Monday 20th June 2016

BTCC 2016: Croft

No, it really wasn't all Le Mans and F1 last weekend: here's the action from Croft [updated with video]

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If you really wanted to see a racer drive with total determination this weekend, you should have watched race three at Croft. Because Ash Sutton sensed his debut victory in the first wet BTCC race in 44 rounds and, from fifth place, stormed to first place.

It was looking so good for Subaru early on...

The moves were hard, but fair, and it was a treat to watch a driver drive out of his skin to the top step of the podium - even more so because Sutton is still technically a rookie and now actually leads the Jack Sears Trophy. Sutton later said "the car was on rails in that race - absolutely mega! I knew the MG6 would be strong in the wet and I love conditions like that so I was doing a bit of a rain dance in the garage." His victory also makes it 10 different winners in the first 15 races: once again, did anyone mention predictability?

Others had a more, shall we say, mixed race three. Gordon Shedden topped off a horrible weekend for the works Honda Yuasa Racing team by trying and failing to make a run on slicks work. Teammate Matt Neal finished 11th, after a 12th and a 10th in the previous races. The team admitted it would struggle at rear-drive-friendly Croft, but not to this extent. Time for some head-scratching in the summer break - not least because Neal has dropped back from leading the drivers' championship down to third, behind the BMW duo of Sam Tordoff and Rob Collard.

It was a weekend to forget for Honda

Mat Jackson also tried the slicks strategy, which ultimately led to both his demise and that of an innocent Aiden Moffat, who ran into him as Jackson tried to recover from one of several offs. If only he'd pitted the lap before...

Race one was dominated from pole by Colin Turkington in the increasingly-fancied Subaru Levorg. His qualifying margin was huge and he happily led home teammate Jason Plato, despite early attention from Dan Lloyd's Honda; the somewhat inevitable outcome happed at the very first corner. Ash Sutton's MG took him to his first podium in BTCC for third, after doing a bit of a Gilles Villeneuve to hold off Jack Goff's BMW: from a race in which the front-drive MG team didn't expect miracles, it was quite some result.

It was all looking so good for Subaru in race two, with Turkington on pole, losing it for four laps to Plato but then nabbing it back for a Subaru one-two. However, half way through, Plato thought he spotted a gap at Tower. Turned out there wasn't one: he and Turkington committed the cardinal teammate sin of colliding, sending Rob Collard through into the lead and, ultimately, victory. Plato ended up second, with Turkington a few seconds behind in third. Oh dear, oh dear. Who was at fault? Over to you in the forums to argue it out...

The BMWs profited from others' clumsiness

Another feature of Croft was the safety car, which surely did a race distance itself as the clean-up following incidents so frequently punctuated the racing. It was particularly frustrating in race three, and surely didn't help those running on slicks who lost heat and became even more slidey and sideways. Oh, and special mention to the race three scrap at the final corner between Collard, Turkington and Josh Cook: three into one was never going to go, leaving a thrilled Andrew Jordan there to nab fifth from Cook and leave Turkington down in seventh. By the end, the Northern Irishman race one's thrills seemed a very long time ago indeed...

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Results:

Croft Race 1:
1st: Colin Turkington (Silverline Subaru BMR Racing)
2nd: Jason Plato (Silverline Subaru BMR Racing)
3rd: Ashley Sutton (MG Racing RCIB Insurance)

Croft Race 2:
1st: Rob Collard (Team JCT600 Racing with GardX BMW)
2nd: Jason Plato (Silverline Subaru BMR Racing)
3rd: Colin Turkington (Silverline Subaru BMR Racing)

Croft Race 3:
1st: Ashley Sutton (MG Racing RCIB Insurance)
2nd: Sam Tordoff (Team JCT600 Racing with GardX BMW)
3rd: Tom Ingram (Speedworks Motorsport Toyota)

Drivers' championship
1: Sam Tordoff (168 points)
2: Rob Collard (156 points)
3: Matt Neal (153 points)
4: Andrew Jordan (131 points)
5: Jack Goff (130 points)

Independent drivers' championship
1: Andrew Jordan (215 points)
2: Tom Ingram (188 points)
3: Mat Jackson (180 points)
4: Aron Smith (164 points)
5: Adam Morgan (159 points)

Jack Sears Trophy for rookies
1: Ash Sutton (261 points)
2: Michael Epps (204 points)
3: Chris Smiley (183 points)
4: Matt Simpson (171 points)
5: Daniel Lloyd (124 points)

Previous rounds:
BTCC Brands Hatch Indy (rounds 1, 2, 3)
BTCC Donington (rounds 4, 5, 6)
BTCC Thruxton (rounds 7, 8, 9)
BTCC Oulton Park (rounds 10,11, 12)

Highlights here

 

[Photos: LAT Photo]

[vz-r_dave]

I haven't been following but my word it looked competitive. I will start to watch it again after this race alone, very exciting times for the sport judging by what I saw yesterday.

[krismccloy]

Great racing yesterday indeed, Was clear to see how hard these guys were pushing especially continuing to go flat out (or trying to) through the chicane after Hawthorn during the monsoon in R3, By the skin of their teeth!

[blongs]

I went up with some friends and my daughter, all had a great day and some good racing. Even when the rain came there was not a massive exodus out and most people stayed for the final BTCC race. I watched the last race of Formula Ford from the car park queue on a big screen though.

[DecMcClure]

It was Plato's fault.
It's always Plato's fault.