Colin Turkington took his second win of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship in round 14 at
Oulton Park, but only after fending off Fabrizio Giovanardi in a drag race to the line.
The Team RAC
BMW took the flag just 0.046secs ahead of the Vectra as the pair charged out of Deer Leap at the conclusion of a race that had been run heavily behind the Safety Car following two separate incidents in the opening laps - with the wet conditions catching out a number of drivers.
A stunning start from both Turkington and
Mat Jackson – making full use of the rear-wheel drive prowess of the BMW - saw them holding first and second going into Old Hall – but behind there was chaos as four cars went off heavily into the tyre wall. A quick starting Dave Pinkney seemed to tag Simon Blanckley, with the result that the Alfa Romeo was turned right into the side of both Erkut and Jason Hughes. Blanckley went off to the left and ended up in the barriers on the side of the pit straight, but the other three went straight on into the tyres, Pinkney's car suffering heavy damage to both front and rear, with Hughes' MG hitting the tyres heavily backwards. Erkut went in head-on but his car seemed – on looks at least – to be better off than the other two.
Before the cars got round to the Safety Car, pole sitter Gordon Shedden was in trouble after contact with Tom Chilton at the hairpin forced him to retire, Chilton pitting with a puncture and dropping to the back of the field, while
Tom Onslow-Cole went wide at Cascades but managed to miss the wall this time around and rejoined at the back of the field. Martyn Bell also had a spin at Knickerbrook after being tagged by the Lexus of Chris Stockton but he too was able to continue.
