Rob Collard claimed victory in a dramatic second Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship race at Croft, aided by an incident between Subaru’s Jason Plato and Colin Turkington.
The West Surrey Racing driver moved up from seventh place on the grid to fourth when the lights went out, taking advantage of the Subaru collision on lap eight to clinch a second victory of the season.
Despite a strong start from his Silverline Subaru BMR Racing team-mate, Turkington, Plato left his braking just late enough to calmly sweep around the outside to grab the lead into Clervaux for the first time.
A safety car was deployed following an incident involving James Cole and Alex Martin at the first corner, after which Turkington defied an extra nine kilos of success ballast to challenge his team-mate early on.
Plato headed a four-car train with the WSR BMWs of Jack Goff and Collard in hot pursuit, but Turkington soon made his move for the lead at the end of lap five to grab the advantage.
The Subaru duel turned sour on lap eight however, as Plato’s move up the inside of the Northern Irishman at Tower Bend ended in contact. Turkington recovered a half-spin, Collard’s BMW sweeping around the outside of the pair through the Jim Clark Esses.
Collard was untroubled from that moment, claiming a second win of his season from Plato by 2.3s, Turkington joining both on the podium ahead of Goff.
A distant fifth was the Triple Eight MG6 of Ashley Sutton, hanging on with 57kg success ballast ahead of Mat Jackson‘s Ford Focus ST. Behind them, Tom Ingram grimly fended off the attentions of Sam Tordoff, who salvaged eighth place after starting 13th on the grid with a new engine in his BMW.
Andrew Jordan finished ninth after a gearbox change before the second race of the day, the top 10 rounded out by the Halfords Yuasa Racing Civic Type-R of Matt Neal.
