Colin Turkington scored a landmark 150th British Touring Car Championship win for BMW on a day when WSR drivers claimed a double-victory at the Home of British Motor Racing, Silverstone.
The Team BMW driver’s Race-Three victory, combined with an earlier wet-weather success for Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport’s Jake Hill, nearly doubled BMW’s Manufacturers’ Championship lead with just one round of the 2023 season remaining.
“Winning twice at a track that we have to work really hard at to be at the front and scoring BMW’s 150th BTCC win at the same time, is an excellent achievement for the day,” commented Team Principal Dick Bennetts.
“To virtually double BMW’s Manufacturers’ points lead as well is event better. It should have been an even better day because the handling of the BMW – which is always good in race trim – was very strong, but we had some trouble with Colin and Stephen both being turned around and Jake having a misfire that cost him a Race Two win and also affected him in Race Three, without which we could have won all three races.”
The day’s opening race hinged on tyre choice as the heavens opened just as the grid was being cleared before the start.
Opting for wet-weather Goodyears, Jake stormed into the lead at the start from fourth on the grid and was never seriously challenged as he claimed his fifth win of the year – the most he’s had in a single season – aboard his BMW 330e M Sport.
Colin, meanwhile, started on slicks and dropped back; the Northern Irishman being hit by a rival on the opening lap and sustaining suspension damage that led to several laps in the pits for repairs and, ultimately, non-classification.
From the back of the grid in Race Two the four-time series champion stormed through to eighth place, which became fifth on Race Three’s partially-reversed grid.
A magnificent drive in the finale, in which he picked off his rivals one-by-one, netted a fourth win of 2023 and the 67th of his illustrious BTCC career. BMW’s 150th series win came at the same circuit where the German Manufacturer scored its first in 1973 with Australian Brian Muir.
Jake looked set for a dry win of his own in Race Two; building a commanding lead before suffering an electrical misfire – caused by a failure of a control part – that dropped him to 12th.
While this would ultimately have given him Race-Three pole, he was hit from behind by a rival at the race’s final corner and dropped to 20th. He recovered to eighth in Race Three, but suffered another misfire – this time a less-impactful one – for the final 10 laps.
Team BMW’s Adam Morgan stormed through the field on wet tyres to finish fourth in the opener and added fifth in Race Two to build a strong haul of points across the early part of the afternoon.
The Lancashire racer was involved in a first-lap collision that spun him into a barrier and dropped him to last place, but magnificently steered his BMW 3 Series to 10th by the flag.
That was three places ahead of Stephen Jelley, who suffered a hybrid system failure on the opening lap – as he had in qualifying – and was restricted to 13th spot.
The Knockhill podium-finisher, from Leicester, was spun into the gravel trap by a rival in Race Two but recovered to 18th. He was 19th in the opener after choosing to switch from slicks to wets at the end of the formation lap.
Championship Standings after Round 9/10
DRIVERS
1/ Ash Sutton – 398 points
2/ Tom Ingram – 353
3/ Jake Hill – 330
4/ Colin Turkington – 293
5/ Josh Cook – 237
6/ Dan Cammish – 220
9/ Adam Morgan – 182
12/ Stephen Jelley – 110
MANUFACTURERS
1/ BMW – 730 points
2/ Ford – 711
3/ Hyundai – 629
4/ Toyota – 539
TEAMS
1/ NAPA Racing UK – 630 points
2/ Team BMW – 511
3/ Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 – 502
4/ Toyota GAZOO Racing UK – 395
5/ One Motorsport with Starline Racing – 384
6/ Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport – 339
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