TCR UK championship leader Carl Boardley and Area Motorsport’s Steve Laidlaw claimed the wins on Sunday at Thruxton, as title contender Callum Newsham crashed out of the second race of the weekend.
Round 16
The reverse grid race, formed by inverting the top ten from the race one result, saw Mark Smith start from pole position with Stewart Lines alongside, whilst title contenders Carl Boardley and Callum Newsham started from eighth and tenth respectively.
Smith was slow away at the start, allowing Lines to take the lead on the run up to the Complex.
With smith clearly cautious in the damp conditions at the start, there was bunching of the cars approaching the complex, and Newsham put a wheel on the grass on the inside under braking.
That meant Newsham was unable to slow his Hyundai enough and he clattered into Smith followed by Bradley Hutchison, who he hit in the side door and knocked into a spin.
Smith was also turned around, whilst there was superficial damage to Adam Shepherd’s CUPRA and Darron Lewis’ Hyundai in the process. Newsham, though, was out on the spot, with extensive front-end damage to his stricken car, requiring a safety car intervention.
After two laps behind the safety car, racing resumed on lap four, and Sam Laidlaw made short work of passing Lines for the lead on the outside line into the chicane.
The next lap saw both Boardley and Shepherd follow through past Lines, but despite a lap of fierce battling between the rivals, Shepherd’s fuel pressure problem appeared to strike again on lap seven, eliminating him from the race.
Boardley had by lap eight caught Sam Laidlaw and passed the Hyundai into the chicane, taking the lead which he would hold for the next five laps to record his fifth win of the year.
Sam Laidlaw nonetheless held on to take second, the best result of his short TCR UK career, with Hutchison completing the podium, despite the lap one contact having knocked him down to ninth before the safety car came out.
Steve Laidlaw took fourth in his CUPRA, snatching the place from Lines into the chicane on the final lap, with Lines in fifth ahead of Lewis in sixth.
Race result
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 1 |  |
Carl BOARDLEY | CBM with Hart GT | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 13 | 21:15.625 | 1:24.360 | 8 | |
| 2 | 101 | |
Sam LAIDLAW | Capture Motorsport | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 13 | 3.735 | 1:25.378 | 5 | |
| 3 | 17 | |
Bradley HUTCHISON | BOND IT with MPHR | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 13 | 11.183 | 1:25.407 | 7 | |
| 4 | 100 | |
Steve LAIDLAW | Area Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 13 | 12.322 | 1:25.381 | 9 | |
| 5 | 81 | |
Stewart LINES | Maximum Motorsport with Capture Motorsport | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 13 | 13.846 | 1:26.112 | 2 | |
| 6 | 285 | |
Darron LEWIS | DLR with JH Racing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 13 | 14.254 | 1:25.701 | 6 | |
| 7 | 22 | |
Rick KERRY | EDF Motorsport | CUPRA TCR | 13 | 19.742 | 1:27.206 | 3 | |
| 8 | 115 | |
Luke SARGEANT | RS Vehicle Sales | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 13 | 20.519 | 1:26.214 | 11 | |
| 9 | 27 | |
Will BEECH | Capture Motorsport | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 13 | 22.215 | 1:26.897 | 4 | |
| 10 | 77 | |
Mark SMITH | Richmond Fire Motorsport | CUPRA TCR | 13 | 29.089 | 1:27.120 | 1 | |
| R | 117 | |
Adam SHEPHERD | Area Motorsport with Shepherd Motors | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 10 | DNF | 1:24.682 | 12 | |
| R | 16 | |
Callum NEWSHAM | JH Racing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 0 | DNF | N/A | 10 |
Round 17
With Newsham’s Hyundai unable to repaired in time for the final race, pole position for the finale effectively went to Shepherd, with Steve Laidlaw starting in de-facto second.
At the start, Shepherd assumed the lead around the outside of the first corner, but it would be a short-lived lead as the fuel pump issues which have blighted his entire weekend returned on the second lap, and Shepherd had to retire to the pits.
That left Laidlaw leading and the CUPRA driver ultimately mastered the wet conditions to claim a first-ever victory in the series by over four seconds from fellow CUPRA racer Hutchison.
Points leader Boardley had threatened to challenge for a podium early on, but the reigning champion ran wide exiting the complex on the second lap, dropping three places and picking up a radiator full of grass.
Although Boardley fought his way back up to third by the end of the lap, passing Lewis’ Hyundai on the outside line entering the chicane, he had to pit at the end of the following lap for grass to be cleared from the front of his car.
That dropped him to last from where he wouldn’t recover, leaving Lewis free to claim the final podium place.
Sam Laidlaw was fourth, ahead of the leading Gen 1 Cup racer Rick Kerry in fifth.
Race result
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 100 | |
Steve LAIDLAW | Area Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 14 | 20:03.433 | 1:24.928 | 3 | |
| 2 | 17 | |
Bradley HUTCHISON | BOND IT with MPHR | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 14 | 4.404 | 1:25.207 | 4 | |
| 3 | 285 | |
Darron LEWIS | DLR with JH Racing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 14 | 4.710 | 1:25.062 | 5 | |
| 4 | 101 | |
Sam LAIDLAW | Capture Motorsport | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 14 | 17.681 | 1:26.084 | 7 | |
| 5 | 22 | |
Rick KERRY | EDF Motorsport | CUPRA TCR | 14 | 23.761 | 1:26.216 | 8 | |
| 6 | 115 | |
Luke SARGEANT | RS Vehicle Sales | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 14 | 25.462 | 1:26.443 | 11 | |
| 7 | 81 | |
Stewart LINES | Maximum Motorsport with Capture Motorsport | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 14 | 25.611 | 1:26.034 | 12 | |
| 8 | 27 | |
Will BEECH | Capture Motorsport | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 14 | 29.595 | 1:25.985 | 9 | |
| 9 | 77 | |
Mark SMITH | Richmond Fire Motorsport | CUPRA TCR | 14 | 58.304 | 1:27.770 | 10 | |
| 10 | 1 | |
Carl BOARDLEY | CBM with Hart GT | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 13 | + 1 LAP | 1:24.208 | 6 | |
| R | 117 | |
Adam SHEPHERD | Area Motorsport with Shepherd Motors | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 2 | DNF | 1:29.882 | 2 | |
| NS | 16 | |
Callum NEWSHAM | JH Racing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | – | DNS | N/A | 1 |