Colin Turkington takes title to the wire with thrilling race two win

BMW’s Colin Turkington slashed the deficit to championship rival Ash Sutton to six points with victory in the second British Touring Car Championship race at Brands Hatch, as the Subaru star struggled to 12^th.

Turkington started the race with a 24-point deficit to Sutton, but by the end of the opening lap the BMW driver was up to 12^th as he stated his intent to reduce the gap to the Subaru driver.

Race one winner Aiden Moffat led the field away at the start, as behind the Mercedes driver Mat Jackson got his Motorbase Ford off to a strong start to take third into Turn 1.

Further back the race did not start strongly for Sutton, as he slipped from third to sixth by the end of the opening lap, as both Power Maxed Racing Vauxhalls got past early on.

Moffat held the field at bay during the opening laps, with his fully-ballasted car clearly unable to open up a lead at the front, with first Tom Ingram, then Jackson, who moved into second on lap six, trying to pass the Scot for the lead.

Meanwhile, further back Turkington was making steady progress. The Northern Irishman passed Rob Austin for 11^th on lap three, before making up a position a lap for the next two tours.

On lap seven Turkington was up to eighth immediately behind his title rival, and going into Turn 1 on lap eight the BMW driver made his key move on Sutton for seventh.

The two-time champion didn’t stop there, however, and he passed the Vauxhall of Tom Chilton on the same lap before securing fifth from Honda’s Matt Neal two laps later.

The progress continued unabated for Turkington, and having dispatched Ingram, Gordon Shedden and Jackson on successive laps, Turkington took the lead on lap 13 with a pass on Moffat at Turn 1.

The pass was not clean though, with Turkington nudging the back of Moffat’s Mercedes and pushing him wide, dropping the Scot to fifth.

The soft-tyre shod Turkington held on to the lead thereafter, taking a maximum points haul by also posting the fastest lap of the race to reduce the championship deficit to six points.

Honda duo Shedden and Neal completed the podium, having assumed the positions in the final few laps, ahead of Motorbase’s Jackson in fourth.

Moffat finished in fifth after his earlier nudge from Turkington, leading to Moffat’s father protesting to the stewards about the incident. No change to the result was deemed necessary, but Turkington was fined £500 and handed three points on his racing licence.

Speedworks’ Ingram took sixth and with it secured his first-ever title in the BTCC, as the Toyota racer wrapped up the Independents’ championship.

Vauxhall’s Chilton took seventh, ahead of Eurotech Racing’s Jack Goff in eighth, whilst Austin and Mike Epps completed the top ten.

Sutton had been running in the top ten for much of the race, but the bookies favourite was clearly under pressure throughout, including making several unforced errors that saw him run wide. Having been in seventh on lap 11, Sutton dropped five places in a single lap two laps later and eventually finished in 12^th.

The reverse grid draw, by legendary commentator Murray Walker, sees the top ten reversed, putting a fully ballasted Turkington just two places ahead of the unballasted Sutton with six points between the duo in the standings.

Race result

POS	NO	CL	DRIVER	NAT	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	4	M	Colin TURKINGTON		Team BMW	BMW 125i M Sport	15	23:27.896	1:31.741	15
2	52	M	Gordon SHEDDEN		Halfords Yuasa Racing	Honda Civic Type R	15	1.605	1:32.681	7
3	25	M	Matt NEAL		Halfords Yuasa Racing	Honda Civic Type R	15	2.246	1:32.463	10
4	3		Mat JACKSON		Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Duo	Ford Focus	15	3.756	1:32.811	4
5	16		Aiden MOFFAT		Laser Tools Racing	Mercedes-Benz A-Class	15	5.923	1:32.995	1
6	80		Tom INGRAM		Speedworks Motorsport	Toyota Avensis	15	6.486	1:33.063	2
7	2	M	Tom CHILTON		Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	15	6.832	1:32.959	5
8	31		Jack GOFF		Eurotech Racing	Honda Civic Type R	15	7.252	1:32.661	12
9	11		Rob AUSTIN		Handy Motorsport	Toyota Avensis	15	7.584	1:32.552	9
10	12		Mike EPPS		Autoaid / RCIB Insurance Racing	Volkswagen CC	15	8.001	1:32.414	18
11	39		Brett SMITH		Eurotech Racing	Honda Civic Type R	15	8.563	1:32.101	17
12	116	M	Ashley SUTTON		Adrian Flux Subaru Racing	Subaru Levorg GT	15	8.691	1:32.522	3
13	40	M	Árón TAYLOR-SMITH		MG Racing RCIB Insurance	MG6GT	15	8.958	1:32.353	23
14	18	M	Senna PROCTOR		Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	15	11.420	1:33.022	6
15	48		Ollie JACKSON		AmDtuning.com with Cobra Exhausts	Audi S3	15	11.810	1:32.387	14
16	24		Jake HILL		TAG Racing	Volkswagen CC	15	15.016	1:32.312	26
17	77	M	Andrew JORDAN		BMW Pirtek Racing	BMW 125i M Sport	15	15.290	1:32.378	27
18	10		Ant WHORTON-EALES		AmDtuning.com with Cobra Exhausts	Audi S3	15	15.480	1:32.697	16
19	33		Adam MORGAN		Ciceley Motorsport	Mercedes-Benz A-Class	15	15.644	1:32.377	30
20	303	M	Matt SIMPSON		Simpson Racing	Honda Civic Type R	15	16.411	1:32.345	13
21	6		Rory BUTCHER		Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Duo	Ford Focus	15	16.730	1:32.136	24
22	20	M	James COLE		Adrian Flux Subaru Racing	Subaru Levorg GT	15	17.066	1:32.716	19
23	28	M	Josh PRICE		A-Plan Academy	Subaru Levorg GT	15	22.090	1:33.385	22
24	99	M	Jason PLATO		Adrian Flux Subaru Racing	Subaru Levorg GT	15	29.816	1:32.322	28
25	95		Stewart LINES		Team Parker with Maximum Motorsport	Ford Focus	15	31.169	1:34.342	29
26	66		Josh COOK		MG Racing RCIB Insurance	MG6GT	15	41.809	1:32.297	25
27	30		Martin DEPPER		Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Duo	Ford Focus	15	49.980	1:33.540	21
28	22		Chris SMILEY		BTC Norlin Racing	Chevrolet Cruze	14	1 Lap	1:32.529	11
R	17		Dave NEWSHAM		BTC Norlin Racing	Chevrolet Cruze	8	DNF	1:32.768	8
NS	7		Stephen JELLEY		Team Parker with Maximum Motorsport	Ford Focus	–	DNS	N/A	20
NS	5	M	Rob COLLARD		Team BMW	BMW 125i M Sport	–	DNS	N/A	–