Race two report: Late pass sees Turkington take victory

Sun 26th April 2009 Colin Turkington made it five winners from five races in the 2009 HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship, after a last lap move to snatch victory away from Fabrizio Giovanardi.

Giovanardi started the race from pole and held his position away from the line. Turkington initially passed Matt Neal for second, but the Vauxhall driver was back in front by the time they reached the Complex on the first lap.

Dan Eaves’ day went from bad to worse at the start of race two. Having missed the first race after spinning into the barrier on the green flag lap, Eaves crashed out at the first corner this time around. The Cartridge World SEAT received a tap from Nick Leason’s BMW 1 Series, which sent it rear-end first into the tyre barrier on the outside of Allard. It was a crash that brought the safety car out at the end of the opening lap.

The race restarted seven laps later, with Giovanardi out at the front, ahead of Neal and Turkington. Behind the lead trio, Stephen Jelley challenged Andrew Jordan for fourth, making a move around the outside, but the VXR driver held on to the spot. There was a change for seventh however, with Jason Plato getting past Adam Jones, before going on to close up on Paul O’Neill in sixth.

Giovanardi, Neal and Turkington soon opened up a gap back to the rest of the pack, with Andrew Jordan leading a train of seven cars for fourth position. Within this group of cars, Paul O’Neill was ahead of Jason Plato, but the Chevrolet driver got a run on the Integra into the first corner, claiming sixth position. O’Neill came back at Plato heading into the Complex, but there was contact, which knocked O’Neill into Adam Jones’ SEAT, which was on the outside. O’Neill was pushed off the track and dropped down the order.

There was another incident further up the order, with Stephen Jelley tapping Andrew Jordan’s Vectra, which slid wide before spinning.

Heading into the last five laps of the race, it was still Giovanardi leading from Neal and Turkington. The ballast was clearly taking its toll on the leader though, with the Italian’s Vectra sliding around more lap by lap. It looked at one point that Neal had the pace to pass his teammate, but it was Neal who was the first to drop a position, losing out to Turkington with three laps remaining. From that point on, it seemed likely that Turkington would go on to win, but Giovanardi’s exemplary car control kept him in the lead. Until the final lap, that is. Giovanardi ran slightly wide in the run to Noble, leaving just enough of a gap for Turkington to ease through on the inside.

At the chequered flag, it was Turkington who took the win, just ahead of Giovanardi and Neal, who were both quick out of the final corner. Stephen Jelley finished fourth in the second of the Team RAC BMWs, just ahead of Rob Collard. Fifth was a remarkable result for Collard, who started from the ninth row of the grid after his clash with Jelley in race one. Jason Plato and James Thompson finished sixth and seventh, while Adam Jones, Mat Jackson and Paul O’Neill rounded out the top ten

Following the end of the race, Colin Turkington said: “With five laps to go I could see a little advantage coming for me. I would have taken third position though. I didn’t want to try a risky move. I got a good exit from the Complex on the final lap though and I was able to get past Fabrizio. It’s good, we’ve been pretty solid in these first two meetings. We just need to keep pushing on.

There could be more drama to come at Thruxton this afternoon, as the number 10 was picked for the race three reverse grid, leaving fan-favourite Paul O’Neill on pole position.