Colin Turkington heads BMW 1-2 in reverse-grid Brands race three

Colin Turkington took the victory in the final British Touring Car Championship race of the day at Brands Hatch, heading WSR stable-mate Jake Hill in a BMW 1-2.

Excelr8 Motorsport’s Tom Chilton had earlier secured the pole position for the partially-reversed race, after the top 12 from race two were randomly selected to be reversed.

Chilton lead the opening six laps of the race, although four of those were held behind the safety car after BTC Racing’s Jason Plato locked up at Druids on the first lap and speared straight on into the barriers.

At the restart on lap six, it soon became clear that the leading Hyundai lacked the pace to hold on to the lead, and at the end of lap seven, with hybrid boost available, Turkington got a better run along the start straight and passed Chilton around the outside into Paddock Hill bend.

Thereafter, Turkington, with near-full boost available after finishing race two in tenth, was able to open up a comfortable margin over the chasing pack, although he did lose his leading margin near the end of the race thanks to a late-race safety car intervention.

That intervention was because Chilton, who had already slipped further down the order and pitted to try slicks, had skated off the circuit at Clearways and beached his i30 in the gravel trap, requiring recovery before racing could continue.

The race restarted with five laps to go and Turkington opened up his advantage to over a second to claim his first win of the season, ahead of MB Motorsport’s Hill.

Hill had launched himself from sixth on the grid up to fourth at the start, but his immediate progress was baulked by Turkington ahead.

The BMW driver passed Team HARD’s Bobby Thompson, who started alongside Chilton on the front row, for third on the ninth lap with a good exit from Clearways, before gaining another place to second with Chilton’s demise.

However, Hill couldn’t close down Turkington and had to settle for his second visit to the podium this season.

Thompson completed the podium, earning his first-ever visit to the rostrum and only the second podium for the CUPRA Leon.

Excelr8’s Tom Ingram was fourth, unable to find a way past Thompson late in the race, ahead of Toyota’s Rory Butcher in fifth.

NAPA Racing’s Ash Sutton took sixth, following Butcher past George Gamble on lap 15 to claim the position, with Ciceley Motorsport’s Gamble having to settle for seventh – his fourth top ten finish out of six BTCC starts to-date.

BTC Racing’s earlier double winner Josh Cook was eighth, making up four places from his grid position, whilst the top ten was completed by Excelr8’s Daniel Lloyd and NAPA Racing’s Dan Cammish.

After his crash in race two, Power Maxed Racing’s Michael Crees did not take the start due to a damaged rollcage.

Leaving Brands Hatch, Ingram sits atop the drivers’ standings with 92 points, followed by Cook (84), Sutton (71) and Hill and Turkington (both on 69).

The next event takes place at Thruxton in two weeks’ time.

Race results

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP	GD
1	50	M		Colin TURKINGTON	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	27	26:45.566	54.071	3
2	24	M		Jake HILL	ROKiT MB Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	27	1.181	54.321	6
3	19	I		Bobby THOMPSON	Autobrite Direct with JourneyHero	CUPRA Leon	27	5.198	54.656	2
4	80	M		Tom INGRAM	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	27	5.808	54.671	8
5	6	M		Rory BUTCHER	Toyota GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	27	6.186	54.683	10
6	1	M		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	27	6.488	54.804	9
7	42	I		George GAMBLE	Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	27	7.031	54.574	4
8	66	I		Josh COOK	Rich Energy BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type R	27	8.256	54.658	12
9	123	M		Daniel LLOYD	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	27	9.062	54.927	5
10	9	M		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	27	9.543	54.571	11
11	52	M		Gordon SHEDDEN	Halfords Racing with Cataclean	Honda Civic Type R	27	11.783	54.813	7
12	48	M		Ollie JACKSON	Apec Racing with Beavis Morgan	Ford Focus ST	27	12.012	55.025	14
13	12	M		Stephen JELLEY	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	27	12.276	55.241	18
14	33	I		Adam MORGAN	Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	27	12.336	54.427	28
15	16	I		Aiden MOFFAT	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	27	14.014	54.769	24
16	40	I		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	Yazoo with Safuu.com Racing	CUPRA Leon	27	14.777	55.203	16
17	99	I		Jade EDWARDS	Rich Energy BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type R	27	15.000	55.330	15
18	77	M		Sam OSBORNE	Apec Racing with Beavis Morgan	Ford Focus ST	27	15.927	55.215	20
19	96	M		Jack BUTEL	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	27	16.152	55.328	19
20	21	M		Ricky COLLARD	Toyota GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	27	17.075	55.229	17
21	97	I		Ash HAND	CarStore Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	27	17.940	55.003	25
22	32	M		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	Halfords Racing with Cataclean	Honda Civic Type R	27	18.645	54.975	27
23	17	I		Dexter PATTERSON	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	27	21.977	55.020	26
24	28	I		Nicolas HAMILTON	Yazoo with Safuu.com Racing	CUPRA Leon	27	25.229	55.447	21
25	20	I		Will POWELL	Autobrite Direct with JourneyHero	CUPRA Leon	26	1 Lap	55.735	23
R	3	M		Tom CHILTON	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	15	12 Laps	54.279	1
R	62	I		Rick PARFITT JR	Uptonsteel with Euro Car Parts Racing	Infiniti Q50	13	14 Laps	55.585	22
R	11	I		Jason PLATO	Rich Energy BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type R	0	DNF	N/A	13
NS	777	I		Michael CREES	CarStore Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	–	DNS	N/A	–