Honda and BMW share the BTCC spoils at Thruxton

#BTCC | EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Round 7 in 60 seconds pic.twitter.com/qEELuruQwi

— Official Dunlop BTCC (@DunlopBTCC) May 7, 2017

The grid for the second race of the weekend was determined by the race results from the opening encounter, so Neal and Shedden lined up at the front once again.

This time, however, Neal’s Civic was laden with the maximum 75kg of success ballast, with Shedden carrying 66kg, Goff 57kg, Ingram 48kg, Morgan 39kg, Sutton 33kg, Turkington 27kg, Jackson 21kg, Austin 15kg and Collard 9kg.

Neal, Shedden and Goff reprised their race one dominance by leading away as the lights on the start gantry went out, but the race was soon halted after Dan Lloyd (MG Racing RCIB Insurance MG6GT) had a sizeable accident that damaged the crash barriers, although left the driver uninjured.

Almost an hour later the race was restarted over a shortened distance of ten laps. Neal made the best start yet again, but at the end of the second tour he peeled off into the pitlane. His Civic’s power steering system had failed and had to be reset by the Honda engineers. Although he lost very little time in the pits, the problem meant he plummeted down the order and out of contention for a repeat win.

Neal’s issue meant that for the first time during the weekend, it wasn’t a Honda at the front. From tenth on the grid, Collard had made up another four places at the aborted first start and then surged up to third behind Neal and Shedden when the action got back underway. He’d skipped past Shedden for second when the reigning champion’s Civic got squirrelly exiting Church corner, and then seized the lead vacated by Neal.

#BTCC | EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Round 8 in 60 seconds - Watch live on ITV4 now! pic.twitter.com/IFAAf9aFYU

— Official Dunlop BTCC (@DunlopBTCC) May 7, 2017

Shedden didn’t drop away, and both of the front men soon came under pressure from Ingram, who had deposed Goff on lap four. Shortly after, however, another violent barrier-strike - this time for Martin Depper in the Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Duo Ford Focus – forced another red flag. The race result was declared, with Collard the winner from Shedden and Ingram. Goff was a lonely fourth, while a resurgent Austin got the better of Turkington in a fight for fifth. Morgan, Sutton, Aiden Moffat (Laser Tools Racing Mercedes-Benz A-Class) and Jeff Smith (Eurotech Racing Honda Civic) rounded out the top ten.

Motorsport weekend wrap: results from World Endurance Championship, DTM and more

Grid positions for the final race of the day were determined by way of the randomly reversed grid. Turkington was drawn on pole position ahead of Austin, Goff, Ingram, Shedden and Collard.

Despite lining up on the grid several feet shy of his grid slot, Turkington sped into a lead of 0.9sec by the end of lap one.

BTCC VIDEO: @ColinTurkington takes @BMWMotorsport 's 100th #BTCC win. Watch live on @ITV4 and @itvhub pic.twitter.com/2buCDyrMC5

— Official Dunlop BTCC (@DunlopBTCC) May 7, 2017

Behind him, Austin fended off the attentions of Goff, but his resistance only lasted until the complex when the Honda man slipped past to secure second place. On lap three Austin was demoted a further place as Ingram charged past.

Next to attack was Austin was Shedden, but the Toyota driver staged a stout defence of his fourth place and by the time the Scot had found a way past on lap eight, the leaders had made good their escape. 

Indeed, Ingram was the man on the move and he slipped up to second when Goff ran wide at Allard at the start of lap nine. The Honda driver had earlier gone wide at Church and had collected dirt on his tyres, leaving him short of grip and powerless to defend.

For a lap or two it seemed that Ingram might make in-roads into Turkington’s advantage, but the BMW man then edged clear to secure the Bavarian manufacturer’s 100th outright race win the BTCC.

Turkington said: “I wasn’t confident on the grid before the race because we’ve been chasing a good set-up on the car all day long. But the guys in the team never let up between the races and we moved the car’s set-up in a new direction. I knew straight away on the first lap we had nailed the set-up – it was a dream to drive.  

“Taking the 100th BTCC for BMW is a special thing for me. I grew up watching ’Smokin’ Jo’ Winkelhock, Tim Harvey and Steve Soper so for to continue the history of this iconic brand is something that means a lot.”

Ingram undoubtedly had one eye on bolstering his advantage at the head of the points standings, while Goff rounded out a strong weekend with a podium. Shedden was chasing him down towards the end, but the champion was shown a warning flag for exceeding track limits and was forced to curb his pace a little. 

Austin fended off Sutton for fifth place. The Subaru driver had earlier deposed Collard, who found his BMW’s pace blunted by the addition of 75kg of success ballast following his race two glory.