Five things we learned from the BTCC at Thruxton

Turkington woes – advantage Sutton

One of the keys to Colin Turkington’s success over the years has been the reliability of the West Surrey Racing-built BMWs. If ever there was any drama, it was usually the result of a rather robust bit of racing with fellow competitors, but even the best have off days and it couldn’t have come at a worse time for the four-time champion. While battling with title rival Ash Sutton, the BMW suddenly began to drop down the field like a stone, limping round back to the pits where it was confirmed that the car had suffered a misfire. As any BTCC fan knows, issues in race one put you on the back foot for the entire day. A strong recovery drive in race two gave Turkington 3 points for 13^th, but crucially missed out on being in the pot for the reverse grid race three. More strong driving to move up to eighth meant the Northern Irishman took a total of 11 points from the weekend. Meanwhile Sutton finished fifth, fourth and third respectively to create a 26 point swing from the weekend and take a 16 point lead over Turkington to Silverstone.

The car in front is a Toyota

It was a pretty good weekend for the Gazoo Racing stable. A third successive Le Mans triumph for the TS050 Hybrid, victory in Turkey for Elfyn Evans’ Yaris WRC and a brace of wins around Thruxton for the Corolla. Tom Ingram was the class of the field for the vast majority of the weekend, having managed second in qualifying, less than a tenth behind the pole-sitting Honda Civic Type R of Dan Cammish. A great start for the Corolla saw him get the jump on Cammish and from there it was one way traffic. Try as hard as he might, Cammish couldn’t find a way past Ingram, with the Speedworks-run Toyota using every inch of the road, kicking up dust as he squeezed out as much speed as possible to finish six tenths ahead of the Honda at the finish line. It was much of the same in race two, with Cammish still unable to put a move together to get past the Toyota. He managed to slice the deficit to just two tenths by the finish line this time around, but there was just no stopping Ingram, even with full weight on board. Ingram rounded off a very strong weekend with fifth in race three, following the top-eight reversal.

Honda’s home

Going into the weekend it was well documented that the Hondas have fared rather well around the fast, flowing nature of the Thruxton tarmac, and it was no different despite the mad year that 2020 is. Matt Neal had only managed to score 17 points across both the Oulton Park and Knockhill weekends, but after just one race at Thruxton he’d amassed 15 by virtue of finishing third, behind team-mate Dan Cammish and the race winning Toyota. The podium places remained the same in race two as the opening encounter, giving the Halfords Yuasa Racing squad its best results of the season by far – which would have been fantastic in a “normal” year with Thruxton being the home circuit for the team, Honda’s Swindon plant being just a short drive up the A346. While the Halfords squad couldn’t move up in the final race, Neal finishing seventh and Cammish only managing tenth, the BTC Racing Civics of Josh Cook and Tom Chilton secured a 1-2 finish for the Japanese marque, Cook grabbing a long-awaited win after a glut of bad luck in the opening rounds.

Returning favourites

The 2020 season has been a strange one to say the least, not least of all with some top names having to step aside as a result of the ongoing economical struggles. Where Andrew Jordan and Jason Plato have left, though, some old hands have found their way back in the paddock. When Power Maxed Racing announced they were to bring one car back, it was originally tipped to be used to give up-and-coming drivers a shot in the premier league. However, with Mike Bushell sidelined after his Knockhill shunt, and Jade Edwards not scheduled to join the team until Silverstone next week, Adam Weaver and the PMR squad had an empty seat in need of a driver. Step forward Rob Austin. The three-time BTCC race winner has been out of the championship since HMS Racing withdrew at the end of 2018, but still has a legion of fans desperate for him to return. Despite not having competed for almost two years, Austin impressed himself by qualifying 16^th on Saturday, and did enough to secure 13 points come Sunday evening and sit in 21^st in the standings.

Elsewhere, Tom Onslow-Cole, who finished fourth in the 2010 standings, was unable to replicate Austin’s form as he returned to the championship for the first time in seven years. Driving for TeamHARD, he secured a best result of 19^th in race three, and left Thruxton without a point to his name.

Not very Neate and tidy

Disqualifications from BTCC races is nothing new – there have already been two this season for technical infringements – but it is a very, very rare occasion that someone gets thrown out of the entire weekend. In the era of multiple races a day, it has happened just once, when a non-homologated part saw Carl Boardley lose all of his results at Knockhill in 2018. At Thruxton it was Andy Neate who got the unwanted honour, and in doing so became the first person to lose all his results due to on-track altercations. It all came to a head following his incidents with, somewhat ironically, Boardley in race one. The pair were battling for position in the early stages of the race, resulting in Neate having to pit following a trip across the grass. Having returned to the race off the lead lap, Neate was back on track alongside Boardley at the complex. There was more contact between the pair, this time causing enough damage to retire both cars. Despite originally only receiving a reprimand and two penalty points, Neate was later excluded from the entire meeting for breaching articles 1.1.4 and 1.1.9 of the Motorsport UK judicial regulations, which was later confirmed by the series as “an act prejudicial to the interests of motorsport generally in making a threat of physical assault by the use of his car to make deliberate contact with another competitor.” The expulsion did nothing to Neate’s weekend points tally, though, having only managed to finish 23^rd and 18^th in races two and three respectively.

Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.