BTCC - Oulton Park: Turkington reignites title challenge with race three victory
Team BMW's Colin Turkington reignites his British Touring Car Championship title challenge after taking a superb race three victory ahead of BMW stablemate Jake Hill at Oulton Park.
As a result of his qualifying exclusion, Turkington started the day sitting plum last on the grid, but the four-time champion capped off a miraculous recovery to win the final race of the day - leading a triumphant BMW top-three lockout in the process.
Turkington's 65th career BTCC victory, coupled with championship leader Ash Sutton's dramatic opening corner demise, moves the Team BMW driver to within 35-points of the championship summit.
In contrast, Sutton saw his chances unravel right at the start of race after the three-time champion made contact with the pit-wall, which damaged the front-right wheel of his NAPA Racing UK Ford Focus.
Sutton found himself heading towards to the wall after the Hyundai of Tom Ingram moved across the track and closed the gap to defend his line against the Ford.
That triggered a lengthy safety car period as the marshals worked to recover Sutton's stricken Focus. All the while, Turkington leapt ahead of Sutton's NAPA Racing team mate Dan Cammish to move up into second behind pole-man and Team BMW stablemate Adam Morgan.
Once the safety car peeled into the pits, Morgan's lead didn't last long as Turkington pounced on exit of Lodge corner at the end of lap seven.
However, Morgan didn't let the lead go without fight as the pole-sitter made Turkington wrestle the lead away the hard way. Turkington held on around the outside of Old Hall Corner, which gave him the inside line and the lead heading into Cascades.
Barring a lock-up two-thirds into the race, Turkington produced a vintage performance to build a near two-seconds winning margin ahead of team mate Hill.
Morgan completed a famous BMW 1-2-3 in third ahead of defending champion Ingram in fourth. As a result of Sutton's drama, Ingram is now just nine-points off the championship lead.
NAPA Racing's Cammish eventually finished race three in fifth ahead of One Motorsport duo Aiden Moffat and Josh Cook in sixth and seventh.
Moffat made good use of the soft tyre in race three after carving his way through the pack from 15th to sixth.
Dan Rowbottom was another to make the most of the soft Goodyear rubber as the Ford driver rose through the field to claim eighth, with Toyota Gazoo Racing UK duo Ricky Collard and Rory Butcher completing the top-ten order.
