BTCC: SNETTERTON
If Thruxton was a day to remember Josh Cook, Snetterton witnessed the return of the “old guard” with Colin Turkington back to winning ways, Gordon Shedden enjoying his first podium of the season and Tom Ingram claiming a historic first for Hyundai.
Colin Turkington’s debut victory in the 2021 BTCC Championship was a masterclass: After holding off a first-lap challenge from Tom Ingram, Colin eased into a one second lead and from then on his West Surrey Racing-run BMW 330i M Sport never looked under serious threat.
Ingram held second throughout the race, followed by Rory Butcher who was hampered by a malfunctioning gear shift which cost him straight-line speed.
With Steven Jelley finishing fourth in his WSR BMW, the day started with the top four in race 1 all using Cobra seats.
Drive of the race probably went to Gordon Shedden who climbed from 28th on the grid, after losing his pole position to a technical infringement, to 15th in his Team Dynamics Honda Civic Type R.
Colin Turkington was only denied a second win of the day by Ash Sutton, who went for the soft option tyre to optimise the fact that a disappointing eleventh place in race one meant that he had no success ballast in race two. With just three laps to go, Sutton managed to get ahead of Turkington, who had led all the way from pole position.
“Cobra’s” Tom Ingram claimed a valiant fourth for his Motorsport Hyundai i30 N having put third placed Ollie Jackson under immense pressure.
Rory Butcher continued his good day to take fifth in the Speedworks Motorsport-operated Toyota Corolla, just managing to hold at bay the WSR BMWs of Tom Oliphant and Stephen Jelley, while Adam Morgan took eighth in his Ciceley Motorsport BMW.
In Race Three, Tom Ingram claimed a historic first BTCC win for Excelr8 Motorsport and for Hyundai: Starting fourth on the grid, he quickly moved up to third, and then hunted down the front-row pair of West Surrey Racing BMWs of Tom Oliphant and Stephen Jelley.
When Jelley braked early for the Agostini left-hander Oliphant ran into the back of him. Ingram’s Hyundai i30 N swept around the outside of Oliphant into second and then played a waiting game before making the decisive move to take the lead three laps later.
Despite heavy contact with Josh Cook early on in the race which bent his steering, Gordon Shedden made dramatic progress to claim third at the flag -the first podium of his BTCC comeback season.
Cook, like Shedden, was on the option tyre with his BTC Racing Honda, and he made superb progress from 14th on the grid to finish fourth, but was unable to catch the leading trio.
Jelley hung on to take fifth ahead of the Speedworks Motorsport-run Toyota Corolla of Rory Butcher, while Colin Turkington lost ground during the first half of the race and brought his WSR BMW home in seventh.
A remarkable day ended with six of the first seven over the line all using Cobra seats.
