Colin Turkington has taken victory in the opening HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship race of the day at
Croft, although a serious accident and horrendous conditions led to two red flags and a race that was called as a result after just two laps.
There was drama before the first start when
Jason Plato slid off into the gravel at Clervaux on the green flag lap. As the field lined up on the grid to prepare for the count-down to the start, the SEAT was pulled from the gravel and returned to the pit lane where the team worked hard to ensure the 2001 champion was able to start from the pit lane.
As the race got underway,
Mat Jackson made a good start from seventh on the grid to make up positions while Gordon Shedden took the lead into Clervaux for the first time as he dived round the outside of Darren Turner for the lead. Further back, Steven Kane suffered a spin while Jackson muscled ahead of Turner through the Chicane to go second. Things got worse for Turner when he was caught out by standing water at Tower and went straight off into the field.
Despite the best efforts of Jackson to take the lead from Shedden, the Scot led the way at the end of lap one ahead of the
BMW driver with Colin Turkington third and
Matt Neal fourth.
On lap two, Turkington ran wide at Tower which allowed Neal into third place while
Tom Onslow-Cole pulled a similar move on Tom Chilton to take fifth place. The following lap saw a change for the lead as Jackson stormed past the Honda into the
Jim Clark Esses, but further back, Stephen Jelley sailed straight on at Tower into the gravel. As marshalls moved out from behind the barriers to aid the Team RAC man, Alan Taylor was also caught out by the rain and went off at the same place, ploughing into the stationary BMW – and the marshals surrounding it. Luckily, the marshals escaped serious injury but the race was red-flagged to allow them to be moved to the medical centre and the barriers to be repaired.
