BTCC at Oulton Park, June 2016

BTCC 2016 at Oulton Park

Mark

This weekend saw the annual Touring Car trip to Cheshire, with the class of BTCC 2016 at Oulton Park.  The BTCC races have done well in terms of hot weather this year, with the temperatures at Thruxton bringing a record crowd, even if it did not quite work the same magic for the tyres, and Oulton was no exception, with beautiful weather throughout.

The Subarus of Team BMR were back at Oulton, after a fire at Donington saw them sit out the races at Thruxton as repairs were made, and it was a good start with Colin Turkington taking pole on Saturday, ahead of Daniel Lloyd and Sam Tordoff.  The first race got under way on Sunday, and an action filled event saw Turkington hold on to take the win, with Sam Tordoff in second, and Turkington’s team mate, Jason Plato completing the podium.  As the race finished, Warren Scott pulled off the track with what appeared to be another fire, but thankfully we did not see a repeat of Donington.

I was standing beside Turkington and Plato as they were interviewed after the race, and they seemed very pleased to be back on form, and to score Subaru’s first win in the series.

BTCC at Oulton Park, June 2016

The second BTCC race of the day was no less dramatic, although the action at the front of the grid was limited to the start when Sam Tordoff took an early lead and maintained it for the race, with Turkington and Plato joining him again on the podium. This makes Tordoff the ninth winner from the first eleven races of the season, so certainly not a predictable season.

The final race of the day saw Matt Neal in the Halfords Yuasa Honda start from pole, and team mate Gordon Shedden was soon right behind him. However, a puncture for Flash near the end saw him drop down the field as Neal took the chequered flag, with Tordoff in second and Plato in third. Tordoff is now just one point ahead of Neal in the championship, but the Subarus are back and had an impressive weekend. Can they catch up?

The next round is at Croft in two weeks, in the meantime, here are some photos from the weekend.

BTCC

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