BTCC Donington Park: Morgan doubles up with dominant victory

Adam Morgan scored his second win of the day in the final race of the British Touring Car Championship round on the Donington Park Grand Prix circuit.

Morgan, who also won Saturday’s qualifying race in his CPRL Mercedes A35 Saloon, was always the favourite, starting as he did from the front row of the reversed grid.

Chris Smiley was on pole position in the sole remaining Restart Racing Hyundai i30 N Fastback following team-mate Dan Lloyd’s fire – caused by a broken fuel line – in race two.

The Northern Irishman clung on at the front for a lap and a half, before Morgan completed a move around the outside of Schwantz Curve to take the lead.

While Smiley eventually headed for the pits and retirement, Aiden Moffat emerged in second place with his Power Maxed Racing Audi A3 Saloon. The Scot kept the position to the finish, although that had looked in doubt when Daryl De Leon – going great guns from 11th on the grid – appeared in this position just after half-distance.

But the West Surrey Racing BMW 330i M Sport could not make any significant inroads into Moffat, and the Anglo-Filipino had to settle for third.

Adam Morgan

Photo by: JEP

Up front, Morgan was highly concerned about a misfire that set in during the last couple of laps, and was mightily relieved to reach the finish.

“We’re riding a wave at the minute, and we’ll just keep on going,” said Morgan. “The car is just unbelievable.

“We got a good start. Chris [Smiley] is quick so I knew it wasn’t going to be easy, but I managed to put him under a bit of pressure into the Old Hairpin, and he ran wide. We both deployed [TOCA Turbo Boost] but I had the inside at McLeans.

“As soon as I got past him it was a case of hopefully they’ll battle, which I think they did, which allowed me just to get my head down and go.”

Behind the podium trio, Aron Taylor-Smith was the best of the Speedworks Motorsport-run Toyota Corolla GR Sports, the Irishman bringing his Laser Tools-liveried car home in fourth.

Reigning champion Tom Ingram and likely 2026 title winner Ash Sutton were involved in the mighty tussles on the edge of the top six in the early going. De Leon was the first to break free of the warfare, while Gordon Shedden also wriggled through into fifth and looked like he might challenge team-mate Taylor-Smith.

Ash Sutton

Photo by: JEP

But Sutton came back at the Scottish three-time BTCC champion, and the Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus Titanium took fifth place at Redgate on the final lap. Shedden also got demoted on the run to the finish line, narrowly pipped for sixth by Charles Rainford’s WSR BMW.

Josh Cook brought his Speedworks Toyota through to eighth ahead of the Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai of Ingram, who lost time early on when contact with Sutton at the Old Hairpin sent him onto the grass.

That cost Sutton a five-second penalty after the race, promoting Rainford to fifth, Shedden to sixth and Cook to seventh. The runaway championship leader was classified eighth ahead of Ingram.

Dexter Patterson impressively hung onto third early on in his PMR Audi as the best performer among the quartet who had to use hard tyres in this race, before sliding down to 10th.

Ricky Collard was also among the top-six scrum early in the race, before being forced to the pits with the left-front tyre off the rim.

BTCC Donington Park - Race 3 results

RACE3

All Stats

 

Cla	Driver	#		Car	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Retirement	Points
1	A. Morgan Cataclean Plato Racing			Mercedes A35 Saloon	14	22'16.784		93.67		20
2	A. Moffat LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing			Audi A3 Saloon	14	+2.813 22'19.597	2.813	93.48		17
3	D. De Leon West Surrey Racing			BMW 330i M Sport	14	+3.433 22'20.217	0.620	93.43		15
4	A. Taylor-Smith Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport			Toyota Corolla GR Sport	14	+7.048 22'23.832	3.615	93.18		13
5	A. Sutton NAPA Racing UK			Ford Focus Titanium	14	+8.478 22'25.262	1.430	93.08		11
6	C. Rainford West Surrey Racing			BMW 330i M Sport	14	+9.796 22'26.580	1.318	92.99		10
7	G. Shedden Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport			Toyota Corolla GR Sport	14	+9.834 22'26.618	0.038	92.99		9
8	J. Cook Speedworks Corolla Racing			Toyota Corolla GR Sport	14	+13.429 22'30.213	3.595	92.74		8
9	T. Ingram Team Vertu			Hyundai i30N	14	+13.896 22'30.680	0.467	92.71		7
10	D. Patterson Steel Seal with Power Maxed Racing			Audi A3 Saloon	14	+14.320 22'31.104	0.424	92.68		6
11	M. Doble LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing			Audi A3 Saloon	14	+14.587 22'31.371	0.267	92.66		5
12	L. Selby NAPA Racing UK			Ford Focus Titanium	14	+16.867 22'33.651	2.280	92.50		4
13	R. Bensley Speedworks Corolla Racing			Toyota Corolla GR Sport	14	+19.928 22'36.712	3.061	92.30		3
14	S. Osborne NAPA Racing UK			Ford Focus Titanium	14	+21.452 22'38.236	1.524	92.19		2
15	D. Cammish NAPA Racing UK			Ford Focus Titanium	14	+27.313 22'44.097	5.861	91.80		1
16	N. Hamilton Team Vertu			Hyundai i30N	14	+27.424 22'44.208	0.111	91.79
17	T. Chilton Team Vertu			Hyundai i30N	14	+35.322 22'52.106	7.898	91.26
18	N. Halstead Steel Seal with Power Maxed Racing			Audi A3 Saloon	14	+56.409 23'13.193	21.087	89.88
dnf	R. Collard Team Vertu			Hyundai i30N	13	+1 Lap 22'19.457	1 Lap	86.80	Retirement
dnf	C. Smiley Restart Racing			Hyundai i30N	4	+10 Laps 6'54.434	9 Laps	86.09	Retirement
dnf	D. Rowbottom Cataclean Plato Racing			Mercedes A35 Saloon	2	+12 Laps 3'33.203	2 Laps	83.35	Retirement
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