Croft BTCC: Colin Turkington cruises to race one victory
Colin Turkington won the first British Touring Car race at Croft after a dominant performance, while battles raged behind
Despite the mandated longer first gear in his WSR BMW, poleman Turkington held the lead at the start and simply drove away from the field.
The only man who kept him in sight was works Honda Civic Tourer driver Gordon Shedden, but even he fell away to take the flag 7.5 seconds behind the championship leader.
Rob Collard made a brilliant start from row three to briefly reach second on the run to Clervaux, but the BMW driver outbraked himself when he arrived and fell to fourth.
In the melee into Hawthorn, Andrew Jordan's Eurotech Civic hit Mat Neal's works Honda into a slide, and Adam Morgan's Ciceley Mercedes touched the Audi of Rob Austin into a spin.
Jason Plato's MG thus emerged in third with Collard and Jordan just behind. Neal soon recovered from eighth to sixth and made it a four-car train for third.
Both Triple Eight MGs were struggling and holding cars behind, but while Sam Tordoff fell down to an eventual ninth, having run as high as sixth, Plato remained firm in his defence.
Despite constant pressure from Collard - and the odd rub - Plato held on to complete the podium, albeit nearly 14 seconds down on Turkington after 14 laps.
Alain Menu had almost caught the Plato train as he finished seventh, while Mat Jackson starred as he charged from 15th to eighth, helped by a stellar first lap.
Hunter Abbott elected to run the soft Dunlop tyre and ended up 10th, failing to oust Tordoff in a late fight, while Dave Newsham took 11th in the first race of his AmD Focus with the revised front end.
Results - 14 laps: Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Colin Turkington WSR BMW 20m08.824s 2. Gordon Shedden Honda +7.478s 3. Jason Plato MG +13.890s 4. Rob Collard WSR BMW +14.153s 5. Andrew Jordan Eurotech Honda +14.692s 6. Matt Neal Honda +15.054s 7. Alain Menu BMR VW +15.963s 8. Mat Jackson Motorbase Ford +19.173s 9. Sam Tordoff MG +20.905s 10. Hunter Abbott RAR Audi +21.361s 11. Dave Newsham AmD Ford +22.038s 12. Fabrizio Giovanardi Motorbase Ford +31.159s 13. Rob Austin RAR Audi +33.990s 14. Martin Depper Eurotech Honda +38.463s 15. Tom Ingram Speedworks Toyota +38.504s 16. Marc Hynes MG +40.556s 17. Jack Clarke Motorbase Ford +44.342s 18. Lea Wood Houseman Toyota +46.239s 19. Jack Goff BMR Vauxhall +46.567s 20. Aiden Moffat Moffat Chevrolet +54.186s 21. James Cole UA Toyota +1m00.014s 22. Ollie Jackson Welch Proton +1m00.052s 23. Aron Smith BMR VW +1m03.623s 24. Dan Welch Welch Proton +1m04.310s 25. Warren Scott BMR Vauxhall +1m04.924s 26. Simon Belcher Handy Toyota +1m11.282s 27. Glynn Geddie UA Toyota -1 lap 28. Robb Holland Rotek Audi -2 laps Retirements: Adam Morgan Ciceley Mercedes 0 laps Nick Foster WSR BMW 0 laps
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