Turkington wins to reclaim BTCC lead after dramatic second race
Team BMW's Colin Turkington has reclaimed the British Touring Car Championship points lead after winning a dramatic second race at Silverstone.
The defending four-time champion started race two from fourth on the grid but profited from a huge slice of ill-fortune for Tom Ingram to take his third win of the season, also moving Turkington into a six-point lead of Ash Sutton.
Turkington went into race two trailing Laser Tools Racing's Sutton by 16-points, but the race was turned on its head on lap 17 when Sutton picked up a puncture when running in tenth position.
Sutton had already endured a difficult race after early contact with Rory Butcher at Becketts saw the 2017 champion drop behind Turkington into fourth. The Laser Tools Racing driver continued to fall further down the field to tenth before suffering a puncture with a handful of laps to go.
The drama didn't end there, however, as Turkington's title hopes received a further boost after race leader Ingram was also hit with a cruel front-left puncture just one-lap after Sutton endured the same misfortune.
Ingram had performed a sensational manoeuvre at the end of the first lap to force his way into the lead ahead of pole-sitter Dan Cammish at Luffield. Despite coming under increasing pressure, the Toyota Gazoo Racing UK driver held onto that position until his late puncture.
That left Turkington to record his 150th BTCC podium finish in the strongest way possible by crossing the line 1.2 seconds ahead of Honda's Cammish in second.
Carlube Racing's Adam Morgan completed the podium order in third, while Honda's Matt Neal was fourth ahead of Laser Tools Racing's Aiden Moffat in fifth.
BTC Racing's Josh Cook was sixth after falling behind the resurgent Infiniti Q50 of Moffat late in the race.
Jake Hill recorded another strong points finish for the MB Motorsport squad in seventh, while Ollie Jackson, Tom Oliphant and Senna Proctor completed the remainder of the top-ten in eighth, ninth and tenth.
Oliphant's magnificent recovery from 25th to 9th has also earned the Team BMW driver pole position for race three after his finishing position was selected in the reverse grid draw.
