Late move earns Turkington victory
Colin Turkington took his first British Touring Car victory of the season by overtaking Fabrizio Giovanardi on the last lap to win a thrilling second race at Thruxton
Turkington, who started fifth on the grid, made a superb start to move up to third in his WSR BMW, behind the Vauxhalls of race one winner Fabrizio Giovanardi and Matt Neal.
After dropping over a second behind the pair, Turkington closed up as the race entered its final third, his rear-wheel drive BMW clearly handling better through the fast corners than the front-wheel drive Vectras.
His persistence paid off as he passed Neal for second with five laps to go, moving inside his rival at the long right-hander at Goodwood. After then closing in on Giovanardi, he sized up the Italian through the complex on the final lap and then dived past, again at Goodwood, and held off the pair to the flag.
Just 0.6 seconds covered the top three at the flag, with Turkington, who became the fifth different winner in as many BTCC races this year, reducing Neal's series lead to just four points in the process.
Andrew Jordan and Stephen Jelley battled hard over fourth for most of the race. Jelley eventually put his WSR car ahead of the Vauxhall at Noble with seven laps left as Jordan went onto the grass and spun down to 18th as a result.
Behind Jelley, Rob Collard put in a great drive to come up from 17th to fifth in his Motorbase Performance BMW. Collard passed James Thompson's Team Dynamics Honda and Jason Plato's RML Chevrolet at Allard on the last lap.
Paul O'Neill had been in the mix for another good result as well, but made contact with both Plato and the Clyde Valley Racing SEAT of Adam Jones at mid-distance, spinning him off. He recovered to 10th place by passing Jonathan Adam's Motorbase car on the final lap.
Both Arena Ford Focuses failed to make the points once again, while Dan Eaves - who failed to start race one - crashed at the first corner after making contact with Nick Leason and brought out the safety car.
Pos Driver Car Time 1. Colin Turkington BMW 28m38.018s 2. Fabrizio Giovanardi Vauxhall + 0.241s 3. Matt Neal Vauxhall + 0.623s 4. Stephen Jelley BMW + 9.110s 5. Rob Collard BMW + 11.205s 6. Jason Plato Chevrolet + 12.117s 7. James Thompson Honda + 12.468s 8. Adam Jones SEAT + 15.133s 9. Mat Jackson Chevrolet + 15.309s 10. Paul O'Neill Honda + 18.075s 11. Jonathan Adam BMW + 19.200s 12. Harry Vaulkhard Chevrolet + 23.013s 13. David Pinkney Honda + 23.471s 14. Martyn Bell Honda + 23.913s 15. John George Honda + 31.639s 16. Martin Johnson Vauxhall + 32.600s 17. Tom Chilton Ford + 34.432s 18. Andrew Jordan Vauxhall + 38.177s 19. Liam McMillan SEAT + 58.324s 20. Nick Leason BMW + 1 lap Retirements: Alan Morrison Ford 8 laps Dan Eaves SEAT 0 laps
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