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British Touring Car Championship
Croft - Race 2 Report - 23/6/13

By MJP Media | 23 June 2013

Colin Turkington makes it two out of two by winning the second race of the day from Croft as tyre choice proved critical in the variable conditions.

Colin Turkington celebrates a 2nd win with the team

With the forecast rain finally arriving just before race 2, there was panic on the grid as to whether to go on wet or dry tyres. The big gamblers were the MG KX Momentum Racing MG6s of Jason Plato and Sam Tordoff plus the Addison Lee Motorbase Ford Focus of Michael Caine who selected wet tyres whilst the rest went with the standard dry Dunlop rubber.

Following his demolition of the opposition in race one, Colin Turkington was again quickest off the line and into the first corner in his eBay Motors BMW 125i M Sport, but directly behind him were the two MGs. As the cars headed up to Tower on the first lap, the MGs on the wet tyres were able to make their move and took Turkington to go first and second. Michael Caine was also making progress through the field, also on wets.

Gordon Shedden chasing Colin Turkington

The situation changed on lap 3 as the rain stopped and Colin Turkington was able to pass Sam Tordoff at the hairpin. On lap 4 the wet tyres really went 'off' and Turkington regained the lead whilst Gordon Shedden in the Honda Yuasa Racing Civic also passed Tordoff and Jason Plato to move up to second. It was clear that the wets were shot. By the end of lap 5 the MGs were out of the top 6 and it was Turkington leading from Shedden with Tom Onslow-Cole in the Volkswagen Passat CC in 3rd. Behind them it was Matt Neal, Nick Foster and Andrew Jordan.

Lap 7 saw Andrew Jordan in the Pirtek Racing Honda Civic take Nick Foster for 5th place whilst Matt Neal was given the driving standards warning flag for exceeding the circuit limits. Despite the slight drizzle in the air it was all over for the cars on wets and Jason Plato and Sam Tordoff surprisingly found themselves 21st and 22nd. Whilst Gordon Shedden was trying to push Colin Turkington in this middle part of the race, he couldn't make any real headway and with Tom Onslow-Cole some distance back in 3rd, the top 3 were having a relatively comfortable time.

Colin Turkington enjoys his 2nd victory of the day

As the race headed towards the end we saw the rare sight of Jason Plato being lapped by his main rivals in the championship whilst the big battle for 4th place was between Matt Neal, Andrew Jordan and Rob Collard. At the very last corner, Collard was able to get past Jordan for 5th and so the top 5 were Turkington, Shedden, Onslow-Cole, Neal and Collard. A special mention must go to Dave Newsham who, after starting at the back of the grid, fought his way up to finish 10th.

In the reverse draw, Colin Turkington drew the number 8 ball which means that for race 3 Adam Morgan in the Ciceley Racing Toyota Avensis will take pole position alongside Nick Foster in the BMW 125i M Sport on the front row. Behind them will be Andrew Jordan and Rob Collard on row 2. With Matt Neal, Tom Onslow-Cole, Gordon Shedden and Colin Turkington behind them it's going to be some race!

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