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British Touring Car Championship
Thruxton - Race 3 Report - 4/5/14

By MJP Media | 4 May 2014

Colin Turkington wins race 3 for eBay Motors with Airwaves Racing taking the other two podium places for the team's best performance of the season amid carnage at Thruxton.

eBay Motors and Airwaves Racing share the podium for race three

With the reverse grid throwing up the maximum top ten reversed places for race 3 at Thruxton, Airwaves Racing were looking forward to it as they had Fabrizio Giovanardi on pole and Mat Jackson, who has been brilliant all day, in 6th on the grid. Interviewed on the grid, Giovanardi was asked what the plan was, to which he replied "I don't care - I'll just try and stay at the front as long as possible!" A great attitude from the former champion! With 6 former champions in the top 10 spaces on the grid, this was set to be a classic race.

Off the line, Fabrizio Giovanardi led with Colin Turkington flying up to 2nd and as they went into the complex, Adam Morgan and Jason Plato collided, forcing Plato out of the race with rear suspension damage. Turkington then passed Giovanardi for the lead before the end of the first lap with Jack Goff in 3rd, Mat Jackson 4th and Rob Collard 5th. Turkington started to pull away as the battle behind had Jack Goff in the Vauxhall Insignia all over Giovanardi as Rob Collard tucked in behind Mat Jackson. On lap 5 the safety car was deployed when Ollie Jackson had a huge shunt head on into the barriers at Church. Controversy was immediately apparent as Mat Jackson seemingly overtook Jack Goff under the waved yellow flags.

Colin Turkington on his way to victory for eBay Motors

As the safety car pulled in it at the end of lap 8, it was the same five cars at the front with Andrew Jordan, Gordon Shedden and Matt Neal right behind them. Lap 9 saw the three Hondas really starting their challenge as they attacked Rob Collard's eBay Motors BMW 125i M Sport without success while the top four created a gap ahead. Lap 11 saw a second safety car period as Simon Belcher went off and rolled heavily into the distant trees, again at Church. This was a monumental crash, but Belcher emerged from the jungle unscathed, although there was no sign of his car through the trees. The problem for the race organisers was that the tyre wall was utterly destroyed and both Ollie Jackson's and Simon Belcher's cars were still somewhere in the trees! The result was a yellow flag at Church for the remainder of the race.

Racing resumed with 6 laps left to go with everyone in close proximity behind Colin Turkington. As Turkington stretched his lead to just over a second, the next six cars were all in one big gaggle with everyone attacking and defending at the same time. At the end of lap 15, Andrew Jordan passed Rob Collard and Gordon Shedden passed Matt Neal so it was Turkington leading from Fabrizio Giovanardi 2nd, Mat Jackson 3rd, Jack Goff 4th, Andrew Jordon 5th and Rob Collard 6th with Gordon Shedden and Matt Neal right behind. In the final three laps there was further havoc as Mat Jackson appeared to overtake Giovanardi for 2nd under a yellow flag whilst the two Honda Yuasa Racing Civic Tourers had several impacts into the back and sides of Rob Collards BMW. The result of this roughing up was that Shedden got through and both Neal and Collard went off, losing places. Lots for the stewards to look at!

Jason Plato's MG6 suffered suspension damage

Into a breathless final lap, it was Colin Turkington who stretched ahead for the win with Mat Jackson 2nd and Fabrizio Giovanardi 3rd. Andrew Jordan was 4th with Gordon Shedden 5th, Jack Goff 6th, Aron Smith 7th, Adam Morgan 8th, Sam Tordoff 9th and Rob Collard 10th. All results are subject to any steward's reviews and if anything changes we will bring the news to you as soon as we have it.

With Matt Neal coming home in 23rd place, both Neal and Jason Plato failed to score points in race three and this has had a profound effect on the title chase. Pirtek Racing's Andrew Jordan now leads the standings on 141 points with Gordon Shedden 2nd on 134 and Colin Turkington 3rd on 123. Matt Neal is 4th, 13 points further back whilst Jason Plato has slipped down to 5th, 4 points behind Neal. The action resumes in 5 weeks at Oulton Park in Cheshire on the 7th and 8th June.

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