If you look at the points difference between the championship leaders before and after Knockhill you wouldn’t think much happened during the whole race weekend as Colin Turkington came into the weekend with a twenty-three point lead and left with a twenty-three point lead but what happened in the middle may just go down as one of the greatest BTCC drives ever.
Knockhill is a rear wheel drive circuit, meaning that the BMW’s and Rob Austin Racing cars were going to be the ones to look out for, unfortunately after Snetterton Turkington was handed an eight place grid penalty and Rob Collard was sent to the back of the grid. So in qualifying the order was as expected, Turkington put the car on pole and was sent back to 9th. This left Rob Austin 2nd on the grid and the surprise of MG Sam Tordoff on pole position. Other big names like Andrew Jordan, Gordon Shedden, Matt Neal and Jason Plato lining up 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th consecutively.
Race 1, normally the calmer of the three races but on this particular weekend it was all action from the first time the lights when out. The first drama that occurred was the battle between Shedden and Jordan, they were fighting for 3rd and 4th and as the cars were squirming around they came together which left Jordan with suspension damage and out of the race. The big drama in race one was championship leader Turkington retiring due to the awful driving by Jason Plato. When Plato feels he can’t make progress in the race he will back the cars behind him up so much to the point where they are no longer able to race and it is no longer enjoyable for fans. When Turkington attempted to make a move, the way Plato backed him up left him in the gravel and losing vital points in the championship. Sam Tordoff who had been leading then fell to the back with a problem and Matt Neal took his first BTCC win in over a year, which left the three time champion with a weight off his shoulders.
Onto race 2, this is the race the fans were treated to one of the best BTCC drives in years. It just so happens that Turkington had elected to run the soft tyre in race two, this was the best thing that happened. It started with drama at the front again with Shedden spinning around after to contact and leaving him at the back and Warren Scott having a big incident with team-mate Jack Goff. Neal was also given a drive through penalty for a jump start and gave Mat Jackson the lead of the race. By far though the star of the race and of the weekend was current championship leader, it’s not just because the EBay motors cars works well around Knockhill but it was an absolute master class in how to get through a BTCC field. From 27th on the grid all the way to 4th which averaged in just about a car a lap. Had he finished third he would have over taken a car a lap. A big incident on the last lap for Aron Smith saw him go of track painfully just before the chequered flag. The winner of the race was Mat Jackson in his Airwaves Focus, which was his first win since 2012 and Plato and Austin rounded out the podium places.
The reverse grid race three saw the third of the BMW EBay motors car Nick Foster draw himself on pole with the other two EBay’s starting in 6th and 7th. Collard made a great start and was up to 3rd by the end of first lap. Then by the end of lap 2 Collard was up to 2nd and ready to chase down his leading team-mate. Turkington was in the middle of a big battle with double champion Fabrizio Giovanardi when Collard was able to get past Foster and finally Turkington was able to make up a couple more places and the reaction from his family in the garage said it all after a tough weekend he was finally back on track and driving fantastically. Rob Austin who had been having an excellent with two podiums was unfortunately rammed off the rode by none other than Jason Plato who attempted to pull off a move that was never going to work and will be investigated when we get to Rockingham and should if the penalties are consistent will be sent to the back of the grid or a grid penalty. After a major battle between Turkington, Foster and young start Tom Ingram, Turkington came out on top and managed to finish 3rd. 2nd came Dave Newsham who was delighted with a podium after a very tough personal week. So the winner was Rob Collard who won his first race since 2012. The weekend was dominated by three winners on the soft tyres for this first time and three winners who had massive win droughts and of course the outstanding drive by Turkington. There were so many battles in race 3 I couldn’t possibly right about them all.
‘We’ve seen in an instant how the championship can change’ – Tim Harvey
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