The reversed-grid counter allowed the Northern Irishman to take his tally of wins at the North Yorkshire circuit to a remarkable 14, and for himself and Ingram to mitigate the points damage over the weekend to Ash Sutton, who was a first-lap casualty.
From pole, Turkington got away in front with his West Surrey Racing-run BMW 330e M Sport, but fellow front-row man Josh Cook probed around the outside of Tower in his One Motorsport Honda Civic Type R.
The lost momentum from that meant Cook now came under pressure from the Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N of Ingram, who swept around the outside into the Jim Clark Esses and claimed the inside apex for the second bend to move into the runner-up spot.
Chaos ensued at the first corner of Clervaux when WSR BMW driver Stephen Jelley nerfed Dan Cammish into the sister Motorbase Performance Ford Focus ST of Dan Rowbottom.
Although Rowbottom survived the wobble, the concertina meant Jelley went into Cammish again at Hawthorns, and Sutton could not avoid the sideways BMW.
Sutton tried to get his wounded Motorbase Ford, its front-left suspension askew, back to the pits before abandoning ship just before the pit entry, while Jelley was a victim of right-rear suspension damage.
The other collateral victim of the Clervaux/Hawthorns drama was Dan Lloyd, whose Team Hard Cupra Leon was sent into the barriers, causing an early safety car.
At the restart, Ingram charged after Turkington and tried a move around the outside of Tower, but the BMW held on in front.
From then on, with all the leading runners on the hardest compound of Goodyear, Turkington drew away to take the chequered flag 3.242 seconds in front of Ingram, who equalled Sutton’s points score across the weekend and is just six adrift.
“The early safety car really saved me, because with those extra three laps I was able to generate heat in the tyres,” said Turkington, whose rear-wheel-drive BMW takes longer to switch on the rubber than its opposition, a factor amplified by the hard tyre.
“You could see how hard Josh and Tom were hitting on me – they were straight on my case, and that would have continued on laps two and three.”
Cook was third, while Rowbottom was passed by Cammish for fourth.
After this, Rowbottom came under stern pressure for a long period from the WSR BMW of Jake Hill, before the Kentishman spun at Sunny In after putting his left-rear wheel on the grass.
That dropped Hill to eighth, although he recovered to dive past Rory Butcher’s medium-tyred Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla at Tower on the final lap for seventh.
In front of them both was Aiden Moffat, who used the soft tyres on his One Honda to take sixth.
Tom Chilton had also been embroiled in this group with his Excelr8 Hyundai on medium tyres, until he parked the car at Hawthorns – bizarrely, part of Moffat’s headlight had gone through his radiator.
Aron Taylor-Smith (Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra) beat George Gamble (Speedworks Toyota) and Michael Crees (Hard Cupra) in a frantic battle for ninth.
BTCC Croft - Race 3 results (18 laps)
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