Adam Morgan was relieved to make it to the end of the final British Touring Car Championship race at Thruxton to claim his second victory of the season, despite a late-race corner cut at the chicane.
Ciceley Motorsport’s Morgan was drawn onto the reverse-grid pole position, having finished race two in eighth, and duly led the race from lights-to-flag.
However, he came under heavy pressure from fellow BMW driver Colin Turkington, and on lap 15 he made a mistake going into the chicane which saw him cut the corner after locking his wheels.
Morgan had gone into lap 15 with a four tenth lead, but after cutting the chicane he found himself with a two-and-a-half second advantage with only four laps to run.
It was not until the penultimate lap when his lead gap had come back down to four tenths, and by that stage he was able to withstand the pressure from Turkington to claim a tenth career BTCC win.
After the race, Morgan explained how he had found the race a challenge, with three safety car interventions and continuous pressure from Turkington.
“It’s always difficult – for some reason, it feels like to me with a reverse grid race they throw everything at us to make it really difficult, with three safety cars and Colin on my tail the whole way around,” joked Morgan.
“We’ve made changes throughout the weekend and the car has just got better and better. We’ve then put a bit of weight in the car, and it feels better again.
“I was under immense pressure from Colin all race. I’ve been training really hard for this at home on the sim with my engineer Steve [Farrell] and the guys at iZone, and what we’ve just done now is exactly what we’ve practiced.
“I knew I could do it and I felt good, but I still made a mistake so I’m going to get told off next week when I’m back there.
“Obviously I was pretty conscious about [the mistake]. But at the same time, I was completely out of control. There was no way I was going to make the corner. If anything I would have ended up in the tyre wall.
“It was one of those – I missed my braking point by half a metre or a metre, and I just caught the inside and I was a passenger.”
Morgan was uncertain if he would be allowed to keep the win after the race, having bought himself a respite of two laps of further attacks from Turkington.
“Obviously, I came out of the corner and there was a big gap to Colin, but if you have a look at my front-right you could see how quick he was coming and another lap and I’d have been gone, so I was very grateful to get to the end when I did.
“It would be a shame to lose it after that drive there with the safety cars and the pressure, but it’s one of them – I did make the mistake.
“Do I think I could have held Colin off for the rest of the race? Yes, I think I do. We’ll have to suck it and see.”