Colin Turkington ended the third round of the British Touring Car Championship at Thruxton in the best possible fashion, taking race three honours in a chaotic encounter.
The WSR BMW driver made a demon start from fifth on the grid to power into second spot behind the fast-starting pole-sitter Fabrizio Giovanardi, before quickly surpassing the Ford driver within half a lap coming through Goodwood.
Adam Morgan was tagged into a half-spin heading through the Complex for the first time meanwhile after a bump from Rob Collard, the Mercedes cannoning into the unfortunate Jason Plato who suffered terminal damage to his MG KX Clubcard Fuel Save machine that put him out of the race.
Jack Goff had also started from the front row in his BMR Racing Vauxhall Insignia, and began pressuring Giovanardi for second spot around the opening few laps as he looked for a way by the Italian.
A rapid Mat Jackson then charged by Collard’s BMW before moving by Goff just as the safety car was deployed, the cause being for Ollie Jackson‘s Proton Gen-2 slamming into the tyre barriers at the 130mph Church corner following a tyre failure.
Turkington jumped clear on the restart before the race was soon brought under safety car conditions once again for a much more substantial accident, this time for Simon Belcher‘s Toyota Avensis spearing off at the exact same corner and rolling into the trees upon its impact with the same tyre barrier.
The former double Renault UK Clio Cup Masters Cup champion thankfully emerged from the incident unhurt, similarly Jackson not suffering injury from his accident.
The Honda trio of Andrew Jordan, Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden all took up their own dice on the next restart when reigning champion Jordan tried a lunge inside Collard at the Complex, hanging on under subsequent pressure from the two works Civic Tourers at Noble.
Jordan found his way by Collard and left the Yuasa Racing duo to take up the charge, Shedden’s contact at the chicane sending Collard’s BMW into a lurid slide and straight through the chicane.
Neal then took up the fight to Collard, who put up a more stern defence that sent both cars bouncing through the grass at the Complex, Neal forced into the pits as the outcome.
Turkington won his second race of the 2014 season in comfortable fashion, while Jackson took advantage of the tyres degrading on his Motorbase team-mate Giovanardi’s Focus to grab second late in the race at the Complex. The Italian hung onto third from the charging Jordan however for his first BTCC podium since his 2010 visit to the Hampshire circuit, Jordan now leading the championship by seven points from Shedden following a fine weekend for the Pirtek Racing man.
Shedden crossed the line fifth ahead of Goff who found himself muscled back in the jostle to try and pass Giovanardi, the top 10 rounded out by the charging Aron Smith, the recovering Morgan, Sam Tordoff and Collard.