BTCC Snetterton report

The British Touring Cars returned from their summer break at the weekend, and it was business as usual for Colin Turkington and Fabrizio Giovanardi.

They shared the wins at Snetterton, with VX Racing’s Giovanardi winning the day’s first two races and Turkington taking his sixth victory of the season for race three. Initially the Northern Irish driver had finished second, but winner James Nash was disqualified from results after he was deemed to cause Team Airwaves’ Robert Collard to spin out.

It robbed Nash of his first BTCC victory, and in turn meant Giovanardi finished second. Turkington scored well in the first two races, too, meaning his title push continues, finishing the weekend 17 points ahead of his Italian foe. Matt Neal and Jason Plato both had relatively poor weekends, Plato in particular after he had qualified fastest on Saturday.

Turkington said – ‘I’m really happy with my results today particularly considering I had a spin in race one and I never quite perfected the balance of my car. But I think it’s too early to call it a two-horse race between Fabrizio and myself. Sure, we’ve broken away slightly but it can turn around so quickly. Just think if I’d not recovered from that spin in race one – there could have been a very different look at the top of the championship tonight.’

Reigning champ Giovanardi concurred – ‘Colin is right. Matt and Jason are still in this and there is still a lot of hard racing to be done. But I am very happy today. We discovered a problem with our car in the previous round and we’ve started to make improvements again. I’m always motivated, but now I am really motivated!’

Snetterton Results

Race 11    Fabrizio Giovanardi         Vauxhall Vectra2    Mat Jackson                   Chevrolet Lacetti3    Paul O’Neill                    Honda Integra

Race 21    Fabrizio Giovanardi         Vauxhall Vectra2    Colin Turkington             BMW 320si3    Jason Plato                    Chevrolet Lacetti

Race 31    Colin Turkington             BMW 320si2    Fabrizio Giovanardi         Vauxhall Vectra3    Matt Neal                       Vauxhall Vectra

Drivers’ Standings after Snetterton (Round 6)01    Colin Turkington           182 points02    Fabrizio Giovanardi       16503    Matt Neal                     13604    Jason Plato                   12605    Robert Collard              103