Adam Morgan was pleased to leave Oulton Park with a brace of podium finishes in the British Touring Car Championship, as the Ciceley Motorsport driver enjoyed one of his best showings at the Cheshire circuit.
Morgan was on the pace throughout the weekend, and the BMW driver managed to stay out of trouble to pick up a big points score in the fourth event of the season.
In qualifying, with no success ballast on board his BMW 330i M Sport, Morgan was able to qualify in a strong sixth place, just over two tenths off the pace.
The first race on Sunday then saw Morgan jump up to fourth on the opening lap, and the Lancashire racer was running in third when the race was red-flagged for a crash half-way through the race.
The action resumed a short while later, with Morgan lining up in third for a six-lap sprint to the finish, although the 33-year-old was ultimately unable to get past the leading Team Dynamics Hondas of Daniel Rowbottom and Gordon Shedden, who were running the faster soft tyre, to progress any further.
Although Morgan, now with 57 kg of ballast on board, overtook Shedden at the start of race two, he also lost out to the Toyota of Rory Butcher, and so once again found himself in third.
In the medium tyre, Morgan couldn’t progress past Rowbottom on the softer tyre, and he had to settle for another podium finish in third, his third straight podium finish.
The final race of the day saw Morgan drawn to start seventh on the reversed grid, and with the less favourable tyre on and the difficulty of overtaking at Oulton Park, the best he could manage was fifth, nevertheless making it Morgan’s best weekend of the year so far.
“Oulton tends to be a bogey circuit for us, apart from last year’s win, so I am really chuffed to be on the podium in our first race here in the BMW,” said Morgan.
“Gordon just had the edge on the soft tyres [in race one] but a podium was a really good start to the day, especially as we were ahead of the works cars.
“[Race two] was tough. I was busy trying to get past Dan and needing to make sure Jake [Hill] didn’t get by so it was a busy race but a second podium of the day is really satisfying and the points are very welcome as well.
“Aiden [Moffat] was a bit keen [in race three] and the rub just affected the car a bit but the weight and the tyres were the main factors for pace in that race.
“To be honest though, after years of bad luck here, two thirds, a fifth and no real dramas is bliss! We can go home with the knowledge of a job well done and not having to rebuild or repair anything, so we are really happy.”
Ciceley Motorsport’s Commercial Director Norman Burgess drew attention to the fact that Morgan was now the best-placed BMW driver in the championship, having again out-performed the West Surrey Racing drivers.
“We have had a fantastic day with some great results in front of a proper crowd for the first time since 2019,” said Burgess. “Our engineering team and both drivers have adapted to the cars and rear wheel as opposed to front wheel drive at a quite unbelievable rate.
“Adam drove really well all day and two podium finishes are a great reward for all the effort that the team is putting in and we just keep getting stronger.
“With the results we are achieving as an independent team, outscoring the works cars again, we are really buzzing.”
Morgan has now moved up to fifth overall in the drivers’ standings, 26 points adrift of leader Ash Sutton.