Colin Turkington underlined his status as the British Touring Car Championship’s King of Croft with a dominant 15th victory at the North-East circuit on Sunday for Team BMW.
But there was also frustration across the rest of the day as WSR drivers became victims of over-aggressive driving from others that led to a number of spins and significant damage to their cars.
The four-time champion stormed to pole on Saturday and drove perfectly in the opening race as he claimed a commanding victory by nearly two seconds, led every lap and set the fastest lap aboard his BMW 330e M Sport.
Not only was it his third win of 2024, it was also the 70th of his career and the 127th for WSR, moving them alone into second place on the BTCC’s all-time winners’ list.
Sixth place for Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport’s Jake Hill, BMW scooped the Manufacturer win for the race.
Having chosen to start the opener on the faster soft Goodyear tyre, he was mandated to switch to the hard compound for Race Two. Running second, he was fired off the circuit by one of his chief title rivals at Tower bend and dropped to ninth spot.
Charging back on the soft tyre in Race Three, the Northern Irishman had just taken third spot when another driver hit the rear corner of his BMW and spun him into the tyre barrier at the Barcroft bend. He finished 14th.
While that was happening, Jake was in the middle of an inspired charge of his own from 16th on the grid to fifth; a result that leaves him second in the points table.
The reason for starting so low was that he too was the innocent victim of aggressive contact from behind that resulted in a spin exiting Sunny bend.
Starting 14th, Adam Morgan chose to start the opening race on the hard tyre and was limited to 13th as a result, but switching to the soft for Race Two, he charged forwards until a puncture led to an unplanned pitstop that dropped him to 18th.
The Lancashire racer produced his best result in Race Three as he followed Jake for much of the race and climbed from 17th to ninth.
The day’s results maintained BMW’s second place in the Manufacturers’ points with four triple-header rounds remaining.
Colin Turkington, Team BMW, said: “I’m genuinely frustrated with the weekend. Even after taking pole and having a strong win in Race One, with the pace we found with the BMW at Croft, we should have had a lot more. I wouldn’t have won Race Two on the hard tyre, but the plan was to set myself up for a good reversed-grid spot and see what we could do because the pace we had on the soft was really strong. Ultimately I’ve come out on the wrong end of two avoidable incidents that I didn’t feel responsible for and lost a lot of points not just for myself but for BMW as well. That really stings, but the team have done an excellent job on my car and the step forward we’ve taken bodes well for the next few rounds.”
Jake Hill, Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport said: “It’s been frustrating today. Frustrating mainly because the speed of the BMW was really strong. The big downer was getting spun out in Race Two by some appalling driving by someone else at a corner that simply isn’t a passing place. The team did an awesome job fixing the car for Race Three and we left the hard-tyre set-up on because there wasn’t time to change it. The BMW came alive with that and I was able to come up from near the back to fifth. We’ll put this one behind us and focus on getting the championship lead back at Knockhill.”
Adam Morgan, Team BMW, said: “Ultimately what’s happened today is a result of my own mistake by spinning in qualifying. I started in mid-pack and when you do that, you’re at the mercy of who you’re around. I got the hard tyre out of the way in Race One and was making great progress on the soft in Race Two when I had a puncture and that meant I started Race Three from back. From there, I latched on to Jake for most of the race and the result was pretty good. The speed’s been there in the BMW and I want to turn that into some great results at Knockhill.”
Dick Bennetts, Team Principal, said: “Today couldn’t have started better or ended more sourly. Colin drove brilliantly in the opening race to win for the 70th time and give BMW the Manufacturer win and the performances of both Jake and Adam in Race Three especially were very strong. Of course, we didn’t finish the day with the results we wanted overall and that’s largely down to some extremely poor driving on track by a selection of rival competitors. We’re concerned that this type of driving exists and at the consistency of the judiciary when assessing these incidents. We now have to work extremely hard to get all three cars fixed and prepared for Knockhill.”
