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Colin Turkington's BTCC Championship Year: Part 2

By MJP Media | 19 October 2014

In this special feature, we look back at the second half of the 2014 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship which was won by eBay Motors' Colin Turkington and look at the highs and lows of his title-winning season.

Colin Turkington sprays the victory champagne

Snetterton 300

At Snetterton it looked like MG KX Momentum Racing had the upper hand with Jason Plato smashing the lap record held by team-mate Sam Tordoff in the second free practice session. Although Colin Turkington was 2nd fastest, he was over 1.1 seconds behind Plato which in touring car circles is an immense gap.

In the qualifying session Plato again showed the way and secured pole position for the first race of the weekend with Turkington 0.4 seconds behind. Following an incident in the first free practice session and suffering from mild concussion, defending champion Andrew Jordan was not allowed to take part in qualifying and had to start the first race from the back of the grid.

Jason Plato and Colin Turkington continued with their grasp of the Snetterton 300 circuit and finished 1st and 2nd respectively in the first two races. Aron Smith won the third race with Turkington taking his third podium result of the day with 3rd place. Andrew Jordan's weekend went from bad to worse, taking only 1 championship point from the whole weekend after being forced to sit-out the final race due to suffering exhaustion following his incident the previous day. Despite Plato's success, Turkington was still leading the championship on 279 points with Gordon Shedden 2nd on 256 and Plato now 3rd on 236, having overtaken Jordan.

Knockhill

The eBay Motors squad started their weekend at Knockhill with a commanding performance. Colin Turkington topped the time sheets in both the free practice sessions whilst team-mates Rob Collard and Nick Foster were second in the first and second sessions respectively. Turkington continued his good form into the qualifying session by topping the time sheet however he would have to start the first race from 9th on the grid owing to an 8 place grid penalty resulting from an incident involving contact with Matt Neal at Snetterton.

Turkington failed to finish the first race following contact after an incident between Mat Jackson and Jason Plato. He did however manage to scrape 1 point from the race by posting the fastest lap time before his retirement. Starting race two from 27th on the grid, Turkington was always going to struggle to score well however he managed to finish a very impressive 4th.

The eBay Motors team got two of their drivers onto the podium in the final race of the weekend with Rob Collard taking the victory and Colin Turkington taking 3rd place behind Dave Newsham in 2nd place. Leaving Scotland, Colin Turkington topped the championship standings on 309 points with Gordon Shedden 2nd on 286, Jason Plato 3rd on 270 and Rob Collard 4th on 220.

Colin Turkington after securing the 2014 BTCC title at Brands Hatch

Rockingham

MG KX Clubcard Fuel Save started their weekend at Rockingham in fine form with team-mates Jason Plato and Sam Tordoff topping the time sheets in the free practice sessions. Colin Turkington was 4th fastest in the first session and 6th fastest in the second. Tordoff went on to qualify his MG6 in pole position for race one with Colin Turkington also on the front row having qualified 2nd in his BMW 125i M Sport.

Turkington got a flying start to race one and led into the first hairpin. He continued to lead the race to the chequered flag to notch up another race victory. MG team-mates Sam Tordoff and Jason Plato finished 2nd and 3rd with Alain Menu 4th. From pole, Turkington also won race two with the MG duo again taking 2nd and 3rd.

Rob Austin won race three for Exocet Racing with Alain Menu 2nd for Chrome Edition Restart Racing and Pirtek Racing's Andrew Jordan 3rd. Colin Turkington earned valuable championship points with 4th and was now leading the championship battle on 366 points going into the penultimate meeting of the year. Following a poor performance by the Hondas, Jason Plato was now 2nd in the standings on 311 points with Gordon Shedden 3rd on 302.

Silverstone

Coming in to the penultimate meeting of the year, six drivers had a mathematical possibility of lifting the Drivers' Championship trophy however only three had a realistic chance of taking the title: Colin Turkington, Jason Plato and Gordon Shedden. As many people predicted, the MGs of Plato and team-mate Sam Tordoff were the cars to beat as the Hondas struggled around the National circuit.

In the first free practice session it was Jason Plato who topped the time sheet with Sam Tordoff fastest in the second session with Plato 2nd and Colin Turkington 3rd. MG also took the honours in qualifying with Plato securing pole position for race one with Turkington 2nd and Tordoff 3rd. Honda Yuasa Racing were having a terrible time with Shedden qualifying 17th and Matt Neal 18th.

MG's dominance of the weekend continued on race day with Jason Plato winning the first two races and Colin Turkington finishing with solid 2nd places to keep his championship hopes alive. In race three, Turkington managed to finish 3rd ahead of Plato and thereby claw back some of the advantage Plato gained in the first two races. There were now only two drivers capable of taking the 2014 BTCC title: Turkington and Plato. With a 50 point lead in the championship, Turkington certainly had the upper hand, however one can never rule out Jason Plato!

Series Director Alan Gow with 2014 BTCC champion Colin Turkington

Brands Hatch (GP)

Colin Turkington took the early advantage in the final meeting of the season, topping the time sheets in both free practice sessions however championship rival Jason Plato was never far behind, posting the 2nd fastest time in each session. In the qualifying session it was Plato who secured pole position for race one with team-mate Sam Tordoff 2nd, Gordon Shedden 3rd and Colin Turkington 4th.

Victory in race one went to Jason Plato with Sam Tordoff 2nd and Colin Turkington 3rd, however Turkington had now done all that was necessary to secure the 2014 Drivers' Championship - he now had an unbeatable lead in the standings with two races to spare. Jason Plato however was still in battle mode and in race two, attempted an impossible overtake on Turkington at Paddock Hill, sending the 2014 champion elect across the gravel, into the barriers and out of the race. Plato went on to win the race but was subsequently penalised for the move on Turkington with a 20 second penalty, dropping him to 13th place and promoting Adam Morgan to a historic 1st place for the WIX Racing Mercedes Benz A-Class. Plato would also have to start race three from the back of the grid under the 'three strikes' rule.

With race three being won by Gordon Shedden, Jack Clarke an excellent 2nd and Mat Jackson 3rd the 2014 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship drew to a close. Colin Turkington had won the Drivers' Championship with 434 points, 35 points ahead of Jason Plato. With eBay Motors winning the HiQ Teams Championship together with the Independents' Team Trophy and Turkington winning the Independents' Trophy it has been a fantastic year for both the team and their newly crowned champion.

Touring Car content supplied by MJP Media