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British Touring Car Championship
Rockingham - Race 3 Report - 7/9/14

By MJP Media | 7 September 2014

It's all change on the podium in the final race from Rockingham as Rob Austin takes the victory for Exocet Racing with BTCC legend Alain Menu securing 2nd place for Chrome Edition Restart Racing.

Rob Austin after winning the final race of the day from Rockingham

If Colin Turkington could win his third race of the day from 6th on the grid it would go a long way to helping him secure the 2014 BTCC Drivers' Championship. Whilst Silverstone has traditionally favoured the MGs over the BMWs, a big lead leaving Rockingham with only two race weekends left on the calendar would certainly put Turkington in the box-seat so that he need only keep his nose clean at Silverstone and Brands Hatch, collect the points and polish the trophy!

In front of Turkington on the grid were Alain Menu on pole, followed by Rob Austin, Andrew Jordan, Sam Tordoff and championship rival Jason Plato who was bound to be very robust in defending his place. As the lights went out Turkington and Austin both got great starts with Austin leading at the end of the first lap from Alain Menu, Andrew Jordan, Colin Turkington and Mat Jackson all ahead of Jason Plato. With lots of contact on that first lap, Gordon Shedden, Hunter Abbott and Marc Hynes all retired, severely denting Shedden's championship hopes.

The battle for 3rd: Jordan, Turkington, Jackson, Plato and Collard

Rob Austin was able to eke out a small lead, posting the fastest lap so far on lap 4, whilst the trio of Andrew Jordan, Colin Turkington and Mat Jackson were scrapping hard for third behind Alain Menu. Closing up on Jackson were Jason Plato, Rob Collard, Sam Tordoff and Fabrizio Giovanardi. By lap 6 Austin was pulling away from the fighting pack with a 1.5 second lead at the circuit where he scored his only BTCC win last year!

At the halfway stage, Rob Austin's lead started to lessen slightly as his soft tyres started to wear, however the following pack were being unusually well behaved for a last race with Colin Turkington and Jason Plato desperate to maintain points rather than risk a major accident. On lap 10, Turkington started to line-up Andrew Jordan however he also had to be mindful of Mat Jackson behind him. This battle was really heating up but Austin started to increase his lead again and it was up to almost 2 seconds on lap 12.

Rob Austin and Alain Menu help each other celebrate their success

With 3 laps to go, Colin Turkington's eBay Motors team-mate Rob Collard did him a huge favour as he passed Plato for 6th place, denying the MG driver valuable points. On the last lap Rob Austin continued his absolutely perfect race and once again scored a victory at Rockingham in his Exocet Racing Audi A4. In a lonely second place was Alain Menu in the Volkswagen CC ahead of Andrew Jordan in 3rd. Colin Turkington collected valuable championship points in 4th with title rival Jason Plato back in 7th.

There has certainly been a massive change in the race for the title after 24 rounds with Colin Turkington now on 366 points, a huge 55 points ahead of Jason Plato and 64 points ahead of Gordon Shedden. We can probably rule out a title challenge from Andrew Jordan who is now 111 points adrift. The MG KX Clubcard Fuel Save and Honda Yuasa Racing teams can take a small crumb of comfort away from Rockingham. The MGs are normally very quick at Silverstone, whilst for Gordon Shedden and Matt Neal this weekend has been so poor that they may well look forward to a turbo boost increase for Silverstone in 2 weeks' time when there is a possibility that Colin Turkington could win the BTCC title if he continues the results he has been enjoying recently. Join us at Silverstone on the 27th and 28th of September and all will be revealed!

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