BTCC Croft: Jordan wins race two ahead of WSR team-mate Turkington
WSR driver Andrew Jordan wrapped up his second British Touring Car Championship victory in succession at Croft, leading home team-mate Colin Turkington for a BMW one-two in the second race
Ahead of the fourth round of the season, the new-for-2019 BMW 330i M Sport was given a minor reduction to its engine boost at the cost of 4bhp, but Jordan and Turkington remained dominant up front.
Polesitter Jordan retained first place off the line, despite being laden with the maximum 54kg of success ballast following his race one success.
Chris Smiley, who started second, covered off the threat of Tom Chilton, which allowed Turkington up into third place.
The third BMW of Tom Oliphant tried to follow suit, but he tangled with the Motorbase Ford Focus RS of Chilton and spun at the exit of chicane.
Oliphant was fortune not to be collected but the delay to Chilton - who was drawn on pole for the partially-reversed grid race three - boosted Dan Cammish up to fourth.
BTC Racing driver Smiley struggled with the 48kg of ballast aboard his Honda Civic Type R, and held up Turkington and Cammish, allowing Jordan to swiftly establish a four second advantage by just lap five of 15.
As Jordan pulled away, Turkington seized his chance to follow suit and deprived Smiley of second around the outside of the Jim Clark Esses.
With clear air, Turkington immediately ran clear of the pursuing train and set the fastest first and second sectors to tear a second out of Jordan's cushion.
Although Turkington continued to close to 1.1s by the end, Jordan remained steadfast up top to earn his sixth victory of the season and his second brace of BTCC wins in as many meetings.
It also promotes the 2013 champion up to fourth in the points, after he had started the day just ninth following his huge Donington Park shunt, which meant he failed to score in the three races of round two.
Turkington was followed by Cammish, who was 10s further back, with his team-mate Matt Neal in fourth after making an incisive move on Jason Plato under braking for Sunny.
Subaru Levorg GT driver Ashley Sutton claimed fifth on the last-lap as an ever-slowing Smiley spun going through the Complex.
At the start of the lap, Sutton had clattered a kerb that unsettled his car and it looked as though Smiley would limit the damage to his race and hold on, but he left the door open for Sutton.
The 2017 champion ran the nose of his Team BMR car alongside but as Smiley reclaimed the racing line he was spun across the front of Sutton, for which the latter was handed a five-place grid penalty for race three, where he will now start 10th
That promoted the Vauxhall Astra of Jason Plato to sixth, ahead of the Toyota Corolla of Tom Ingram and Smiley's team-mate Josh Cook.
Chilton recovered from his early excursion to rise up to ninth ahead of the Mercedes A-Class duo of Aidan Moffat and Adam Morgan.
Smiley eventually crossed the line in 27th.
Result - 15 laps
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Andrew Jordan | WSR | BMW | 20m47.475s |
2 | Colin Turkington | WSR | BMW | 1.100s |
3 | Dan Cammish | Team Dynamics | Honda | 11.543s |
4 | Matt Neal | Team Dynamics | Honda | 12.731s |
5 | Ash Sutton | BMR Racing | Subaru | 20.209s |
6 | Jason Plato | Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall | 20.753s |
7 | Tom Ingram | Speedworks Motorsport | Toyota | 21.723s |
8 | Josh Cook | BTC Racing | Honda | 22.119s |
9 | Tom Chilton | Motorbase Performance | Ford | 22.401s |
10 | Aiden Moffat | Laser Tools Racing | Mercedes | 25.643s |
11 | Adam Morgan | Ciceley Motorsport | Mercedes | 26.297s |
12 | Stephen Jelley | Team Parker Racing | BMW | 26.506s |
13 | Senna Proctor | BMR Racing | Subaru | 26.965s |
14 | Rory Butcher | AmD Tuning | Honda | 27.307s |
15 | Sam Tordoff | AmD Tuning | Honda | 31.083s |
16 | Jack Goff | Team Hard | Volkswagen | 34.475s |
17 | Matt Simpson | Simpson Racing | Honda | 35.987s |
18 | Tom Oliphant | WSR | BMW | 36.292s |
19 | Rob Collard | Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall | 36.473s |
20 | Ollie Jackson | Motorbase Performance | Ford | 37.505s |
21 | Daniel Rowbottom | Ciceley Motorsport | Mercedes | 38.335s |
22 | Carl Boardley | Team Hard | Volkswagen | 38.876s |
23 | Bobby Thompson | Team Hard | Volkswagen | 40.586s |
24 | Rob Smith | Excelr8 Motorsport | MG | 44.381s |
25 | Michael Crees | Team Hard | Volkswagen | 53.676s |
26 | Mark Blundell | Trade Price Cars Racing | Audi | 1m15.815s |
27 | Chris Smiley | BTC Racing | Honda | 1m19.807s |
28 | Nicolas Hamilton | Motorbase Performance | Ford | 1 Lap |
- | Jake Hill | Trade Price Cars Racing | Audi | Retirement |
- | Sam Osborne | Excelr8 Motorsport | MG | Retirement |
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