Adam Morgan was pleased to seize a late podium finish in the wet final British Touring Car Championship race of the day at Donington Park, which later turned into second when Gordon Shedden was excluded.
Morgan had been running in fourth going onto the final lap of the race – having started in 11th – when he seized the opportunity to get alongside the battling duo of Dave Newsham and Ash Sutton going onto the back straight.
The Mercedes driver carried better momentum out of McLeans to be in the prime position heading into the chicane, pipping the Subaru of Sutton to third by a mere 0.161 seconds.
That then became second when the Honda of Shedden was removed from the results due to failing the post-race ride height check.
Morgan admitted that going on to the final lap he had received messages from his team that he should settle for fourth, before the podium possibility presented itself.
“I had my Dad in my ear saying to me ‘take the points and be safe, you’re in P5 and we’re quite happy with that’,” said Morgan to TouringCars.Net. “I came out of McLeans and Coppice, Ash and Dave had had a couple of little ding dongs before and I got a good run and managed to get a good bit of traction.
“Before I knew it I thought ‘there’s a gap there’ so I got alongside him [Sutton], got squeezed onto the grass in a similar way to race one, and before I knew it I got the car stopped and turned into the chicane in P3.
“It was just one of those moments where it appeared in front of me. You can’t plan for these things, you’ve just got to jump on it at whatever opportunity you get; I saw the gap and went for it.”
Morgan added that even though conditions at the first start, before the race was red-flagged due to the wet weather, were particularly bad he still managed to make good progress.
“The first start was pretty horrible to be fair – you’d touch the brakes and lock up, and there were lots of rivers running across [the circuit]. Before you knew it you were going everywhere sideways and aquaplaning.
“In that first lap I went from P11 to P6 so when it was red flagged I was a bit annoyed, because we were doing pretty alright!
“At the second start, it was a bit less dangerous, and I managed to pick my way through again.”
Commenting on the post-race removal of Shedden, Morgan joked that he needed to collect a bigger prize for his opportunistic move.
“Obviously it’s a shame for Gordon, but every opportunity counts and if you take more points then it’s better. I’ll have to swap my trophy for a bigger one!”