Colin Turkington lead a Silverline Subaru BMR Racing one-two in the opening Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship race at Croft, team-mate Jason Plato backing him up in second.
Turkington’s second win of the season was not without drama however. The Northern Irishman came under attack from pole position by the Eurotech Racing Honda Civic Type-R of Daniel Lloyd heading into Clervaux, contact between the two spinning the latter into the gravel.
Championship leader Sam Tordoff was delayed by his evasive action taken through the kitty litter also, the safety car deployed to remove Lloyd’s stricken Honda.
Turkington and Subaru team-mate Plato took control from the front of the field on the restart, the BMR duo ultimately unchallenged for the remainder of the race despite a further two safety car interventions to remove Mark Howard‘s Volkswagen CC from Clervaux and Aiden Moffat‘s Mercedes A-Class from Hawthorn’s.
It was formation flying for Subaru up front, Plato unable to make inroads into his team-mate who clinched his and the Levorg’s second victory of the season.
Behind the pair, battle lines were drawn between Ashley Sutton and Jack Goff in the battle for the final podium spot. Despite Goff showing his nose of several occasions, it was not enough to deny the Triple Eight rookie his first BTCC podium.
Andrew Jordan climbed three places to fifth for Motorbase Performance, while a stellar drive from Jake Hill was rewarded with sixth place for the Team HARD driver.
Rob Collard charged up to seventh place from 13th on the grid, the top 10 rounded out by Mat Jackson (Ford), Tom Ingram (Toyota) and Aron Smith (Volkswagen).
Series leader Tordoff fell to 13th by the flag, finishing behind the best of the Halfords Yuasa Racing Honda Civics driven by Matt Neal in 12th. A point behind the West Surrey Racing man heading into the meeting, Neal now draws level with Tordoff at the head of the table.
Adam Morgan‘s race ended prematurely with suspension damage on his Ciceley Racing Mercedes A-Class, while Josh Cook slipped back to 17th after a moment at Sunny.
