BTCC Thruxton: Works-backed Subarus withdrawn from races

The cars of Jason Plato, Colin Turkington, James Cole and Warren Scott will not start any of the three races.

Cole's car was involved in a fire at the opening race at Donington Park three weeks ago and, despite a redesign, the team said it did not want to take any more risks.

A Team BMR statement said: "Following an incident with James Cole at Donington where there was a failure of the high pressure fuel rail there was a re-designed and re-manufactured component fitted to all cars for the Thruxton event.

"Following a review of the new design post qualifying, the new part has shown signs of fatigue that could lead to a similar failure.

"We have investigated all avenues available to us overnight and this morning, however the engineering team have taken the decision to withdraw the cars as none of the solutions available are able to be durability tested prior to competing on circuit.

"We are obviously disappointed with the outcome, however in this situation the risk to the drivers, other competitors and circuit officials is not acceptable, so the correct decision is to retire the cars for the remainder of the event."

Team BMR team manager Alan Cole added: "Everyone has made the best effort to fix the issue we thought we had but we are not confident with the nature of the problem that we have and the nature of the circuit. It surrounds the fuel rail.

"We looked at the cars closely after qualifying because we had the issue.

"We inspected them last night and it was showing the same signs as at Donington, so we took the decision to pull out.

"We will be doing durability tests before Oulton Park at the start of June [4/5]. There are another two options we can try, so we need to assess those."

Driver Colin Turkington, who qualified in 13th spot, said: "I am deeply disappointed that I will not get to compete today, and it is a very difficult blow to swallow.

"Nobody wants to be in this situation but at the end of the day safety is the most important thing.

"The guys at Silverline Subaru BMR Racing did an incredible job in building these cars and this is just a small hurdle that we will certainly overcome.

"I'm confident a newly manufactured and tested solution will be found."