BTCC

Turkington Handed Knockhill Eight-Place Grid Penalty

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British Touring Car Championship leader Colin Turkington will face an eight-place grid penalty for the next round at Knockhill, following his incident during race three with Honda’s Matt Neal.

The West Surrey Racing driver was involved in a tangle with fellow BTCC champion Neal when the pair battled over fourth place in the third race of the day in Norfolk, Turkington’s BMW tagging the rear of the Honda Yuasa Racing Civic Tourer under braking for the Montreal hairpin.

Neal spun across the circuit and fell down to 11th overall, while Turkington completed a hat-trick of podium finishes with third overall to add to a pair of second place finishes earlier in the day.

The incident was investigated afterwards, and Turkington was handed an eight-place grid penalty for the next round at Knockhill, plus three points on his race license.

Turkington extended his championship lead to 23 points over Neal’s team-mate Gordon Shedden, and commented to The Checkered Flag on the third race, saying: “That was a pretty intense race – probably one of the most tense this season.

“It was tricky because the pack was all going at similar speeds. As soon as somebody defends to the inside, it’s very difficult to get past. Matt just caught me out under braking, which was unfortunate.”

Turkington’s WSR team-mate Rob Collard meanwhile overtook under yellow flag conditions in race two of the day, and will be forced to the very back of the grid for Knockhill’s first race as punishment for picking up a third offence of the season, Collard also deducted three championship points.

MG’s Sam Tordoff was also involved in an incident with Collard during the second Snetterton race, while Dave Newsham came to blows with Glynn Geddie‘s United Autosports Toyota at Riches in the same race. Both Triple Eight’s Tordoff and AmD’s Newsham have been handed penalty points on their licenses as punishment.

The series next heads to Knockhill on 23/24 August, a track Turkington won twice at 12 months ago with the same WSR squad.

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