Colin Turkington canters to race one win as Tom Ingram retires

Colin Turkington claimed victory in the opening British Touring Car Championship race at Knockhill, moving him closer to title contention as Tom Ingram retired from the race following contact.

Turkington got a strong launch away from the line in his BMW to hold the advantage at the front at the start, as Power Maxed Racing’s Árón Taylor-Smith also held position from the front row.

Over the first half of the race, Turkington gradually pulled clear of the Vauxhall by a few tenths per lap, with Taylor-Smith having no answer for Turkington’s pace.

The Northern Irishman ultimately went on to claim his 71^st BTCC victory by over eight seconds, following a tight battle for second.

That ultimately went to Speedworks Motorsport’s Josh Cook, who benefitted when Turkington’s BMW team-mate Adam Morgan made a move on Taylor-Smith on the run up to the Butcher’s chicane on lap 18.

With slight contact between the duo, the opportunistic Cook was able to squeeze through in his Toyota. Cook then completed a pass on Morgan, which had started on the run to the hairpin, at the start of lap 22 to claim second.

Morgan held on to third to secure his first podium finish of the season, ahead of Taylor-Smith in fourth.

One of the biggest stories of the race, though, was points leader Tom Ingram’s struggles. Starting from 15^th on the grid, the EXCELR8 Motorsport driver was fighting for 15^th with Aiden Moffat when his race came undone.

Taking two wheels through Duffus Dip, Ingram made contact with Moffat on lap seven and got sideways, dropping three places and picking up front-left damage.

Whilst the 2022 champion continued for a few more laps in 19^th, he ultimately retired to the pits, out of the race, to suffer from a third non-score of the year.

Taylor-Smith finished in fourth, narrowly missing out on a second podium of the season, whilst Laser Tools Racing’s Jake Hill took the chequered flag in fifth, the best of the drivers on the medium compound tyre, after getting by NAPA Racing UK’s Daniel Rowbottom into the hairpin on lap 13.

With Ingram’s non-score, it means Hill has cut the points gap to the top of the table by seven points to ten.

NAPA’s Ash Sutton took sixth, having passed team-mate Rowbottom on the final lap into the first corner. Sutton was up three places by lap three, and further benefitted on lap 12 when Toyota’s Andrew Watson put a wheel on the dirt exiting the chicane and half-spun himself onto the infield, dropping four places.

Rowbottom was seventh, also running medium tyres, ahead of Toyota’s Rob Huff in eighth. Huff spent much of the second part of the race battling hard with NAPA’s Dan Cammish, who was ninth, whilst the top ten was completed by Power Maxed’s Mikey Doble.

Watson finished 11^th after his earlier off, ahead of Sam Osborne in 12^th, who gained six places in the race as he impressively made progress on the soft rubber.

EXCELR8’s Tom Chilton in 14^th was the next best-placed driver on medium tyres, the Hyundai driver having slipped back from ninth on the less favourable rubber over the course of the race.

Race two is scheduled to get underway at 14:40 BST.

Race result

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	20	M		Colin TURKINGTON	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	24	20:53.082	51.300	1
2	66	M		Josh COOK	LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	24	8.308	51.555	5
3	33	M		Adam MORGAN	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	24	9.117	51.443	3
4	40	I		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	24	10.073	51.563	2
5	24	M		Jake HILL	Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	24	10.503	51.765	7
6	1	M		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	24	12.960	51.961	12
7	32	M		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	24	13.765	51.648	4
8	12	M		Rob HUFF	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	24	14.076	51.877	13
9	27	M		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	24	15.032	51.996	8
10	88	I		Mikey DOBLE	Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	24	16.277	52.257	10
11	11	M		Andrew WATSON	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	24	20.969	51.936	6
12	77	M		Sam OSBORNE	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	24	22.770	51.833	18
13	222	I		Chris SMILEY	Restart Racing	CUPRA Leon	24	27.281	52.228	17
14	3	M		Tom CHILTON	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	24	28.873	52.545	9
15	18	I		Daryl DELEON	Duckhams Racing with Bartercard	CUPRA Leon	24	33.755	52.622	11
16	16	M		Aiden MOFFAT	LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	24	36.191	54.544	14
17	14	M		Ronan PEARSON	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	24	41.020	52.600	16
18	29	I		Scott SUMPTON	Restart Racing	CUPRA Leon	24	46.739	52.852	20
19	22	M		Nick HALSTEAD	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	24	52.699	53.224	19
R	80	M		Tom INGRAM	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	10	DNF	52.477	15