Record crowd watches Turkington clinch maiden title

Mon 5th October 2009 A record 35,000 spectators descended on Brands Hatch last weekend (3/4 October) for the season finale of the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship - the biggest crowd for a BTCC event since MotorSport Vision took over the Kent circuit in 2004.

Fans were treated to a thrilling trio of BTCC races, as the title fight went down to the very last round of the season in a three-way battle between the Team RAC BMW of Colin Turkington, VX Racing's Fabrizio Giovanardi and the Racing Silverline Chevrolet of Jason Plato.

Fans' favourite Plato clinched an historic hat-trick of victories, out-dragging Tom Chilton's Team Aon Ford Focus to the line by 0.015s in race one: the closest finish in British Touring Car history.

After beating fellow title challenger Giovanardi in race two, Plato made a magnificent manoeuvre round the outside of Turkington through Paddock in the final outing of the day to take a trio of victories - becoming only the second driver in the modern touring car era to win all three races in one day.

However, the weekend belonged to Team RAC's Colin Turkington, who clinched his first drivers' title with podium finishes in races two and three. The 27-year-old Ulsterman was overjoyed to finally secure the championship after such a closely fought finale.

Jonathan Palmer, Chief Executive of MotorSport Vision, said: "It's absolutely wonderful to see such great racing, with the title chase going down not only to the last round but to the very last race; the drama in the final race was phenomenal!

"I'm absolutely delighted that Colin has won the championship: his drive today was quite superb under heavy pressure. Of course he couldn't have done it without a great team and a great car, and I am thrilled to see West Surrey Racing take the drivers' title. WSR is a very special team to me as I won the British F3 Championship with them in 1981. My win in British F3 was the start of the team and their success today is a great tribute to Team Principal Dick Bennetts.

"The BMW 320si is obviously a fantastic base for a race car and championship successes in the FIA World Touring Car Championship have now been backed up by a British Touring Car drivers' title, which is very well deserved.

"I'd like to congratulate BTCC Series Director Alan Gow and Dennis Carter at the BARC for evolving the championship into such an outstanding package of entertainment for the fans. It was fantastic to see so many spectators at Brands Hatch today - the circuit really was heaving!

"I'm also very proud of the job our team at Brands Hatch has done, as the circuit has never looked better."