BTCC Oulton Park
Report from a sunny weekend in Cheshire as the Touring Car title race hots up
It was a cracking weekend for Colin Turkington as his title prospects moved up a gear at Oulton Park. The Northern Irishman had an excellent first two races, winning the pair while his closest championship foe, VX Racing’s Matt Neal, could only muster up seventh and fourth-placed finishes.
Turkington had been driving with success ballast weighing down his Team RAC BMW 320si, too, and had to get past crowd-favourite Jason Plato who qualified in pole position. The latter still managed two podium finishes to keep his title dreams alive – not bad for someone without a drive days before the season started.
By race three Turkington was on top of the drivers’ standings, but a less successful drive left him outside of the points, moving him back down to second – albeit by two points. James Thompson was victorious in the last race of the weekend, adding to his two wins at Donington Park in Round 3. Leader going into the weekend Matt Neal secured a podium place to ensure he remains top, for now at least.
Turkington said – ‘I got hit so many times in that last race I don’t even know who it was hitting me! But I’m certainly not disappointed to have fallen back behind Matt. It’s actually a slightly preferable position to be because being second means my car will be slightly lighter than his with success ballast going to Croft, just as it was coming here. I’m not saying we can repeat today’s results there but I’m feeling very confident with the way the team has got the BMW working.’
The next round is at Croft in the North East on June 14 2009.
Oulton Park Results
Race 11 Colin Turkington BMW 320si2 Jason Plato Chevrolet Lacetti3 Jonathan Adam BMW 320si
Race 21 Colin Turkington Honda Civic2 Fabrizio Giovanardi Vauxhall Vectra 3 Jason Plato Chevrolet Lacetti
Race 31 James Thompson Honda Civic2 Andrew Jordan Vauxhall Vectra 3 Matt Neal Vauxhall VectraDrivers’ Standings after Oulton Park (Round 4)01 Matt Neal 11102 Colin Turkington 10903 Fabrizio Giovanardi 9204 Jason Plato 8705 Robert Collard 7806 James Thompson 7407 Adam Jones 5108 Andrew Jordan 4709 Mat Jackson 4110 Jonathan Adam 41
