Turkington strikes back with dominant race three victory

Team BMW's Colin Turkington recorded his first British Touring Car Championship race victory of the season after a comfortable win in race three at Brands Hatch.

Simon Evans

15 May 2022

Colin Turkington (GBR) - Team BMW BMW 330e M

Team BMW's Colin Turkington enjoyed a reversal in fortunes after comfortably winning the final British Touring Car Championship race of the day in the persistently damp conditions at Brands Hatch.

Despite securing an emphatic pole position in Saturday's qualifying, races one and two proved to be an uphill struggle for the four-time champion, with fifth and tenth being the best he could muster.

However, starting from third in the reverse grid race, Turkington looked far more comfortable in the slightly wetter conditions and controlled the race in dominant fashion after moving past pole-sitter Tom Chilton for the race lead on lap 8 of the race.

Not even a late safety car could deter Turkington's charge to his first win of the 2022 campaign, despite that safety car wiping out a near seven-second lead the 40-year-old had ahead of his West Surrey Racing team mate Jake Hill.

Having muscled his way ahead of Bobby Thompson and Hyundai's Chilton, Hill looked in prime position to challenge Turkington once the safety car neutralised the race.

But Turkington maintained his consistency and gradually re-extended his advantage over Hill to win race three and record his 61st career BTCC victory.

Behind the BMW duo, Team HARD's Bobby Thompson took a popular first ever BTCC podium in third position.

Thompson started the race from second position and briefly fell out of the podium placings after Hill moved ahead of the Cupra Leon early in the race. But Thompson kept his composure and moved ahead of Tom Chilton on lap 11 of the race.

That late safety car also gave championship leader Tom Ingram the opportunity to snatch the podium away from Thompson, but Thompson ended up extending his advantage over the EXCLER8 Motorsport driver to complete the rostrum in third.

Ingram consolidated his championship lead over Josh Cook in fourth, while Toyota Gazoo Racing UK's Rory Butcher completed the top-five order ahead of defending champion Ash Sutton in fifth and sixth.

Car Gods Racing's George Gamble took seventh aboard his BMW 330e M Sport, while BTC Racing's Cook was eighth with Dan Lloyd and Dan Cammish finishing ninth and tenth.