BTCC: Rowbottom charges to reverse grid win to secure NAPA Racing Ford clean sweep
Dan Rowbottom has completed a clean sweap of British Touring Car Championship race victories for the NAPA Racing UK squad after winning the final race of the day at Thruxton.
Rowbottom started the reverse grid race from fifth on the grid and charged to his second career BTCC victory after passing long-term leader Adam Morgan on lap ten of the race.
Up until Rowbottom's race winning move, Morgan led every lap from pole position, and even enjoyed a comfortable 2.2s lead as the remainder of the podium positions swapped and changed during the opening half of the race.
However, having moved past the One Motorsport Honda of Aiden Moffat on lap five, Rowbottom unleashed the full performance of the potent NAPA Racing Ford Focus and caught the race leading BMW to tune of almost 0.7s per lap.
By lap nine, Rowbottom latched onto the rear of Morgan's BMW 330e M Sport before using his hybrid to blast past the race leader just one lap later on the approach to the infamous Church corner.
Rowbottom quickly accelerated away to assemble a 2.7s winning margin ahead of Morgan in second.
Moffat held on to clinch his first podium finish of the season in third, after resisting lap-after-lap of pressure from four-time champion Colin Turkington.
Toyota Gazoo Racing UK's Ricky Collard also found himself in contention to climb onto the podium, but was unable to find a way past Team BMW's Turkington.
Aron Taylor-Smith posted another strong result for the Power Maxed Racing squad in sixth, ahead of Toyota's Rory Butcher in seventh.
Dan Cammish, Tom Ingram and Jake Hill completed the remainder of the top-ten in eighth, ninth and tenth.
Elsewhere, championship leader Ash Sutton finished the race where he started in 12th position.
