BTCC: Turkington Fights Back after Heartbreak for Cammish

Leading the standings after race one; out of the title race after race two; champion after race three. That was how the afternoon unfolded for Colin Turkington in a typically tense and thrilling day of BTCC racing as the season concluded at Brands Hatch.

The Northern Irishman produced a storming drive in the final race of the season to beat teammate Andrew Jordan and Honda’s Dan Cammish by two points to draw level with the great Andy Rouse on four BTCC titles.

Cammish would win the opening race and pick up a podium in race two, only to experience a brake failure at the end of the third race, resulting in his first retirement of the season and losing the title by 5 points. Elsewhere, wins for Ash Sutton and Jason Plato ended their season on a high.

Qualifying

The weekend began perfectly for Turkington who looked fast all through practice and backed up his speed taking pole position by nearly four tenths ahead of Ash Sutton. Jordan was third despite ditching his BMW 330i in the gravel and having his best time deleted as a result of causing a red flag. Cammish could only manage 12th, missing out on a top ten starting spot for the only time all year.

Race One

With rear-wheel drive cars first-through-fourth, it wasn’t expected anyone would make an outstanding jump off the line but Sutton’s Subaru was away, (as David Addison would say) like the proverbial stabbed rat, to lead into the first turn. Cammish made a lightning start to move up to seventh and in a position to move forward. Further forward, Jordan dropped to fifth behind Butcher and Hill as he struggled with a damp track. Matt Simpson soon brought the racing to a temporary halt as he collided heavily with the tyre barriers at Paddock Hill bend bringing out the safety car.

Six laps were spent at reduced speeds during which, rain began to come down in sizeable chunks leading to many midfield runners diving into pitlane for wet tyres, the first of which being Matt Neal from 13th.

Once racing was back underway Butcher wasted no time in seizing the initiative, passing both Sutton and Turkington, who had retaken the lead just before the safety car, to lead. Cammish’s charge forward continued as he disposed of Ollie Jackson, Jordan and Sutton to be fourth at the end of the first racing lap. He followed that by sliding past his title rival Turkington into Hawthorns for third as he set his sights. He took advantage of a Hill error for second before a stunning move to pass Butcher for the lead.

He’d stay there to the very end, taking the win even after a five-second penalty was added to his time for a safety car infringement. Behind him, Neal and Tom Chilton both produced outstanding drives to take second and third on their wet tyres, just pipping Butcher at the final corner. Turkington finished fifth with Jordan eighth. This cut Turkington’s lead to Cammish to just seven points with two races remaining.

Podium: Cammish; Neal; Chilton

Race Two

A wetter track for this race as everyone bar four cars opted for the wet tyres which proved to be the right call. Turkington got a much better start jumping from fifth to second behind Cammish with Neal third, but then drama. Neal lunged up the inside into Graham Hill bend and made contact with the rear of Turkington’s BMW, sending him spinning and to the very back of the field. Fortunately for Turkington, there had been a big crash at the first turn involving Jack Goff, Tom Oliphant and Adam Morgan which brought out the safety car so he could pit and gamble on slicks, but he made no progress finishing 25th.

The restart saw Sutton come alive, passing Chilton, Neal and Cammish in two laps and going on to pull a big lead as Cammish went on to slip behind Jordan before the flag. Neal slipped behind Jason Plato briefly but the Vauxhall made a mistake into Westfields and slid wide, allowing him and the two Motorbase Ford’s through on the last lap as he was chasing Cammish for a podium. Neal was given a reprimand and a five-place grid penalty for race three following the incident on lap one.

The final results of this race saw Rory Butcher claim the Jack Sears’ Trophy title while his team AmD Tuning took the Independent’s teams’ crown. Halfords Yuasa Racing won the overall teams’ championship.

Podium: Sutton; Jordan; Cammish

Race Three

So, here’s how it stood before lights out: Cammish (starting eighth) led Turkington (25th) by eight points with Jordan (ninth) a further five behind.

Senna Proctor had been drawn on pole for the final race of the year but alongside him, Stephen Jelley made a demon start to lead the opening lap. Behind him, Jordan’s rear-wheel drive helped him overtake Cammish while Turkington made up TEN places to 15th. Plato was third on the first tour but soon passed Proctor into Paddock Hill bend before doing the same to Jelley a lap later to take a lead he would never relinquish. Proctor was then sent spinning by Josh Cook as the middle order shuffling began.

For the championship, Turkington made his way to the back of Cammish on lap nine but it took him four laps to get past, at which point he couldn’t get to a high enough position to claim the required points for the title if Cammish stayed where he was, but he didn’t. On the penultimate lap of the season, Cammish’s brakes failed into Hawthorns as the car snapped sideways and careered into the tyre wall at high speed, putting him out of the race and championship.

All of a sudden, Turkington was back on top lying sixth in the race but Jordan made a move for fourth on Cook to close to within two points of Turkington and he would claim the title if he could pass Sutton on the last lap. Alas he couldn’t and a visually jubilant Turkington kept it on the grey stuff to claim his fourth British Touring Car Championship title by just the two points from Jordan and Cammish, AJ ahead by virtue of his six race wins to Cammish’s two.

Plato took the victory, his 97th of his BTCC career, relatively unchallenged ahead of Butcher and Sutton.

Butcher’s second place was enough to secure him the Independent’s Drivers’ title by two points from Cook.

Podium: Plato; Butcher; Sutton

So that concludes what has been a truly outstanding BTCC season and what a way to end it! Congratulations to Colin Turkington and West Surrey Racing as well as all the champions in all the categories on the TOCA package on a year to remember. And with that, it’s onto next year, can Turkington do it again to become the outstanding title-winning driver? Or will it be the Revenge of Cammish and Honda? We can’t wait to find out, bring on 2020!