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British Touring Car Championship
Donington Park - Race 2 Report - 19/4/15

By MJP Media | 19 April 2015

Success ballast and tyre choices play their part as Colin Turkington takes the win in the second race of the day at Donington Park.

Colin Turkington celebrates his first win of the 2015 season

With Gordon Shedden on pole and Colin Turkington, Adam Morgan and Jason Plato right behind on the grid there was sure to be fireworks at the start of the second race of the day in the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship at Donington Park. The news from the pits was that one of the two Infinity Support Our Paras Racing Infinity Q50s would be missing from the grid due to terminal engine problems, as was Andy Wilmot who also had an engine failure. Wilmot has formally asked the team and Series Director Alan Gow if he can swap from the Welch Motorsport engine to the TOCA engine for Thruxton due to pressure from his sponsors as he has completed only three laps all year. Mike Bushell had a problem on the formation lap for the second time today.

Off the line, Colin Turkington took the lead into the first corner from Gordon Shedden as Jason Plato got a poor start. Jack Goff was able to pass Adam Morgan for 4th place and as Shedden made a mistake, Andrew Jordan was able to get up to 2nd. The safety car was then called out on lap two as a horrendous error by Alex Martin saw him hammer into the back of an innocent Warren Scott which left his Team BMR Volkswagen CC in a mess in the gravel.

Adam Morgan finished an excellent 3rd for WIX Racing

The safety car came in after two laps and Colin Turkington was able to pull out a small lead on the rest of the field after the restart. Behind him, the battle was between Andrew Jordan, Gordon Shedden and Jack Goff. Goff was able to get past Morgan to take 4th place on lap 7 while Rob Collard was able to close up on their battle. On lap 8, Matt Neal was able to get past Jason Plato and set about the pursuit of Rob Collard as the Honda Yuasa Racing Civic Type R was improving lap by lap. Neal was able to get past Collard on lap 10 for 6th however it was Turkington with a 2 second lead who was setting the pace.

Adam Morgan then got his rhythm and was soon past Gordon Shedden but had his mirrors full of both Hondas as Matt Neal then took Shedden as well. Lap 13 of 18 saw the soft tyres starting to go off for Shedden however Colin Turkington was unruffled with a lead of over 3 seconds ahead of the battle behind. On lap 15 Matt Neal, Andrew Jordan and Adam Morgan arrived three abreast into the chicane and the result was Matt Neal up to 2nd, Andrew Jordan 3rd and Adam Morgan back in 4th after a trip across the grass with Rob Collard 5th and Jason Plato 6th.

Podium celebrations: Adam Morgan, Colin Turkington and Matt Neal

In the closing stages, Rob Collard, Jason Plato, Andrew Jordan and Adam Morgan all exchanged blows and paint and the stewards may well be busy after the race! Colin Turkington was the winner by 2.5 seconds with Matt Neal 2nd and Adam Morgan 3rd. Andrew Jordan finished an excellent 4th on the soft tyre to edge out Jason Plato in 5th, Rob Collard in 6th and Josh Cook in the Power Maxed Racing Chevrolet Cruze a personal best 7th. Jack Goff was 8th, birthday-boy Sam Tordoff was 9th and Andy Priaulx 10th.

Colin Turkington now leads the championship with 68 points ahead of Matt Neal and Jack Goff level on 54 points and Gordon Shedden 4th on 52. After 5 races so far in 2015 we have had 5 different race winners! For race 3, the reverse grid would be decided with an independent draw by Christopher Tate, MD of Donington Park now that no drivers who could be affected by the draw are allowed to be involved. Following the draw, the grid for race 3 will have Josh Cook on pole alongside Rob Collard with Jason Plato and Andrew Jordan on row 2, Adam Morgan and Matt Neal on row 3 and Colin Turkington and Jack Goff on row 4.

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