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Turkington takes win and points lead

Colin Turkington moved into the lead of the British Touring Car Championship after winning the opening race of the day at Croft

The Northern Irishman made an excellent getaway from pole position in his WSR BMW and led all the way to the chequered flag to claim his fourth win of the season.

His team-mate Stephen Jelley completed a one-two finish for the WSR squad after passing Jason Plato into the first corner of the race. He finished 3.499 seconds behind Turkington.

Plato had been battling with his RML Chevrolet team-mate Mat Jackson early in the race, but a high-speed accident for the latter exiting the chicane on lap five left the 2001 champion to finish in a lonely third place.

Rob Collard, who started 10th in his Motorbase BMW, made significant gains to end the first lap in sixth, and then overtook Harry Vaulkhard's Tempus Sport Chevrolet at the hairpin on lap 10.

Vaulkhard lost a further spot to Fabrizio Giovanardi at Tower bend after running wide exiting the chicane on the following lap, the Italian the best of the Vauxhall drivers after a brilliant drive up from 13th on the grid.

The race was red-flagged two laps short of its scheduled distance, due to another incident involving Vaulkhard. After he and Vauxhall's Matt Neal made contact at the Esses while battling over sixth, Vaulkhard spun onto the infield while his rival ran wide.

While Neal continued to sixth - a result that enabled Turkington to take an 11-point championship lead from the two-time champion - Vaulkhard spun again entering the Complex and was collected head-on by Tom Chilton's Arena Ford.

Thankfully both drivers were able to walk away from the accident, but both cars were damaged heavily.

Arena's day had already began badly as Tom Onslow-Cole failed to take the start, while Clyde Valley Racing SEAT's Adam Jones was given a 30-second stop/go penalty after mechanics were still working on his car after the three-minute board was shown on the grid.

Pos  Driver               Car        Time
 1.  Colin Turkington     BMW        19m07.119s
 2.  Stephen Jelley       BMW         +  3.499s
 3.  Jason Plato          Chevrolet   +  9.038s
 4.  Rob Collard          BMW         + 11.483s
 5.  Fabrizio Giovanardi  Vauxhall    + 13.732s
 6.  Matt Neal            Vauxhall    + 16.347s
 7.  Jonathan Adam        BMW         + 16.683s
 8.  Andrew Jordan        Vauxhall    + 18.951s
 9.  Paul O'Neill         Honda       + 22.581s
10.  David Pinkney        Honda       + 38.295s
11.  James Thompson       Honda       + 40.965s
12.  Martin Johnson       Vauxhall    + 41.541s
13.  James Nash           Chevrolet   + 41.617s
14.  John George          Honda       + 49.460s
15.  Martyn Bell          Honda       +   1 lap
16.  Adam Jones           SEAT        +  2 laps

Retirements:

     Harry Vaulkhard      Chevrolet   13 laps
     Tom Chilton          Ford        13 laps
     Mat Jackson          Chevrolet    5 laps
     Dan Eaves            SEAT         3 laps
     Tom Onslow-Cole      Ford         0 laps

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