Reverse-grid polesitter Adam Morgan held off Team BMW’s Colin Turkington to take a contentious second win in the 2021 British Touring Car Championship in race three at Thruxton.
Morgan, driving the Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport BMW, made a fine start and also pulled away from Turkington three times after safety car periods before holding off the former multiple champion for the remainder of the race.
Drama also unfolded on lap 16 when Morgan, who had been controlling his lead at the front of the field, locked up and was forced to cut the final chicane where he gained a time advantage over Turkington.
It took until the following lap for Morgan to appear to slow to ensure that any gained time was given back to Turkington, but he still held his rival off to take the win.
Lining up alongside Morgan on the front row was Senna Proctor, with the BTC Racing man falling behind Turkington at the opening corner after making a poor start off the line.
Fourth in race three at Thruxton was the impressive Jake Hill who completed a trio of strong results as he continues his championship push while the recovering Tom Ingram, who started down in 12th following his puncture late in race two, ended race three in fifth.
The Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com man gradually made his way through the drivers ahead of him from the opening lap, with his move round the outside move on race two winner Ash Sutton arguably his best move.
Sixth went to Rory Butcher after another battle with day long rival Ingram, with race one winner Josh Cook, Jason Plato, Chris Smiley and championship leader Sutton completing the top 10 in race three.
A heavily disrupted final race of the weekend saw the safety car called following a number of incidents, with a sizeable accident involving Gordon Shedden and Jade Edwards occurring at the very first corner.
Shedden, who started the race in 28th after a clutch failure in race two, collided with BTC Racing’s Edwards as he attempted to move quickly up the field from the start line.
The pair went off at high speed, with Edwards going head on into the tyre wall at Allard while Shedden also spun after hitting the barrier, although he was able to bring his Honda back to the pitlane before taking no further part in race three of the day.
Lap 10 saw the safety car called for again, after Sam Smelt in the Toyota GAZOO Racing UK Corolla and Carl Boardley in the Laser Tools Racing Infiniti collided that saw Smelt stuck on the circuit.
Another safety car period took place on lap 15, as Ollie Jackson’s Ford Focus had to be removed from the circuit after he suffered suspension failure.
The next round of the British Touring Car Championship takes place at Croft in three weekends time.
Race results
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 33 | I |  |
Adam MORGAN | Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport | BMW 330i M Sport | 19 | 32:38.972 | 1:17.151 | 1 |
| 2 | 2 | M | |
Colin TURKINGTON | Team BMW | BMW 330i M Sport | 19 | 0.313 | 1:17.087 | 3 |
| 3 | 18 | I | |
Senna PROCTOR | BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type-R | 19 | 0.767 | 1:17.256 | 2 |
| 4 | 24 | M | |
Jake HILL | MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square | Ford Focus ST | 19 | 1.344 | 1:17.141 | 5 |
| 5 | 80 | I | |
Tom INGRAM | Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 19 | 2.728 | 1:16.630 | 12 |
| 6 | 6 | M | |
Rory BUTCHER | Toyota Gazoo Racing UK | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 19 | 3.022 | 1:17.292 | 4 |
| 7 | 66 | I | |
Josh COOK | BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type-R | 19 | 3.412 | 1:17.322 | 7 |
| 8 | 11 | I | |
Jason PLATO | Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 19 | 3.653 | 1:17.023 | 9 |
| 9 | 22 | I | |
Chris SMILEY | Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 19 | 3.954 | 1:17.412 | 11 |
| 10 | 1 | I | |
Ashley SUTTON | Laser Tools Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 19 | 4.440 | 1:17.337 | 8 |
| 11 | 123 | I | |
Daniel LLOYD | Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 19 | 4.750 | 1:17.247 | 10 |
| 12 | 15 | M | |
Tom OLIPHANT | Team BMW | BMW 330i M Sport | 19 | 5.660 | 1:17.247 | 6 |
| 13 | 16 | I | |
Aiden MOFFAT | Laser Tools Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 19 | 5.925 | 1:17.333 | 13 |
| 14 | 32 | I | |
Daniel ROWBOTTOM | Halfords Racing with Cataclean | Honda Civic Type-R | 19 | 6.618 | 1:17.554 | 26 |
| 15 | 12 | M | |
Stephen JELLEY | Team BMW | BMW 330i M Sport | 19 | 6.969 | 1:17.419 | 14 |
| 16 | 96 | I | |
Jack BUTEL | EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 19 | 7.570 | 1:17.467 | 15 |
| 17 | 3 | I | |
Tom CHILTON | Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport | BMW 330i M Sport | 19 | 8.029 | 1:17.544 | 17 |
| 18 | 31 | I | |
Jack GOFF | Team HARD. with Autobrite Direct | CUPRA Leon | 19 | 8.486 | 1:17.327 | 16 |
| 19 | 4 | M | |
Sam OSBORNE | Racing with Wera & Photon Group | Ford Focus ST | 19 | 8.838 | 1:17.729 | 19 |
| 20 | 62 | I | |
Rick PARFITT Jr | EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 19 | 9.410 | 1:17.479 | 20 |
| 21 | 19 | I | |
Jack MITCHELL | Team HARD. with Autobrite Direct | CUPRA Leon | 19 | 14.049 | 1:18.509 | 27 |
| 22 | 28 | I | |
Nicolas HAMILTON | ROKiT Racing with iQuoto Online Trading | CUPRA Leon | 19 | 21.820 | 1:18.698 | 25 |
| 23 | 40 | I |  |
Árón TAYLOR-SMITH | Team HARD. with HUB Financial Solutions | CUPRA Leon | 18 | + 1 LAP | 1:18.309 | 29 |
| 24 | 20 | 20 | |
Paul RIVETT | Racing with Wera & Photon Group | Ford Focus ST | 16 | + 3 LAPS | 1:17.566 | 23 |
| R | 48 | M | |
Ollie JACKSON | MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square | Ford Focus ST | 13 | DNF | 1:18.261 | 18 |
| R | 41 | I | |
Carl BOARDLEY | Laser Tools Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 9 | DNF | 1:19.001 | 21 |
| R | 23 | M | |
Sam SMELT | Toyota Gazoo Racing UK | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 8 | DNF | 1:18.266 | 22 |
| R | 52 | I | |
Gordon SHEDDEN | Halfords Racing with Cataclean | Honda Civic Type-R | 1 | DNF | N/A | 28 |
| R | 99 | I | |
Jade EDWARDS | PHSC with BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type-R | 0 | DNF | N/A | 24 |