both for myself and for the team,” Butcher reflects. ”On paper, Silverstone is a circuit that should be a good one for us with the Honda, and it is a circuit that I also enjoy racing at.

“I have a strategy in my mind about how I want to approach this weekend, and the aim is to try and put that into practice to secure as many points as possible and keep my championship challenges on track.

“I can’t control what other people are doing and can only focus on doing the best job possible behind the wheel. That approach has served me well so far this season, and hopefully the same will apply when we get to Silverstone.”

Away from the main front-runners, the likes of Tom Ingram, Ash Sutton, Tom Chilton and Jason Plato will be hoping to take points off the championship contenders as they seek to add more silverware to their 2019 collections through the final two rounds – with Plato in particular keen to try and secure a race win before the season is done.

However, with as many as a dozen drivers realistically able to fight for victory, there are plenty of twists and turns still to come before the 2019 title is won and none of those still hoping to lift the title can afford to relax.

Let the drama continue…