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Race report

Croft BTCC: Turkington cruises to 13th career win in Race 3 at Croft

Four-time British Touring Car champion Colin Turkington added to his reputation as the ‘King of Croft’ by scoring his 13th BTCC win at the North Yorkshire circuit in the third race of the day.

Colin Turkington, Team BMW BMW 330i M Sport

Colin Turkington, Team BMW BMW 330i M Sport

JEP / Motorsport Images

Turkington, who was drawn on reversed-grid pole position, got the jump on front-row partner Gordon Shedden off the line, and never looked back.

Turkington’s West Surrey Racing-run BMW 330i M Sport was carrying 27kg of success ballast compared to the 33kg of Shedden’s Team Dynamics Honda Civic Type R.

Once again, the race was neutralised by an early safety car to recover the stranded machines of Dan Lloyd and Jack Mitchell, victims of a multi-car first-corner tangle, but Turkington made a perfect restart, crossing the line 0.790 seconds in front of Shedden already.

Shedden kept Turkington honest for a few laps, before the Northern Irishman pulled the gap beyond a second by the seventh lap of 16.

Three laps later it was over three seconds, and Turkington finished 3.5s to the good, jumping up to third in the championship.

“It felt much like Thruxton [scene of the previous round] the way my day improved,” said Turkington.

“I had to battle really hard today, but that’s the way it goes – P7 in race two put me on pole and we converted it, so I’m really proud of the team for that.”

As Shedden fell back, he came under attack from the Laser Tools Racing Infiniti Q50 of championship leader Ash Sutton, on 39kg of ballast.

Sutton constantly sought an opening, especially in the final complex and hairpin, but had a buckled right-front wheel from striking the kerb at the first corner while fending off Tom Ingram and Josh Cook.

Ashley Sutton, Laser Tools Racing Infiniti Q50

Ashley Sutton, Laser Tools Racing Infiniti Q50

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Two-time champion Sutton was reluctant to try a risky move with his Infiniti in that state, but completed the day with a podium and is 29 points ahead of new series runner-up Jake Hill going into the final three rounds.

Ingram, who has fallen from second to fifth in the standings after the Croft races, claimed fourth position in his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N.

A right-front puncture on the Hyundai hobbled Ingram over the last couple of laps, but he had just enough air pressure left to fend off the fast-closing Josh Cook’s BTC Racing Honda.

Aiden Moffat completed his best weekend yet in the BTCC, claiming sixth in his LTR Infiniti to add to his win and second place from earlier in the day.

Hill fell away from Moffat, who like him was running the soft option tyre in this race.

The Motorbase-run MB Motorsport Ford Focus has struggled on the soft Goodyear this season and this, combined with 75kg on board, meant that Hill was happy to rescue seventh place after a win and a second in the first two races.

Hill’s pace deficit meant he came under attack from Adam Morgan’s Ciceley Motorsport BMW: on the sixth lap the Ford got sideways into the complex and was inadvertently nerfed by Morgan; then, as Hill gathered up the moment, a flick of accidental contact sent Morgan off the road and into a spin.

Senna Proctor then took up the challenge, but couldn’t find a way past Hill and claimed eighth in his BTC Honda, ahead of Dan Rowbottom’s Dynamics Honda and Tom Chilton’s Ciceley BMW.

Rory Butcher made good progress from the back of the grid to finish 11th in his Speedworks Motorsport-run Toyota Corolla.

Croft BTCC Race 3 results - 16 laps

Cla Driver Time Gap
1 United Kingdom Colin Turkington 23'19.784  
2 United Kingdom Gordon Shedden 23'23.284 3.500
3 United Kingdom Ashley Sutton 23'23.500 3.716
4 United Kingdom Tom Ingram 23'27.066 7.282
5 United Kingdom Josh Cook 23'27.680 7.896
6 United Kingdom Aiden Moffat 23'36.514 16.730
7 United Kingdom Jake Hill 23'38.144 18.360
8 United Kingdom Senna Proctor 23'38.763 18.979
9 United Kingdom Daniel Rowbottom 23'40.147 20.363
10 United Kingdom Tom Chilton 23'40.594 20.810
11 United Kingdom Rory Butcher 23'41.063 21.279
12 Ireland Aron Taylor-Smith 23'42.193 22.409
13 United Kingdom Tom Oliphant 23'42.384 22.600
14 United Kingdom Stephen Jelley 23'43.167 23.383
15 United Kingdom Carl Boardley 23'46.493 26.709
16 United Kingdom Sam Smelt 23'54.094 34.310
17 United Kingdom Adam Morgan 23'54.656 34.872
18 Andy Neate 23'56.251 36.467
19 Jersey Jack Butel 23'56.723 36.939
20 Nicolas Hamilton 24'05.219 45.435
21 Nick Halstead 23'33.508 1 Lap
22 United Kingdom Sam Osborne 23'49.720 1 Lap
23 United Kingdom Jason Plato 24'23.528 1 Lap
  United Kingdom Chris Smiley 8'22.942 11 Laps
  United Kingdom Ollie Jackson 2'00.931 15 Laps
  Jade Edwards 2'17.474 15 Laps
  United Kingdom Jack Goff 2'18.561 15 Laps
  United Kingdom Daniel Lloyd    
  United Kingdom Jack Mitchell    

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