Rainford rules finale in safety car affected Oulton Park finale

WSR’s Charles Rainford scored his second British Touring Car Championship win of the season in the final race of the day at Oulton Park, as Team VERTU’s Ricky Collard and Tom Ingram completed the podium.

The finale in Cheshire was twice affected by safety car interventions, with the first coming at the end of the opening lap when Laser Tools Racing’s Árón Taylor-Smith lost control of his car on the exit of Old Hall corner, collecting the innocent Plato Racing Mercedes of Adam Morgan in the process.

Rainford had meanwhile used the rear-wheel drive advantage of his BMW to get a good start and had passed NAPA Racing UK’s Sam Osborne at the first corner.

That meant when racing resumed after four laps behind the safety car, Rainford was all over the back of early leader Chris Smiley. Rainford pounced quickly, passing the Restart Racing driver for the lead at Denton’s, whilst behind him Ingram moved passed De Leon for seventh at the first corner, before gaining a further two places past Osborne and Dexter Patterson further around the lap.

Collard also moved to make quick progress, passing Osborne for third around the outside at the Hislop’s chicane before moving into second past Smiley half a lap later at Lodge.

Ingram’s rapid progress continued on the next lap, as the Hyundai driver dived inside NAPA Racing UK’s Dan Cammish for fourth at Old Hall corner, swiftly followed by dispatching Smiley for third into Lodge at the end of the lap.

However, on lap nine the race had to be neutralised again for another three laps after Tom Chilton bounced off the kerb at Denton’s corner and knocked into Lewis Selby, sending both drivers into the gravel at Cascades and out of the race.

After racing resumed with six laps to go, Rainford was able to pull almost a second clear of the chasing Collard to record his second win of the season.

Collard finished 1.3 seconds behind, whilst Ingram completed the podium, unable to put significant pressure on his team-mate once he had got into third.

Cammish finished in fourth and leaves Oulton Park as the weekend’s highest points scorer, with Toyota’s Josh Cook an impressive fifth after a strong drive from 15^th on the grid.

Plato Racing’s Daniel Rowbottom scored his best result of the weekend in sixth, although the Mercedes driver was clearly struggling with power exiting corners and took until the final lap to dispatch Smiley, who was on the hard tyre to Rowbottom’s softs, around the outside at Cascades.

Smiley held on to take seventh, ahead of Power Maxed Racing’s Patterson in eighth, who was the top Audi driver.

The top ten was completed by championship leader Ash Sutton and Power Maxed’s Aiden Moffat. Sutton was third of the drivers running on the hard tyre, and struggled to make progress late in the race with limited TOCA Turbo Boost by dint of his victory in the preceding race two.

Power Maxed’s Mikey doble was 11^th, whilst Nicolas Hamilton was a creditable 12^th, scoring his second points finish of the season.

Race result

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	99	I		Charles RAINFORD	WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	18	31:18.677	1:24.636	3
2	11	M		Ricky COLLARD	Team VERTU	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	18	1.319	1:24.747	5
3	80	M		Tom INGRAM	Team VERTU	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	18	1.658	1:24.458	10
4	27	M		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus Titanium	18	2.344	1:24.816	9
5	66	M		Josh COOK	Speedworks Corolla Racing	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	18	2.890	1:24.593	15
6	32	M		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	Cataclean Plato Racing	Mercedes A35 Saloon	18	11.056	1:25.859	12
7	22	I		Chris SMILEY	Restart Racing	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	18	12.038	1:25.908	1
8	17	I		Dexter PATTERSON	Steel Seal with Power Maxed Racing	Audi A3 Saloon	18	12.451	1:26.266	4
9	116	M		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus Titanium	18	12.687	1:26.327	11
10	16	I		Aiden MOFFAT	LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing	Audi A3 Saloon	18	17.348	1:26.733	21
11	88	I		Mikey DOBLE	LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing	Audi A3 Saloon	18	17.771	1:26.503	7
12	28	M		Nicolas HAMILTON	Team VERTU	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	18	20.125	1:26.839	20
13	77	M		Sam OSBORNE	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus Titanium	18	20.285	1:26.487	2
14	132	I		James DORLIN	Restart Racing	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	18	20.777	1:26.758	13
15	2	I		Daryl DE LEON	WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	18	21.014	1:26.505	8
16	19	M		Max BUXTON	Speedworks Corolla Racing	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	18	21.383	1:26.818	16
R	15	M		Lewis SELBY	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus Titanium	8	DNF	1:26.774	14
R	3	M		Tom CHILTON	Team VERTU	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	8	DNF	1:26.739	17
R	52	I		Gordon SHEDDEN	Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	0	DNF	N/A	6
R	50	I		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	0	DNF	N/A	18
R	33	M		Adam MORGAN	Cataclean Plato Racing	Mercedes A35 Saloon	0	DNF	N/A	19