BTCC Brands Hatch: Magnificent Turkington doubles up

The Northern Irish four-time champion once again led every lap on his way to victory in his West Surrey Racing BMW 330e M Sport, despite a late safety car eradicating his advantage.

The new regulation mandating each of the top 10 in race one use the hardest available tyre – the medium compound Goodyear at this event – served only to take out a variable among the leading contenders, but it didn’t stop a classic tin-top race in Turkington’s wake.

Turkington acknowledged the presence of his team-mate Jake Hill in second place, from fourth on the grid, as key in enabling him to make a break in the early stages.

The leading BMW pulled out an advantage of over two seconds while Hill had a gang comprising Ash Sutton, Josh Cook and Tom Ingram swarming all over him.

Eventually, Sutton, who had set the fastest lap, prised the door open at Druids on the seventh tour, and the Alliance Racing-run NAPA Racing Ford Focus ST snuck through into second place, with Cook and Ingram also getting past the Laser Tools-liveried BMW.

A few laps later, Ingram got his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N down the inside of Cook’s Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla GR Sport at Druids for third, and set off after Sutton.

Turkington was now over four seconds to the good, before Hill went off at Druids. The BMW had been used as something of a pinball as it fell into the pack, and steering failure sent it into light contact with the barrier.

Colin Turkington at Brands Hatch (Photo by: Jakob Ebrey Photography)

 

That brought out the safety car, and it returned to the pits with nine laps of racing remaining.

Turkington immediately pulled out a margin while Ingram set about Sutton.

The reigning champion initially stoutly defended from the 2022 title winner, before an absolutely sensational move from Ingram with four laps remaining.

The Hyundai had two wheels on the grass on the high-speed approach to Paddock before muscling through on the inside to grab second place, to the annoyance of a miffed Sutton, who said: “The rules say if there’s a gap you can go for it. There wasn’t a gap because he used the grass. It’s not really on.”

Sutton didn’t give up, and his attempts to reclaim second allowed the WSR BMW of Adam Morgan, who had scythed his way through the pack on soft tyres from 15th on the grid, to catch them up.

Morgan drew alongside Sutton on the run to the finish line but fell narrowly short of the podium, which was topped by his team-mate.

“I realised pretty quickly after the safety car that Ash and Tom were getting involved in a pretty epic scrap,” said Turkington, who has now moved into a one-point championship lead over Ingram.

Tom Ingram, Bristol Street Motors Hyundai i30 N Fastback (Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images)

“Every time I looked in the mirror I was another couple of car lengths ahead.

“That could have been a lot more difficult than it was, but we managed it well.”

The Speedworks Toyotas of both Cook and Rob Huff, who reached as high as sixth on soft tyres, were both called into the pits to repair loose bumpers – something that seems to be a recurrent problem on the Corolla.

Just before Cook pitted, Tom Chilton attempted to pass the Toyota in his Excelr8 Hyundai at Graham Hill Bend, but the loss of momentum allowed Dan Rowbottom to zap both in his Alliance Ford.

Rowbottom therefore finished fifth from Chilton, Dan Cammish (from 18th on the grid in his Alliance Ford), Aiden Moffat (Speedworks Toyota), and the Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astras of Mikey Doble and Aron Taylor-Smith.

In 11th place, Excelr8 Hyundai driver Ronan Pearson was drawn on the reversed-grid pole, and the Scot still has his set of soft tyres to use.

BTCC Brands Hatch Race Two Result

Main Information Additional Data Additional Data Driver Info

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Main Information Additional Data 1  -  2
Cla	Driver	#		Car	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Retirement	Points
1	C. Turkington Team BMW			BMW 330e M Sport	27	23'39.873
2	T. Ingram Team Bristol Street Motors			Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance	27	+3.397 23'43.270	3.397
3	A. Sutton NAPA Racing UK			Ford Focus ST	27	+3.656 23'43.529	0.259
4	A. Morgan Team BMW			BMW 330e M Sport	27	+3.681 23'43.554	0.025
5	D. Rowbottom NAPA Racing UK			Ford Focus ST	27	+7.348 23'47.221	3.667
6	T. Chilton Team Bristol Street Motors			Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance	27	+7.911 23'47.784	0.563
7	D. Cammish NAPA Racing UK			Ford Focus ST	27	+8.088 23'47.961	0.177
8	A. Moffat LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ			Toyota Corolla GR Sport	27	+8.585 23'48.458	0.497
9	M. Doble Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing			Vauxhall Astra	27	+10.183 23'50.056	1.598
10	A. Taylor-Smith Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing			Vauxhall Astra	27	+10.388 23'50.261	0.205
11	R. Pearson Team Bristol Street Motors			Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance	27	+11.748 23'51.621	1.360
12	S. Osborne NAPA Racing UK			Ford Focus ST	27	+12.377 23'52.250	0.629
13	N. Halstead Team Bristol Street Motors			Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance	27	+12.439 23'52.312	0.062
14	D. De Duckhams Racing with Bartercard			Cupra León	27	+16.428 23'56.301	3.989
15	A. Watson Toyota Gazoo Racing UK			Toyota Corolla GR Sport	27	+21.371 24'01.244	4.943
16	J. Cook LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ			Toyota Corolla GR Sport	27	+43.151 24'23.024	21.780
17	C. Smiley Restart Racing			Cupra León	25
dnf	R. Huff Toyota Gazoo Racing UK			Toyota Corolla GR Sport	19				Retirement
dnf	J. Hill Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport			BMW 330e M Sport	14				Retirement
dnf	S. Sumpton Restart Racing			Cupra León	7				Retirement
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