BTCC Oulton Park

It was a cracking weekend for Colin Turkington as his title prospects moved up a gear at Oulton Park. The Northern Irishman had an excellent first two races, winning the pair while his closest championship foe, VX Racing’s Matt Neal, could only muster up seventh and fourth-placed finishes.

Turkington had been driving with success ballast weighing down his Team RAC BMW 320si, too, and had to get past crowd-favourite Jason Plato who qualified in pole position. The latter still managed two podium finishes to keep his title dreams alive – not bad for someone without a drive days before the season started.

By race three Turkington was on top of the drivers’ standings, but a less successful drive left him outside of the points, moving him back down to second – albeit by two points. James Thompson was victorious in the last race of the weekend, adding to his two wins at Donington Park in Round 3. Leader going into the weekend Matt Neal secured a podium place to ensure he remains top, for now at least.

Turkington said – ‘I got hit so many times in that last race I don’t even know who it was hitting me! But I’m certainly not disappointed to have fallen back behind Matt. It’s actually a slightly preferable position to be because being second means my car will be slightly lighter than his with success ballast going to Croft, just as it was coming here. I’m not saying we can repeat today’s results there but I’m feeling very confident with the way the team has got the BMW working.’

The next round is at Croft in the North East on June 14 2009.

Oulton Park Results

Race 11    Colin Turkington    BMW 320si2    Jason Plato        Chevrolet Lacetti3    Jonathan Adam    BMW 320si

Race 21    Colin Turkington    Honda Civic2    Fabrizio Giovanardi    Vauxhall Vectra   3    Jason Plato        Chevrolet Lacetti

Race 31    James Thompson    Honda Civic2    Andrew Jordan    Vauxhall Vectra   3    Matt Neal        Vauxhall VectraDrivers’ Standings after Oulton Park (Round 4)01    Matt Neal                11102    Colin Turkington       10903    Fabrizio Giovanardi   9204    Jason Plato            8705    Robert Collard            7806    James Thompson        7407    Adam Jones            5108    Andrew Jordan        4709    Mat Jackson           4110    Jonathan Adam    41