BTCC Oulton Park: Turkington takes points lead with first 2018 win
Colin Turkington took his first win of the British Touring Car Championship season at Oulton Park to leap into the points lead in his WSR BMW 125i M Sport
The double champion had to climb from an initial fourth place but overhauled early leader Tom Chilton (Motorbase Ford Focus) at the end of lap five and power clear to an untroubled victory.
Chilton's car, which was saddled with 66kg of success ballast after finishing second in the opening race, soon fell prey to a charging Matt Neal in his Team Dynamics Honda Civic Type R.
He surged into second place on lap eight, but was already three seconds behind Turkington.
Neal kept the heat on Turkington in the latter part of the race to see if he could make his rival overcook his tyres, but he was unable to.
Turkington said: "I sensed pretty early on that I had a race-winning car underneath me, so I just got on with it. It felt pretty good out there when I was in the groove."
Chilton held on to third with the weight on his car to record his second podium of the weekend as he fended off Andrew Jordan's WSR BMW 125i M Sport.
James Cole (Motorbase Performance Ford Focus) had headed team-mate Sam Tordoff until the latter's machine caught fire and dropped out after 11 laps.
That handed sixth place to Rob Collard (WSR BMW), who finished ahead of HMS Racing Alfa Romeo driver Rob Austin - who was drawn on pole for Sunday afternoon's reversed-grid third race.
Race one winner Matt Simpson should have started from pole position, but his car was withdrawn just moments before the start of the race as a problem was detected in the engine of his Eurotech Racing-run Honda Civic Type R.
Puffs of smoke had emanated from the car on his run to victory in race one and investigations by the team uncovered a serious problem.
The team started performing an engine change and aims to have the car running again in time for race three.
Result - 15 laps
| Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Colin Turkington | WSR | BMW | 22m04.333s |
| 2 | Matt Neal | Team Dynamics | Honda | 5.372s |
| 3 | Tom Chilton | Motorbase | Ford | 7.800s |
| 4 | Andrew Jordan | WSR | BMW | 8.598s |
| 5 | James Cole | Motorbase | Ford | 13.121s |
| 6 | Rob Collard | WSR | BMW | 13.347s |
| 7 | Rob Austin | HMS Racing | Alfa Romeo | 15.304s |
| 8 | Jack Goff | Eurotech Racing | Honda | 18.205s |
| 9 | Ollie Jackson | AmD Tuning | Audi | 18.308s |
| 10 | Tom Ingram | Speedworks | Toyota | 18.493s |
| 11 | Adam Morgan | Ciceley Motorsport | Mercedes | 18.582s |
| 12 | Dan Cammish | Team Dynamics | Honda | 18.922s |
| 13 | Tom Oliphant | Ciceley Motorsport | Mercedes | 19.497s |
| 14 | Rory Butcher | AmD Tuning | MG | 19.798s |
| 15 | Mike Bushell | Team Hard | Volkswagen | 21.984s |
| 16 | Senna Proctor | Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall | 22.438s |
| 17 | Daniel Lloyd | BTC Norlin | Honda | 23.292s |
| 18 | Chris Smiley | BTC Norlin | Honda | 24.115s |
| 19 | Brett Smith | Eurotech Racing | Honda | 24.959s |
| 20 | Jason Plato | Team BMR | Subaru | 25.854s |
| 21 | Jake Hill | Team Hard | Volkswagen | 27.549s |
| 22 | Michael Caine | Team Hard | Volkswagen | 30.056s |
| 23 | Ash Sutton | Team BMR | Subaru | 34.586s |
| 24 | Josh Price | Team BMR | Subaru | 38.931s |
| 25 | Tom Boardman | AmD Tuning | MG | 39.965s |
| 26 | Josh Cook | Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall | 2 Laps |
| - | Bobby Thompson | Team Hard | Volkswagen | Retirement |
| - | Sam Smelt | AmD Tuning | Audi | Retirement |
| - | Sam Tordoff | Motorbase | Ford | Retirement |
| - | Stephen Jelley | Team Parker Racing | BMW | Retirement |
| - | Aiden Moffat | Laser Tools Racing | Mercedes | Retirement |
| - | Matt Simpson | Eurotech Racing | Honda | Not started |
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About this article
| Series | BTCC |
| Drivers | Colin Turkington |
| Teams | BTC Racing |
| Author | Matt James |
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