Colin Turkington has continued his mantle as the ‘King of Croft’ by claiming a 13th career win around the circuit in a masterful drive by the Team BMW driver who has got back on track somewhat this weekend.
Turkington took it from start to finish with the real battle happening behind him as Gordon Shedden and Ash Sutton squabbled throughout for the final podium spots. It is the Laser Tools Racing driver who leaves once more ahead in the Driver’s Championship holding a 29 point lead to Jake Hill and 35 and 36 to Turkington and Josh Cook.
Turkington got off the line well alongside Shedden but he had to restart his charge after a safety car period with Lloyd off into the gravel, Oliphant off the track and Goff and Mitchell also caught up in the incident. Further drivers were in strife with Edwards and Jackson into the pit as their woes continued.
But the Team BMW driver was masterful off the restart and got away from Shedden while further down, it was an important race for Hill who was looking to take more points away from Sutton but he had Proctor, Morgan and Jelley among others queuing behind him.
Plato was off further down after a high-speed off where the Vauxhall Astra was lucky not to hit anything but he went to the pitlane successfully.
Turkington claimed the fastest lap but Sutton was aiming to join Shedden by himself taking the leading time. It all kicked off into the hairpin though as Hill was tagged by Morgan who span and a number of cars looked to avoid the BMW as the frenetic nature of the race continued.
Shedden in second was still defending against Sutton and Turkington stretched his lead to almost two seconds as they headed towards Lap 10/16. This lead was extended to three seconds as the Infiniti Q50 still couldn’t find a way past the Honda.
Osborne dived forward to pass Rowbottom further down but it came back to bite him as he had a puncture and fell down the order.
Further up with two laps to go, Sutton continued to attack Shedden but he was running out of laps and opportunities to pass into second. Turkington went onto the final lap and surged towards the chequered flag as Shedden just evaded Sutton.
