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British Touring Car Championship
Rockingham - Race 1 Report - 7/9/14

By MJP Media | 7 September 2014

Colin Turkington wins the first race at Rockingham to dramatically enhance his hopes of winning the 2014 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship, whilst Speedworks Motorsport celebrate their 100th BTCC race.

Colin Turkington wins the first race from Rockingham

On a gorgeous morning at Northamptonshire's Rockingham circuit, the cars lined up for what was likely to be a make or break day for the title contenders. With four of the likely champions lining up directly behind pole sitter Sam Tordoff in the MG KX Clubcard Fuel Save MG6, there was only Rob Collard, currently 4th in the championship who was further down the field in 16th. The Deene hairpin was likely to be a major feature in the race as Rockingham is the only circuit where the first corner of the circuit is also a hairpin and with the bumper field this year, was likely to be interesting.

Off the line it was Colin Turkington who got a flyer and led into the hairpin. Remarkably, the first corner was quite clean and it was Turkington ahead of pole-sitter Sam Tordoff and Jason Plato with Gordon Shedden in 4th, Adam Morgan in 5th and Andrew Jordan in 6th. As Turkington's eBay Motors BMW 125i M Sport started to warm up on lap 2 of the 16 laps, he had to defend on the straight as both of the MGs had a higher top speed. Fortunately he had enough of a lead to stay in front going into the 3rd lap whilst Shedden was all over the rear of Plato with Adam Morgan looking for any mistake from the pair of them.

Colin Turkington leading the field

On lap 4 Gordon Shedden lost 2 places in an incident with Jason Plato, leaving him behind Adam Morgan and Andrew Jordan. Lap 5 saw a safety car period as Lea Wood lost control and hit Warren Scott backwards at over 120 mph leaving the Volkswagen driver heavily winded and in need of the medical attention. Both cars were seriously damaged. The race was extended to 18 laps and resumed on lap 8. Colin Turkington was able to maintain his lead as the top 6 were playing follow my leader. Behind this leading group, Rob Collard was up to 13th at the halfway stage however needed far more than this if he was to stay in the championship race.

Lap 11 saw a fantastic move by Fabrizio Giovanardi taking his Airwaves Racing team-mate Mat Jackson for 9th. Fortunately they both came through the bruising encounter unscathed. Giovanardi then set about Marc Hynes and passed him at Gracelands to go 8th in some brutal racing which saw Jackson go through as well. Matt Neal was unlucky to lose a place after several other cars had contact and then pushed the innocent Neal onto the grass. Rob Collard took advantage of the mayhem to move up to 11th and was right up behind Mat Jackson and Aron Smith in 9th and 10th.

Jason Plato (left), Colin Turkington (centre) and Sam Tordoff (right)

With only 3 laps to go, Colin Turkington had built a slight cushion ahead of the two MGs with Adam Morgan in 4th. Alain Menu was then able to take Andrew Jordan for 5th. The big question now was would Sam Tordoff give up his 2nd place to team-mate Jason Plato for championship points? As we entered the last lap, Alain Menu took Adam Morgan for 4th and at the chequered flag it was Colin Turkington with the win ahead of the MGs of Sam Tordoff and Jason Plato. Alain Menu was 4th with Adam Morgan 5th, Andrew Jordan 6th. Gordon Shedden and Rob Collard were the big championship losers in 8th and 11th respectively.

Colin Turkington will therefore take pole position in the second race but more importantly, he was able to increase his lead in the Drivers' Championship to 37 points ahead of Gordon Shedden with Jason Plato 9 points further back. It now seems to be a 3 horse race for the title. Colin Turkington was naturally happy, but Plato was very frustrated and said "There is nothing we can do about Colin. I've been saying it all season. The regulations are just plain wrong, but there is nothing we can do about it. If I was in his shoes I'd be dead happy, but I'm not!!"

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