Sport   Motorsport   Touring Cars

British Touring Car Championship
Croft - Race 1 Report - 28/6/15

By MJP Media | 28 June 2015

Andy Priaulx, Sam Tordoff and Rob Collard secure a 1-2-3 podium lock-out for West Surrey Racing in the first race from Croft Circuit. Gordon Shedden and Matt Neal are the best of the rest.

Collard, Priaulx and Tordoff celebrate with Team Principal Dick Bennetts

Following a thrilling battle in yesterday's qualifying session at North Yorkshire's Croft Circuit, it was Sam Tordoff who clinched pole position for the first race of the day by just 7/100ths of a second from his West Surrey Racing team-mate Andy Priaulx. Fellow WSR driver Rob Collard nearly made it a 1-2-3 however his fastest time was disallowed for exceeding the track limits, dropping him to 4th and promoting Gordon Shedden to 3rd. Getting all three of their cars onto the front two rows of the grid is still a magnificent achievement for the WSR team. Defending BTCC Colin Turkington lined up on row three alongside Matt Neal with current championship leader Jason Plato down in 12th place following mechanical problems with his Volkswagen CC. This is the first time Plato has qualified outside of the top ten since Silverstone 2006.

Having accepted that starting 12th on the grid was an impossible challenge for scoring serious points and setting the fastest lap time for pole position in race two, Jason Plato elected to start race one from the pit lane in order to give himself a clear track. If he could start race two at the front of the grid whilst not carrying any success ballast, he would maximise his chances for redeeming some championship points. From 4th on the grid, Rob Collard got a great start and soon passed the Honda Yuasa Racing Civic Type R of Gordon Shedden for 3rd place. Further down the field, Rob Austin in the Exocet AlcoSense Audi A4 moved up to 5th from 7th on the grid.

Andy Priaulx leads Sam Tordoff and Rob Collard to a 1-2-3 victory

With light rain in the air, the drivers were all keen to set a fast lap time in order to secure a good grid position for the second race. Team BMR's Colin Turkington was the first to set the fastest lap time however pole-sitter Sam Tordoff soon beat that time in his JCT600 Racing with GardX BMW 125i M Sport. On lap 6 a small error by Tordoff allowed team-mate Andy Priaulx to take the lead in his Team IHG Rewards Club BMW as the rain continued to make conditions difficult. By lap 8, Rob Collard was challenging team-mate Tordoff for 2nd place but was unable to pass and the three BMWs and Gordon Shedden extended their lead over the rest of the field.

Behind the leaders, Colin Turkington was running 5th with Rob Austin 6th, Matt Neal 7th, Jack Goff 8th, Andrew Jordan 9th and Tom Ingram 10th however that was all about to change as race leader Andy Priaulx was given warnings about respecting the track limits. On lap 10, Andrew Jordan passed his MG 888 Racing team-mate Jack Goff to take 8th place then Matt Neal passed Rob Austin for 6th. Jordan then set about Austin, passing him on the next lap. Tom Ingram then made up several places, passing Jack Goff and Rob Austin.

Andy Priaulx delivers the first race win for Team IHG Rewards Club

Rob Austin lost more places on the following laps, being passed by Adam Morgan in the WIX Racing Mercedes Benz A-Class then Jack Goff and Josh Cook. At the chequered flag it was victory for Andy Priaulx with Sam Tordoff 2nd and Rob Collard 3rd providing a West Surrey Racing podium lock-out. Gordon Shedden finished 4th ahead of team-mate Matt Neal in 5th and Andrew Jordan in 6th. Colin Turkington, Tom Ingram, Adam Morgan and Jack Goff completed the top ten.

Jason Plato's strategy to sacrifice race one to get a good grid position for race two resulted in him setting the 3rd fastest lap time so he will start the next race on the second row of the grid alongside Gordon Shedden. The fastest lap was set by Sam Tordoff who will once again start from pole position alongside Andy Priaulx. Crucially, Priaulx and Tordoff will be carrying 75kg and 66kg of success ballast respectively due to their 1-2 finish in race one whereas Plato will be ballast free. Can Plato maximise the advantage and win race two? We'll find out very soon.

Touring Car content supplied by MJP Media