Jackson fends off Morgan in chaotic reserve grid thriller
Motorbase Performance's Ollie Jackson has secured his second British Touring Car Championship race victory after fending off Adam Morgan in a thrilling reverse grid encounter at Snetterton.
Having taken his first BTCC victory earlier in the season at Silverstone, Jackson repeated the same heroics by once again absorbing severe pressure to prevail ahead of Morgan following another chaotic reverse grid finale.
Jackson started the race from third on the grid, but caught Morgan napping on the opening lap and performed a magnificent move around the outside of the Mercedes driver at turn four to move into a race winning position that he would never relinquish.
In what proved to be a race of two halves, Jackson sprinted away from Morgan, while the sister Motorbase Performance Ford of Rory Butcher had moved into third ahead of race three polesitter Chris Smiley, who turned into a road block for the chasing pack behind.
As the front three accelerated away, Smiley's defence of fourth position bunched the chasing pack closer together. Toyota's Tom Ingram was the first driver to get past, before title challenger Ash Sutton found himself mired behind the Hyundai i30N.
Despite enjoying a clear pace advantage over the Hyundai runner, Sutton was unable to manufacture a clear-cut pass ahead and ultimately fell behind his main title rival Colin Turkington as the battle for fifth intensified.
Smiley's position in the top-ten was abruptly cut short after contact with Honda's Dan Cammish saw the Excelr8 driver fall off the circuit and out of contention.
With the battle for fifth proving a less chaotic affair, Morgan set about closing in on race leader Jackson. The Mercedes driver inched right to the rear of Jackson's Ford Focus, but, as was the case in Silverstone, Jackson kept his composure to hold on for his second win of 2020.
However, the drama didn't end there, as Ingram, who made a superb late race charge to catch the leading trio, looked to have snatched third position right at the death ahead of Butcher.
In passing Butcher for third, Ingram made slight contact with the Ford driver at the penultimate corner, which unsettled Butcher heading into the final corner.
That loss of grip meant Butcher was powerless in regaining control and subsequently speared into the side of Ingram, wiping the pair of them off the road in an instant.
Incredibly, that promoted championship leader into third to take an unlikely podium finish ahead of Laser Tools Racing's Sutton in fourth.
Butcher recovered to cross the line in fifth, while Ingram limped across the line in eighth.
