Colin Turkington brings up magic 100 for WSR

Colin Turkington produced a controlled drive in the opening race of the weekend at Knockhill to give West Surrey Racing its 100th BTCC win.

The former champion had qualified on pole position for the Scottish race meeting and was never troubled in the opening race as he controlled proceedings from the front for what would ultimately be a comfortable win.

The Northern Irishman made the best start when the lights went out to lead Senna Proctor and Chris Smiley into turn one, and had moved more than a second clear by the end of the opening lap.

Turkington’s lead continued to grow as Proctor backed up the field behind but the race then went behind the safety car on lap four when Dan Lloyd ran off track at the Chicane and clattered into the tyres – eradicating the advantage that Turkington had built up at the front.

On the restart, Turkington was able to keep Proctor at bay and then gradually eased away from the Honda behind, eventually taking the chequered flag more than four seconds clear – recording the second largest winning margin of the season as he brought up WSR’s century.

Proctor would remain in second place throughout, the pace of the Honda improving after the restart as he was able to drop Smiley’s Hyundai – which instead became the cork in the bottle.

Smiley came under attack from Josh Cook for the position and on lap 14, Cook dived down the inside into the Hairpin to get ahead, only to then run deep as Smiley immediately reclaimed the position.

Smiley would then be forced to take an increasingly defensive line in order to keep Cook at bay but the pressure would eventually tell on lap 20 when Cook saw his chance to Clarks and slipped up the inside to move into third.

Ash Sutton – who had taken fifth from Jake Hill when the Focus got slightly out of shape exiting Clarks a few laps earlier – followed Cook through into fourth place on the run to the Hairpin but despite showing strong pace in the ballast-heavy Infiniti, he was unable to launch an attack on Cook as BTC Racing secured a double podium finish.

Smiley would take the flag in fifth spot ahead of Hill, but only after he was able to keep a charging Aiden Moffat at bay.

Moffat would pile the pressure on in the closing laps and managed to draw alongside the Focus on the run to the line only to fall short of taking the position by 0.050s as the pair came across the line.

Gordon Shedden took eighth spot but only after a huge battle with Tom Ingram and brother-in-law Rory Butcher.

With Ingram struggling with the weight on his Hyundai, Shedden tried more than once to get ahead and finally made a move stick around the outside the Hairpin on lap 13 before pulling away as Ingram backed up the pack behind.

Ingram would fight hard to retain his position as drivers took it in turns to try and attack, but Butcher would finally get ahead late on when Ingram ran slightly wide through turn one and the Toyota nipped ahead.

Butcher therefore took ninth ahead of Ingram, with Stephen Jelley, Tom Chilton and Adam Morgan chasing across the line.

Tom Oliphant had been part of that gaggle but would retire after being tipped into a spin by Butcher whilst fighting at the Hairpin, with Ollie Jackson also pulling back into the pits to retire after running into trouble on track.