BTCC Oulton Park: Collard leads WSR podium lock-out in finale
Rob Collard led home a WSR BMW 125i M Sport 1-2-3 in the final race of the day in the British Touring Car Championship at Oulton Park
Collard started on the front row for the reversed grid race alongside polesitter Rob Austin (HMS Racing Alfa Romeo), but the race was halted after a four-car pile-up away from the line at the first time of asking.
Tom Oliphant's Ciceley Mercedes, Rory Butcher's AmD MG and the two BTC Norlin Honda Civic Type R drivers Chris Smiley and Dan Lloyd were all involved and taken to the medical centre for checks, but were unharmed.
On the restart, Collard once again beat Austin to the apex of Old Hall while Andrew Jordan muscled his BMW ahead of James Cole's Motorbase Performance Ford Focus on the dash to the first turn.
At half-distance Turkington moved into fourth place with a superb move on the inside of Cole, and set off after Jordan.
The top positions remained unchanged until three laps to go, when second-placed Austin slowed with a suspected driveshaft problem that forced him into the pits.
That sealed the top three spots for WSR, with Jack Goff (Eurotech Racing Honda Civic), who had followed Turkington up the order, in fourth place.
"That is a really good feeling," said Collard, who took his first win of the year.
"I knew it would be all about the start and I was gutted when the red flag came out. I had to do it all over again, but it worked second time around too.
"After that, it was all about getting my head down and trying to pull as much of a gap as I could, and the race really came to me."
Adam Morgan (Ciceley Motorsport Mercedes-Benz A-Class) powered from 11th on the grid up to fifth place to mark his best race of the weekend, and he was shadowed by the Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Avensis of Tom Ingram.
After running strongly initially, Motorbase Performance Ford Focus racer Tom Chilton was muscled back to seventh, and he fended off the charging Mike Bushell.
At the foot of the top 10, Jake Hill finished ninth on the road but has subsequently had one second added to his race time for hitting James Cole (finished 10th) on the last lap. This reverses their finishing positions.
Result - 12 laps
| Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rob Collard | WSR | BMW | 17m38.471s |
| 2 | Andrew Jordan | WSR | BMW | 3.881s |
| 3 | Colin Turkington | WSR | BMW | 7.647s |
| 4 | Jack Goff | Eurotech Racing | Honda | 9.333s |
| 5 | Adam Morgan | Ciceley Motorsport | Mercedes | 13.385s |
| 6 | Tom Ingram | Speedworks | Toyota | 15.374s |
| 7 | Tom Chilton | Motorbase | Ford | 16.360s |
| 8 | Mike Bushell | Team Hard | Volkswagen | 16.786s |
| 9 | James Cole | Motorbase | Ford | 18.153s |
| 10 | Jake Hill | Team Hard | Volkswagen | 18.403s |
| 11 | Josh Cook | Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall | 18.910s |
| 12 | Senna Proctor | Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall | 18.974s |
| 13 | Ash Sutton | Team BMR | Subaru | 19.206s |
| 14 | Matt Neal | Team Dynamics | Honda | 19.559s |
| 15 | Tom Boardman | AmD Tuning | MG | 21.584s |
| 16 | Stephen Jelley | Team Parker Racing | BMW | 21.944s |
| 17 | Sam Smelt | AmD Tuning | Audi | 25.031s |
| 18 | Brett Smith | Eurotech Racing | Honda | 26.111s |
| 19 | Michael Caine | Team Hard | Volkswagen | 41.924s |
| 20 | Aiden Moffat | Laser Tools Racing | Mercedes | 42.622s |
| 21 | Ollie Jackson | AmD Tuning | Audi | 1m21.197s |
| 22 | Dan Cammish | Team Dynamics | Honda | 1 Lap |
| - | Josh Price | Team BMR | Subaru | Retirement |
| - | Rob Austin | HMS Racing | Alfa Romeo | Retirement |
| - | Jason Plato | Team BMR | Subaru | Retirement |
| - | Daniel Lloyd | BTC Norlin | Honda | Retirement |
| - | Rory Butcher | AmD Tuning | MG | Retirement |
| - | Tom Oliphant | Ciceley Motorsport | Mercedes | Retirement |
| - | Bobby Thompson | Team Hard | Volkswagen | Not started |
| - | Chris Smiley | BTC Norlin | Honda | Retirement |
| - | Matt Simpson | Eurotech Racing | Honda | Not started |
| - | Sam Tordoff | Motorbase | Ford | Not started |
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