Mikey Doble tallies second win of the season in Croft finale
Mikey Doble delivered a wheel-perfect performance in the final British Touring Car Championship race of the day at Croft to claim his second win of the season.
Starting on pole position, the Power Maxed Racing driver dominated proceedings in a chaotic reverse grid contest to triumph ahead of Tom Chilton and three-time champion Gordon Shedden.
Action ensued as soon as the lights went out as a number of cars – including that of championship leader Ash Sutton – got caught up in an incident as the field threaded its way through the opening sequence of corners.
Contact between Ricky Collard and Dan Cammish upon entry into Clervaux sparked a chain reaction that resulted in Sutton’s Ford Focus Titanium sustaining a hard hit to the rear of his front-wheel drive machine.
Collard would retire on the spot while both Sutton and Cammish would visit the pit lane and feature late on. Others to endure travails on the first lap included the Toyota of Aron Taylor-Smith and Lewis Selby.
After a lengthy safety car period, the race restarted with Doble wasting no time in breaking clear of the chasing pack. Playing rear gunner to him was his Power Maxed Racing team-mate Aiden Moffat, who on the hard tyre produced a masterful defensive drive for a number of laps.
Chilton and Shedden would eventually find a way past the Scotsman following contact at Sunny In however by that time, Doble was too far down to the road to catch.
Moffat’s battles continued when he dropped to fourth with a multi-car fight exiting Tower resulting in reigning champion Tom Ingram making slight contact with the BMW of Charles Rainford, before then skating into the field next to the Jim Clark Esses.
When the dust settled, Ingram limped back to the pit lane to retire while CPRL’s Adam Morgan and Speedworks Motorsport’s Josh Cook – who had started at the back of the field – progressed up the order.
Despite his best efforts, Cook was unable to find a way past Morgan over the subsequent laps; that was until the Mercedes man was given a time penalty for exceeding track limits late on.
Further back, Moffat was able to hang on to secure sixth on the hard tyre ahead of Chris Smiley, Daniel Lloyd, Dexter Patterson and Dan Rowbottom who completed the top ten.
