BTCC: Morgan, Sutton and Smiley on the pace at Rockingham
The Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship was at Rockingham over the weekend and the fans were treated to some top class racing at the Northamptonshire circuit.
Ciceley Motorsport with Mac Tools driver Adam Morgan, converted his pole position from the previous day to take the race one honours, with the Subaru Levorg of Ash Sutton and Ford Focus of Tom Chilton in the remaining podium places.
It wasn't as straight forward for the guys fighting for the remaining podium positions as drama ensued during the race, as a poor start from Dan Cammish meant that Chilton would get a run on him down to turn one, Cammish then went too deep and tagged Sam Tordoff who spun right in the middle of the track, with the entire field coming his way.
After the safety car restart, Morgan made it very hard for the guys behind to challenge him and sealed the win. Sutton was impressive coming through the top ten to take second and Chilton collecting some valuable championship points in third.
Race two saw Ash Sutton go one better. As the lights went out, Morgan lost the lead to the Subaru heading down to turn one and he never really looked like being challenged, but it was further back where the action was unfolding. Tom Ingram, who was revved up after an unfortunate DNF in race one, was busy fighting his way through the field from 27th on the grid.
By lap 15, he had picked off rival after rival and then found himself in fourth with just a couple of laps remaining, with Colin Turkington just behind him. Senna Proctor was hanging on to third place until he ran wide and went off onto the grass which meant the Speedworks Toyota of Ingram saw the opportunity and sneaked by.
Sutton took the win with Morgan in second and a wonderful comeback drive by Tom Ingram in third.
Race three will be remembered for BTC Norlin's Chris Smiley taking his first ever BTCC race victory, in what was in a dominant fashion. He set off and was untouchable throughout the race and it was only the final two podium positions that were up for grabs in a mammoth scrap between Mat Simpson, Colin Turkington and Sam Tordoff.
Turkington squeezed past Simpson into Brook on the final lap, but then it was a drag race to the line with Simpson just beating Tordoff by 0.029s to take the final podium spot.
Colin Turkington now sits back at the top of the BTCC tree with just a 4 point advantage over Ingram, meanwhile Team BMW lead both the Manufacturers and Teams standings.
The series returns in two weeks time for rounds 22,23 and 24 at Knockhill.
