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British Touring Car Championship
Snetterton (300) - Race 1 Report - 9/8/15

By MJP Media | 9 August 2015

Team BMR secure a podium lock-out as Colin Turkington wins ahead of Aron Smith and Jason Plato in the heat of Snetterton.

Colin Turkington celebrates another BTCC victory

Following their dominant performance during yesterday's qualifying session, Team BMR lined up at the front of the grid for the first race of the day from Snetterton with defending champion Colin Turkington in pole position alongside team-mate Aron Smith with Jason Plato on the 2nd row to complete a 1-2-3 grid lock-out for the team. Behind the Volkswagen CC drivers, Andrew Jordan qualified 4th in his MG 888 Racing 6GT with Matt Neal 5th and Andy Priaulx 6th. With 17 cars qualifying within 1 second of pole-sitter Turkington, the scene was set for a thrilling return to action for the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship.

There was one absentee from the grid as Aiden Moffat was unable to drive following the concussion he suffered in a big shunt which caused significant damage to his Laser Tools Racing Chevrolet Cruze yesterday. Off the line it was Colin Turkington who got a fantastic start and led into the first corner ahead of Jason Plato. There was then a collision at the Montreal hairpin which saw Rob Collard suffering rear left damage and limping back to the pits. At the end of the first lap Aron Smith was able to reclaim the second place he held on the grid after overtaking Jason Plato and with Andrew Jordan in 4th, the leaders broke away.

Team BMR lead the way at Snetterton

The four leaders were able to build a small lead ahead of 5th placed Matt Neal, 6th placed Andy Priaulx and Jack Goff in 7th. The third lap then saw drama as Hunter Abbott spun the Exocet AlcoSense Audi A4 in the middle of the pack but miraculously everyone missed him. The battle for 5th place was intensifying with Neal, Priaulx and Dave Newsham involved in an epic battle on lap 4.

On lap 5, Colin Turkington on the soft tyres had opened an impressive 2.2 second lead over Aron Smith in 2nd, but would his soft tyres last the full 12 laps? Jason Plato who was running in 3rd was shown the driving standards flag for exceeding the track limits. At the halfway stage Andy Priaulx briefly took 5th from Matt Neal, but he then ran wide and Neal re-took the place at the hairpin. Priaulx wasn't to be denied though and later on lap 6 he re-took the place at the bomb hole. Adam Morgan was the man on the move on lap 7 as he took Dave Newsham for 7th place and Newsham himself then came under pressure from Jack Goff.

Team BMR lock-out the podium in race 1

At the front and with 2 laps to go the top 4 of Turkington, Smith, Plato and Jordan were still 3 seconds ahead of the rest of the field with Turkington maintaining his 2.2 second overall lead. Whilst this was going on there was a big crash involving Stewart Lines and Nicolas Hamilton which caused the medical car to be deployed. As a result of this, the drivers were not able to better their lap times and so track positions were maintained through to the finish.

The result was a fantastic podium lock-out for Team BMR with Colin Turkington 1st, Aron Smith 2nd and Jason Plato 3rd with Andrew Jordan and Andy Priaulx 4th and 5th. The grid for the second race is determined on the best lap times in race one and so Colin Turkington will be at the front with Sam Tordoff, Adam Morgan and Jack Goff behind him. Jason Plato will start 5th and Aron Smith 7th.

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